Victorious Messages
The submarine was sent out from the Pearl Harbor combat patrol mission on January 28th, 1944. This was already the Grayback’s tenth voyage since the start of the war, but nobody knew that it would also be the last. A few weeks before the submarine went off the radar, it sent a number of messages of victory to its base. No one really expected anything to go wrong.
An aerial view of the U.S. Naval Base at Pearl Harbor on the morning of December 7th, 1941, shortly before the attack. Photo by Granger / Shutterstock
On February 24th, the messages were received, and they noted the defeat of two rival subs and the Japanese Freighters Toshin and Taikei Maru. The message seemed like the voyage was successful and that the submarine and everyone on it was safe.