USS Snook (SS-279) - San Diego, CA
Posted by: 
Metro2
N 32° 44.227 W 117° 12.697
11S E 480173 N 3622164
The Memorial notes that about 84 men were lost when lost in April 1945- and believed to have been struck by a Japanese submarine.
Waymark Code: WMT278
Location: California, United States
Date Posted: 09/12/2016
Views: 1
This Memorial is one of dozens at San Diego's Liberty Station Park.
The memorial has a photo of the vessel..a submarine and provides a history which Wikipedia (
visit link) echoes:
"USS Snook (SS-279), a Gato-class submarine, was the first ship of the United States Navy to be named for the common snook, an Atlantic marine fish that is bluish-gray above and silvery below a black lateral line.
Snook's keel was laid down by the Portsmouth Navy Yard in Kittery, Maine on 17 April 1942. She was launched on 15 August 1942 sponsored by Mrs. Audrey Emanuel Dempsey, wife of Lieutenant James C. Dempsey who had been awarded the Navy Cross for heroism as commanding officer of the submarine S-27, and commissioned on 24 October 1942 with Lieutenant Commander C.O. Triebel in command...
Final patrol
Snook was lost while conducting her ninth war patrol, in the South China Sea and Luzon Strait. On 8 April, she reported her position to submarine Tigrone (SS-419) and when she did not acknowledge messages sent from Tigrone the next day, it was presumed that she had headed toward Luzon Strait. On 12 April, she was ordered to take lifeguard station in the vicinity of Sakishima Gunto in support of British carrier air strikes. On 20 April, the commander of the British carrier task force reported that he had a plane down in Snook's assigned area, and that he could not contact the submarine by radio. Snook was ordered to search the area and to acknowledge the order. When she failed to make a transmission, submarine Bang (SS-385) was sent to make the search and rendezvous with Snook. Although Bang arrived and rescued the downed aviators, she saw no sign of the missing submarine; on 16 May, Snook was presumed lost due to unknown causes. It is believed that she was sunk by kaibokans Okinawa, CD-8, CD-32 and CD-52. It has also been suggested that Snook may have been lost in combat with one of five Japanese submarines were which also lost in April–May 1945. One candidate is Japanese submarine I-156.
Snook was credited with sinking 17 enemy vessels in her two and one-half years of active service. She earned seven battle stars for World War II service."