Lost for 75 Years: The Remarkable Discovery of USS Grayback Off Japan’s Coast
Introduction: The long-lost USS Grayback submarine has been found, resolving a 75-year-old mystery and bringing closure to the families of those who perished with it.
A Fateful Mission: The USS Grayback's Final Voyage
The USS Grayback, one of the most successful American submarines of World War II, disappeared after departing from Pearl Harbor on January 28, 1944, for its tenth combat patrol. It was a formidable vessel, credited with sinking 14 enemy ships, and had been a crucial asset in the U.
S. Navy's Pacific campaign. Yet, on February 26, 1944, it was declared missing after being struck by a 500-pound bomb from a Japanese bomber off Okinawa, Japan. For decades, its exact resting place remained a mystery.
A Mistranslation and a Historic Breakthrough
The breakthrough came when researchers with the Lost 52 Project—a team dedicated to finding all 52 American submarines lost during World War II—discovered an error in the translation of post-war Japanese military records.
A single digit in the coordinates had been mistranslated, shifting the presumed location of the Grayback by 100 miles. This critical correction allowed the team, led by Tim Taylor, to narrow down the search area, ultimately locating the submarine 1,427 feet below the ocean surface, south of Okinawa, in June 2019.
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