USS Picuda Sinks Japanese Destroyer

Today in Philippine History (Philatelic Edition Series 3):

AUGUST 25, 1944

At the western entrance to the Babuyan Channel, the USS Picuda (SS 382) sinks the Japanese destroyer IJN Yūnagi 20 miles north-northeast of Cape Bojeador, Philippines on August 25, 1944. 

The Picuda left Pearl Harbor, Hawaii in wolf-pack with sister ships Redfish and Spadefish on July 23 and headed towards Luzon for her third war patrol. 

By August 25, the Picuda spotted ten ships at the beach of Luzon. Slipping past five escorts, and three Japanese patrol planes overhead, she launched six torpedoes towards the 1943-ton cargo ship Kotoku Maru which destroyed the ship. 

She then skillfully maneuvered for a down-the-throat shot that sank the 1270-ton pursuing Japanese destroyer Yūnagi then went deeper in the interior of Luzon Strait. 

The Japanese destroyer Yūnagi ("Evening Calm") was one of nine Kamikaze-class destroyers built for the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) in the 1920s. 

The USS Picuda (SS-382), a Balao-class submarine, was originally called Obispo, making her the only ship of the United States Navy to be named for the obispo, a spotted sting ray.

(Design, concept, stamps and research: Richard Allan B. Uy) All rights reserved

Photo credit: wikipedia.org