USS Paddle (SS-263), a Gato-class submarine, was a ship of the United States Navy named for the paddlefish. Construction and commissioning Paddle was laid down on 1 May 1942 by the Electric Boat Company at Groton, Connecticut; launched on 30 December 1942, sponsored by Mrs. Goldye S. Fechteler, wife of later Chief of Naval Operations Admiral William M. Fechteler; and commissioned at Naval Submarine Base New London in New London, Connecticut, on 29 March 1943. Service history United States Navy After trials and training, Paddle left New London on 8 June 1943 for the Panama Canal and Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, arriving on 5 July. She was based at Pearl Harbor during her first two war patrols, between which she trained destroyers in antisubmarine warfare and received meteorological equipment. Paddles first patrol, from 20 July to 12 September 1943, was conducted south of Japan. She scored a hit on a large freighter in her first attack on 13 August, but alert escorts forced her down with a 13-hour depth charge attack. Enemy search planes damaged her slightly on 19 August with 7 bombs dropped as she patrolled submerged off the coast of Japan, but she repaired damage quickly and struck back, sinking Ataka Maru on 23 August. During her second war patrol, from 17 October–9 November, Paddle took station off Nauru to provide continuous weather reporting for the carrier task force attacking the Gilbert and Marshall Islands to cover the Tarawa landings. She also guided, by radio, Army bombers in to raid Tarawa and attacked Nippon Maru off Eniwetok, though escorting destroyers forced her down before she could observe the damage inflicted on the tanker. After United States West Coast overhaul, Paddle sailed for her third war patrol from Pearl Harbor on 19 March 1944, bound for the Dutch East Indies and the southern Philippines. In a brilliant night attack on 16 April, she sank two of a three-ship convoy guarded by four escorts, torpedoing Mito Maru and Hino Maru No. 1. Breaking off to reload her tubes, Paddle returned to attack a tanker, which had joined the group, and engaged escorting destroyers and aircraft. She ended her patrol at Fremantle, Australia on 12 May. Paddles fourth war patrol, from 5 June–29 July, began with reconnaissance of the eastern approaches to Davao Gulf guarding against a Japanese sortie during the U.S. landings on Saipan. Damaged by bombs in the Celebes Sea