USS Pompano (SS 181) - Seal Beach, CA
Posted by: 
Gryffindor3
N 33° 45.037 W 118° 05.292
11S E 399212 N 3735037
The USS Pompano was sunk by a mine. A memorial to the crew can be found outside the Naval Weapons Station in Seal Beach.
Waymark Code: WM6CAR
Location: California, United States
Date Posted: 05/12/2009
Views: 3
The advancement of the submarine is a long and proud chapter in the history of the U.S. Navy. Through the efforts of the California Center for Military History and U.S. Submarine Veterans, a large memorial recognizes the name and crew of each submarine lost in World War II. The "World War II National Submarine Memorial - West" is located just outside the gate to the Naval Weapons Station in Seal Beach. Bronze plaques identify the officers and men that gave their lives during the war. The plaques surround a central display consisting of a torpedo, flag, and time capsule. Groundbreaking for the memorial took place on January 13, 1977.
(The following is from the Naval Historical Center's Web site.)
USS Pompano, 1330-ton Perch class submarine built at the Mare Island Navy Yard, California, was commissioned in June 1937. She operated in the eastern Pacific for the rest of the decade and for the first two years of the 1940s. Pompano arrived at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, soon after the beginning of the Pacific War, and began her first war patrol in mid-month. Surviving attacks by "friendly" planes a few days after leaving Pearl Harbor, she inspected Wake Island on New Year's Day 1942. The submarine then proceeded to the Marshall Islands, where she attacked a large ship on 13 January, but apparently did not sink it. In April-June 1942 Pompano conducted her second patrol, into the East China Sea, sinking a small tanker, a large transport and some smaller craft. Her next patrol, in July-September, took her into the waters off Japan where she survived a serious depth-charging and sank two enemy ships.
After a Mare Island overhaul Pompano operated in the Marshall Islands area in January and February 1943, off Japan in March-May and again in June-July, sank no ships and experienced some of the frustrating torpedo problems that plagued the Navy during the war's first half. Her seventh war patrol, also in Japanese waters, began in August. Pompano sank two freighters but then disappeared, with the loss of her entire crew. Though the evidence is circumstantial, she was probably sunk by a mine sometime in September 1943.
Property Permission: Public
Access instructions: Park in the lot just off the main entrance to the Naval Weapons Station
Access times: From: 12:00 AM To: 11:59 PM
Website for Waymark: [Web Link]
Location of waymark:
800 Seal Beach Boulevard
Seal Beach, CA USA
90740
Commemoration: USS Pompano
Date of Dedication: Not listed
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Visit Instructions:
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