BILLFISH SS 286

Ship Name and Designation History

This section lists the names and designations that the ship had during its lifetime. The list is in chronological order.

Balao Class Submarine Keel Laid 23 July 1942 - Launched, 12 November 1942 USS BILLFISH SS-286 Commissioned April 20 1943 - Decommissioned July 20 1946 Laid up in Reserve Fleet at New London BILLFISH SS-286 Placed In Service in Reserve January 1 1960 as training submarine BILLFISH AGSS-286 Redesignated Auxiliary Research Submarine (AGSS) December 1 1962 Placed Out of Service April 1 1968 Struck from the Naval Register April 1 1968 Sold March 17 1971 to Sc Eckhardt & Co., Hamburg, West Germany for scrap

Naval Covers

This section lists active links to the pages displaying covers associated with the ship. There should be a separate set of pages for each name of the ship (for example, Bushnell AG-32 / Sumner AGS-5 are different names for the same ship so there should be one set of pages for Bushnell and one set for Sumner). Covers should be presented in chronological order (or as best as can be determined).

Since a ship may have many covers, they may be split among many pages so it doesn't take forever for the pages to load. Each page link should be accompanied by a date range for covers on that page.

1. Covers Page 1     (DATE RANGE)

 

Postmarks

This section lists examples of the postmarks used by the ship. There should be a separate set of postmarks for each name and/or commissioning period. Within each set, the postmarks should be listed in order of their classification type. If more than one postmark has the same classification, then they should be further sorted by date of earliest known usage.

A postmark should not be included unless accompanied by a close-up image and/or an image of a cover showing that postmark. Date ranges MUST be based ONLY ON COVERS IN THE MUSEUM and are expected to change as more covers are added.
 
>>> If you have a better example for any of the postmarks, please feel free to replace the existing example.

 

Postmark Type --- Killer Bar Text	Date From to Date To	Thumbnail Link To Postmark Image	Thumbnail Link To Cover Image

 

NO BILLFISH POSTMARKS AVAILABLE AT THIS TIME

DATE FROM to DATE TO

Note:

 

Other Information

Earned 7 Battle Stars (WWII)
* 1st War Patrol August 12 1943 South China Sea
* 2nd War Patrol November 1 1943 South China Sea
* 3rd War Patrol january 19 1944 South China Sea
* 4th War Patrol April 18 1944 Marianas Islands
* 6th War Patrol October 6 1944 Ryukyu Islands
* 7th War Patrol April 24 1945 East China Sea
* 8th War Patrol July 12 1945 Yellow Sea

Credited with sinking...
A Japanese Sampan November 13 1944 off the Ryukyu Islands
The 991-ton Japanese Merchant Cargo Vessel KOTOBUKI MARU No. 7 May 26 1945 off Nagasaki
The 2220-ton Japanese Merchant Cargo Vessel TAIU MARU June 5 1945 off Korea
Three Japanese Sailing Vessels June 5 1945 off Korea
The 1091-ton Japanese Merchant Vessel KORI MARU August 5 1945 Yellow Sea

NAMESAKE - Any fish, such as gar or spearfish, with bill-shaped jaws

 

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If you have images or information to add to this page, then either contact the Curator or edit this page yourself and add it. See Editing Ship Pages for detailed information on editing this page.

 

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