USS Cod 'Cod's Lost Boarding Party'

od (SS-224) In the final days of World War II, American submarines had difficulty finding merchant ship targets. But the enemy junks that plied the coastal waters with cargoes of food for the beleaguered home islands were legitimate prey. The junks weren't worth a torpedo. Generally unarmed and with small crews, they were easy victims for boarding parties from submarines. In August 1945, the USS Cod surfaced alongside a junk and dispatched a board party. Everything went well until an enemy plane forced the submarine to submerge while the boarders were still on the junk. The USS Cod's boarders kept the enemy crew at bay and navigated the junk through a Japanese convoy to a final rendezvous with the submarine.