USS Bugara (SS-331), a Balao-class submarine in commission from 1944 to 1970, was a boat of the United States Navy named for the bugara, a multicolored fish found along the coast of California.
Bugaras World War II operations extended from 21 February to 17 August 1945, during which she completed three war patrols in the Flores Sea, Java Sea, South China Sea and Gulf of Siam. While the first two patrols proved uneventful, her third war patrol might be classified as one of the most colorful to be made during the war. This patrol in the Gulf of Siam was highlighted by a series of excellently conducted gun attacks which disposed of 57 small ships totaling 5,284 gross register tons. All except two of these vessels were boarded and their native crews put safely ashore with their personal belongings. One of the many interesting incidents of this patrol was an encounter with a Japanese ship manned by a Chinese crew being attacked by Malay pirates. Bugara rescued the Chinese, sank the Japanese ship, and then disposed of the pirates.
Bugara later served in the Korean War and the Vietnam War.
Construction and commissioning
Bugara was laid down on 21 October 1943 by the Electric Boat Company at Groton, Connecticut. She was launched 2 July 1944, sponsored by Mrs. Anna A. Perry, wife of Captain Lyman S. Perry, and commissioned on 15 November 1944NavSource, Bugara (SS-331) with Commander Arnold F. Schade — a veteran of eight war patrols and recipient of the Navy Cross and the Silver Star — in command.
Service history World War II November 1944–February 1945 Bugara fitted out for service, conducted her shakedown, then departed on 25 December 1944 bound for the Panama Canal Zone. She conducted five days of additional training in the Panama Canal Zone, then pushed on for Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, where Schade put his crew through two more weeks of intensive training.
First war patrol
Bugara departed Pearl Harbor on 21 February 1945 to begin her first war patrol and proceeded directly to Saipan in the Mariana Islands, meeting her escort, the motor minesweeper , on 5 March 1945 before reaching Saipan. On 8 March 1945, she got underway from Saipan in company with the submarines and and an escort, the submarine chaser . One day out of port, on 9 March 1945, Bugara’s cook sustained a severe head laceration when the storeroom hatch fell on him, but Bugara′s pharmacist's mate was able to sew up the cut, and Bugara continued her voyage to her patrol area in the Luzon Strait. On 25 March 1945 she left the Luzon Strait and proceeded to a new patrol area in the South China Sea between Hainan Island and Formosa.
On 27 March 1945, Buugara′s lookouts spotted a ship bearing 118° north at a range of . She closed to attack but abruptly broke it off upon identifying the markings as those of a Japanese hospital ship. On 4 April 1945, she concluded her patrol in the Hainan and Taiwan area not having encountered any other Japanese air or surface contacts and proceeded to her next patrol area in the Java Sea, north of Soemba, which she reached on 11 April 1945. At 08:15 on 18 April she exchanged recognition signals with the submarine and that same day at 19:30 with the submarine . On 21 April 1945 she met her escort and proceeded to Fremantle, Australia, where she ended her patrol and began a regular refit, which included the installation of a second /25-caliber gun.
With Japanese shipping becoming scarce in the last months of World War II, Bugara made contact with only five ships during her entire 59-day patrol, during which she had spent 35 days in her patrol areas. Four of the vessels proved to be Japanese hospital ships, immune from attack, and the fifth an unidentified submarine Bugara first had detected by screw noises, but which turned out to be an unidentified Allied submarine.
Second war patrol On 16 May 1945, Bugara set out on her second war patrol, bound for a patrol area in the South China Sea off the South China coast. Most of her time was spent on life guard stations looking for downed Allied airmen. She ended her patrol with her arrival on 20 June 1945 at Subic Bay on Luzon in the Philippine Islands, where she underwent a refit alongside the submarine tender .
Third war patrol Convoy action Bugara stood out of Subic Bay on 16 July 1945 for her third war patrol, operating as part of a coordinated attack group under the overall command of the commanding officer of the submarine , Commander Harry B. Dodge. She rendezvoused with Brill on 19 July 1945, and Dodge ordered her to conduct a retiring search to her northward position in the attack group.
At 15:40 on 19 July 1945, Bugara′s lookouts sighted a mast on the horizon and closed with it at full speed but lost the contact. However, 20 minutes later, her lookouts again sighted masts, this time of ships making up a convoy, as well as what Bugara identified as a Japanese periscope at a range of . Schade ordered Bugara to dive in order to reverse course and then surface at flank speed. The supposed Japanese periscope turned out to be that of Brill, also chasing the convoy. Schade tried to ascertain Brill′s attack position so that the two submarines could coordinate their attack, but could not get Brill to answer Bugara′s challenge, so the submarines began separate approaches to the convoy without a set plan of attack. At 22:05, Bugara picked up several contacts on radar at a range of and went ahead at full speed at . At nearly the same time, Bugara received information from Dodge that the submarines and were on her port flank, with Brill and Bugara on the starboard. Dodge announced that Brill was going in to attack, and Schade radioed back that Bugara would follow Brill in.
Bugara fired nine torpedoes into the Japanese convoy, including two at a small engines-aft tanker at a range of , two at a second small engines-aft tanker at a range of , two at a small cargo ship (known to the Americans as a "sea truck") at a range of , one at an escorting patrol craft at a range of , and two at a large trawler (which Bugara assumed was an escort), at a range of . Brill also attacked the convoy, but none of Bugara′s or Brill′s torpedoes hit. Both Schade and Dodge concluded that their torpedoes ran normally but had passed underneath their targets. The Japanese did not counterattack the submarines.
20 July At 14:45 on 20 July 1945, Bugara′s lookouts sighted a junk and closed to get alongside. After taking off the junk's crew of six natives, Bugara sent a boarding party aboard the junk for inspection. The boarding party found that the junk was carrying bags of sugar from Singapore to Bangkok, Thailand, both Japanese-controlled ports. The junk′s crew claimed that the junk's cargo was destined for China, not the Japanese. Although unconvinced, Bugara′s crew kept all of the junk crew's papers for later analysis by intelligence personnel and let them go after 90 minutes alongside the junk.
At 16:30 on 20 July 1945, Bugara boarded another large junk which had departed Bangkok with a cargo hold full of bagged rice. The junk's crew claimed the cargo was destined for China, not the Japanese, and Bugara confiscated the junk's logbook and released the crew. At 20:30, Bugara inspected a third junk, whose crew told a similar story of transporting the vessel's cargo of rice to China and not to Japanese troops. Schade subsequently sent a message to Commander, Task Force 71, requesting approval his of actions of letting supplies go through.
23–24 July On 23 July 1945, after diving to avoid an Imperial Japanese Navy Kawanishi H8K Type 2 (Allied reporting name "Emily") flying boat headed out from the beach off the coast of Lem Chong Pra, Schade ordered a commando party ashore heavily armed with demolition equipment. After six hours, Bugara picked up the commandos at 04:00 on 24 July 1945. Highly embarrassed, they reported that the jungle was so thick they had not been able get off the beach.
At 13:35 on 24 July 1945, Bugara examined a Singapore-bound schooner carrying a 10-ton military cargo of airplane wheels and tires, 15 cases of airplane parts, and metal stock and sugar. She removed the schooner's crew and sank the vessel with gunfire. At 14:25, she stopped the 120-gross register ton Japanese junk Hiap Seng Maru, which was carrying a cargo of sugar and sewing machines to Singapore. After boarding and examining Hiap Seng Maru, Bugara sank her with gunfire. With the schooner's and Hiap Seng Maru′s crews and their boats on her deck, Bugara moved to a point off shore, gave the crew members bread, and released them.
25 July On 25 July at 14:05, Bugara′s crew boarded a 75-gross register ton schooner bound for Singapore with a cargo of 50 tons of rice and sank her with gunfire after taking off her crew. At 15:35, Bugara halted a 25-gross register ton junk sailing from Singapore carrying a Japanese cargo of sugar and matches . Although most of Bugara′s crew thought the junk's crew were Japanese, their nationality could not be proven, so Bugara released them and sank their ship with gunfire. At 16:24, Bugara′s raiding party boarded an empty 20-gross register ton coastal cargo ship left abandoned by her Japanese crew, and Bugara left it, planning to return and sink it later.
At 16:50, Bugara halted and boarded her ninth contact in just a day, a brand-new 51-gross register ton schooner sailing from Singapore with a cargo of sugar and coffee. The schooner's crew abandoned ship and Bugara sank her with gunfire, not bothering to capture her crew. Bugara made her next contact at 17:30 when her raiding party boarded the 50-gross register ton junk Kian Huat, which was carrying sugar and coffee from Singapore to Champon, Thailand. Kian Huat′s Japanese crew of four abandoned ship, their later fate unknown, and Bugara sank her with gunfire. One hour later, the Japanese crew of the 125-gross register ton schooner Joo Lee Maru, flying the Japanese Rising Sun flag and loaded with a cargo of sugar and miscellaneous stores from Singapore, abandoned ship when Bugara stopped them, and Bugara sank the schooner with gunfire. Bugara then returned to the abandoned coastal cargo ship she had boarded earlier and destroyed it with gunfire.
26 July On 26 July 1945, lookouts on board Bugara sighted three terengganus (junk-rigged schooners) at 03:00, and boarded them all. Two were native vessels from Japanese-occupied British Malaya and carrying cargo of no military value, so Bugara let them go. The other was a 20-gross register ton vessel under Japanese registry, and Bugara sank her, Bugara′s crew noting that the Malayan native crews of the other two terengganus "seemed almost happy to get rid of this one.” At 08:45 that morning, Bugara searched the 144-gross register ton junk Chit Ming Ho Maru, which was bound for Singapore with a cargo of 75 tons of rice, and sank her with gunfire, letting her crew go. At 15:50, Bugara boarded a brand-new 50-gross register ton "sea truck" loaded with drums of aviation gasoline, then set her ablaze with two shell hits, destroying her; Bugara′s crew last saw the "sea truck′s" Japanese crew jumping overboard and swimming quickly away from her.
Bugara next sank a 75-gross register ton schooner loaded with 50 tons of rice and headed for Singapore. At 17:40, she moved into waters as shallow as to stop and sink a 150-gross register ton schooner loaded with 10 cases of cholera antiserum), other medical supplies, scrap iron, and rice. The next small craft Bugara′s crew boarded was an empty 50-gross register ton schooner and, unable to determine her destination, Schade let her pass. At 20:30, Bugara went alongside the two Malayan native terengganus she had passed earlier in the day and, according to Schade, “got a big cheer.”
27 July