Damaged But Deadly: USS Gar (SS-206) and the Action of August 20, 1943

On August 20, 1943, the submarine USS Gar went to battle carrying more than torpedoes. She carried damage. Earlier that day, she struck a floating log that bent her port screw and left her nearly crippled. On the surface she could barely make eleven knots, underwater only four. Most commanders would have turned back. But Gar pressed on.

That afternoon, she sighted a Japanese freighter with an escort in Makassar Strait. Even hobbled, she closed for an attack. Three torpedoes left their tubes. Depth charges followed almost immediately, hammering her battered hull for nearly two hours. When the sea grew quiet again, the Gar had broken a freighter in half and lived to tell about it.

This is the story of perseverance, a wounded boat refusing to retreat, and a crew proving that grit can be as deadly as steel.