Authorities earlier this month confirmed the final resting place of a US military submarine that has been lost since WWII.
The final resting place of the USS Herring was officially confirmed by the United States’ Naval History and Heritage Command’s (NHHC) Underwater Archaeology Branch, 82 years after being lost.
“The wreck represents the final resting place of sailors who gave their lives in defense of the nation and should be respected by all parties as a war grave,” according to NHHC’s statement in early June.
Herring was launched on January 15, 1942, at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery, Maine, and commissioned five months later, on May 4 of that year.
During WWII, Herring completed eight war patrols across the Atlantic and Pacific theaters and is credited with sinking seven enemy ships throughout her service.
She was one of five submarines sent to the Mediterranean ahead of Operation Torch, the Allied invasion of French North Africa during World War II. Stationed off Casablanca, on November 8, she succeeded in sinking the Vichy French cargo ship Ville du Havre.
Afterward, Herring returned to Scotland before departing for her second war patrol on December 16, 1942. While she did not sink anything during this patrol, her third patrol saw her sinking a Nazi U-163.
During her fourth and fifth war patrols, she did not achieve any more kills. However, Herring’s sixth war patrol was set to change this.
On November 15, 1943, following months of training at Pearl Harbor, Herring joined the effort to decimate Japanese shipping and the nation’s economy in the Pacific arena. There, she succeeded in sinking the Japanese cargo ships Hakozaki Maru and Nagoya Maru.
Herring’s success failed on her seventh patrol, when she stalked an aircraft carrier but was detected and forced to flee before managing to attack.
Herring goes missing on June 1
She was last seen by submarine USS Barb on May 31, 1944, off of the Kuril Islands, when the two submarines met to divide patrol areas.
On June 1, Herring came upon two Japanese merchant ships, the Hiburi Maru and Iwaki Maru, which were anchored off Matsuwa Island, attacking and sinking them both.
Barb’s crew at the time recorded the sound of depth charges exploding in the distance, attributed to an attack associated with the Herring.
Later, Japanese shore batteries reported sighting and firing at a grounded submarine near the site of the two sunken merchant ships. Records of the strikes show that the submarine suffered two direct hits to its conning tower before managing to escape.
Herring and her 83 crew were presumed lost after failing to report to Midway on July 13, 1944.
She was stricken from the Navy Register four months later, on November 13, and her fate remained unknown for decades.
Wreckage suspected to be Herring found by Russian expedition
In 2017, a joint expedition led by the Russian Geographic Society (RGS) and the Russian Military led to the discovery of a submarine wreckage in the area. It was reported as the Herring based on its location and its appearance.
Five years later, in 2022, a subsequent expedition returned to the wreck to extensively document the wreckage and honor the crew lost when she sunk.
Now, using data collected and provided by the Russian Geographic Society (RGS), and analyzed by two US volunteer researchers and a third Japanese researcher, the suspected wreckage has been officially confirmed to have belonged to Herring.
Her wreckage sits upright on its keep at a depth of over 300 feet, maintaining a “high degree of integrity,” NHHC said in its statement.
Evidence of both her grounding and the hits taken to the submarine's conning tower are visible on the Herring’s surviving wreckage.
For her service, she was awarded the European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal with two battle stars, the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal with three battle stars, and the World War II Victory Medal.
“Herring’s discovery is a powerful reminder that we have an obligation to the sailors and Marines who gave their lives in service to our nation,” NHHC Director Samuel J. Cox said in a statement to Military.com’s Ryan Thomas LaBee. “It is also a testament to the value of international collaboration in uncovering and preserving the truth of our shared history.”