The standard practice of imposing bombing restrictions within an area 50 nautical miles (93km; 58mi) ahead, 100nmi (185km; 115mi) astern, and 15nmi (28km; 17mi) on each side of the scheduled position of an unescorted submarine making passage in friendly waters had been carried out and all concerned had been notified. However, the crew of a PBM Marinerflying boat of Patrol Squadron 210 (VP-210) based at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, assigned to provide air coverage on the evening of 12 October 1943 had received an incorrect description of the restriction area, 11nmi (20km; 13mi) out of place.
At 2049 local time, under a moonlit but stormy sky, that plane attacked an unidentified submarine that it believed was outside the restriction area with three Mark-47 depth charges and a 100lb (45kg) Mark-4 Mod-4 demolition bomb. About two hours later, the plane sighted a second submarine with which it attempted to exchange recognition signals. This second submarine fired upon the plane.
A convoy scheduled to pass through the restricted area surrounding Dorado on the evening of 12 October 1943 reported no contact.
Air searches were begun immediately after 14 October 1943, Dorado′s scheduled date of arrival in the Panama Canal Zone. Widely scattered oil slicks with occasional debris were found. Subsequently, the Board of Investigation held in Guantánamo Bay, and the more formal Naval Board of Inquiry held at the Washington Navy Yard in Washington, D.C., found that the "widely scattered oil slicks" were actually oleous in nature and not bunker oil or diesel fuel - most probably rotting vegetation like seaweed. All of the "occasional debris" was determined not to have come from Dorado.
At both the Board of Investigation and the Court of Inquiry, the aircrew testified that they were certain that both submarines they had attacked were U-boats. Despite the circumstantial evidence, there are reasons to doubt that Dorado was sunk by the Mariner.[7] Because the crew knew that Dorado was operating in the area, they carefully observed their two targets before attacking. Prior to the first attack, the four crewmen of the aircraft observed the surfaced submarine for 12 minutes, noting:
it was 48nmi (89km; 55mi) from where they had been told to expect Dorado to be and 34nmi (63km; 39mi) from where Dorado really was supposed to be
it was heading almost 90 degrees off from Dorado’s base course
it had no guns on the fore deck, where Dorado carried a five-inch (127 mm) gun
it had an entirely grooved deck, where Dorado's deck was grooved only near the conning tower
it had a "knob-like" object on the front of the conning tower, almost certainly the Metox radar detector installed on Type IX U-boats
FuMB-1 Metox-U-boat radar detector antenna.
Post-war examination of Kriegsmarine records indicate that the submarine first attacked by the Mariner may have been U-518, though that boat's logs do not record the attack. It is possible that the attack went unnoticed by the boat; of the three depth charges and one 100 pounds (45kg) bomb that were dropped, one depth charge was a confirmed dud, one was dropped too low to arm, and neither the third depth charge nor the bomb were seen to explode. After the attack, the Mariner searched the area for 20 minutes, but saw no explosions, bubbles, or debris.
The second submarine, attacked by the Mariner two hours later, was certainly U-214; her log book, captured after World War II, describes firing at the aircraft.
On 8 October, 5nmi (9.3km; 5.8mi) off Colón, U-214 laid a minefield of 15 mines. One of these may have sunk Dorado on or about 14 October 1943.[8][9]
Dorado was one of only two U.S. Navy submarines lost in the Atlantic Ocean during World War II. The other was USSR-12, which sank during a training dive near Key West, Florida.
A 614-page book entitled USS Dorado (SS-248): On Eternal Patrol was published by Douglas E. Campbell in November 2011.
Before she was lost, the American painter Thomas Hart Benton sailed aboard Dorado on her shakedown cruise, using that experience as the basis for his paintings Score Another for the Subs, In Slumber Deep, and The Claustrophobic Confines.[10]
German submarine U-552 was a Type VIIC U-boat built for Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine for service during World War II. She was laid down on 1 December 1939 at Blohm & Voss in Hamburg as yard number 528, launched on 14 September 1940, and went into service on 4 December 1940. U-552 was nicknamed the Roter Teufel after her mascot of a grinning devil, which was painted on the conning tower. She was one of the more successful of her class, operating for over three years of continual service and sinking or damaging 35 Allied ships with 164,276 GRT and 1,190 tons sunk and 26,910 GRT damaged. She was a member of 21 wolf packs.
USS Grampus (SS-207) was the eighth Tambor-class submarine to be commissioned in the United States Navy in the years leading up to the country's December 1941 entry into World War II. She was the sixth ship of the United States Navy to be named for Grampus griseus, also known as Risso's dolphin, a member of the dolphin family Delphinidae. Her World War II service was in the Pacific Ocean. She completed five war patrols in the following 14 months, and is credited with sinking over 45,000 tons of Japanese merchant shipping and warships. She was declared lost with all hands in March 1943; of the twelve Tambor-class submarines, only five survived the war. She received three battle stars for her World War II service.
USS Cisco (SS-290), a Balao-class submarine, was the only ship of the United States Navy to be named for the cisco, a whitefish of the Great Lakes.
USS Golet (SS-361), a Gato-class submarine, was the only ship of the United States Navy to be named for the golet, a California trout.
USS Runner (SS-275) was a Gato-class submarine, the first ship of the United States Navy to be named for the runner, an amberfish inhabiting subtropical waters, so called for its rapid leaps from the water.
USS Robalo (SS-273), a Gato-class submarine, was the only ship of the United States Navy to be named for the róbalo or common snook.
USS Herring (SS-233), a Gato-class submarine, was the only ship of the United States Navy to be named for the herring.
USS Flounder (SS-251), a Gato-class submarine, was the only ship of the United States Navy to be named for the flounder.
USS Bluefish (SS-222), a Gato-class submarine, was the first ship of the United States Navy to be named for the bluefish. Between 9 September 1943 and 29 July 1945 she completed nine war patrols. Her operating area extended from the Netherlands East Indies to the waters south of Honshū. According to the notoriously unreliable JANAC accounting, Bluefish sank 12 Japanese ships totaling 50,839 tons.
USS Cero (SS-225), a Gato-class submarine, was the first submarine and second ship of the United States Navy to be named for the cero.
USS Flasher (SS-249) was a Gato-class submarine which served in the Pacific during World War II. She received the Presidential Unit Citation and six battle stars, and sank 21 ships for a total of 100,231 tons of Japanese shipping, making her one of the most successful American submarines of the War. She was the first ship of the United States Navy to be named for the flasher.
USS Piranha (SS-389/AGSS-389), a Balao-class submarine, was the only ship of the United States Navy to be named for the piranha. Piranha conducted six war patrols during World War II, receiving five battle stars. She was scrapped in 1970.
The second USS Sapphire (PYc-2) was a patrol boat in the United States Navy.
German submarine U-201 was a Type VIIC U-boat of the Kriegsmarine in World War II.
German submarine U-134 was a Type VIIC U-boat of Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine during World War II. She was laid down on 6 September 1940 by Bremer Vulkan in Bremen-Vegesack as yard number 13 and commissioned on 26 July 1941. In seven patrols, U-134 sank three ships for a total of 12,147 gross register tons (GRT).
German submarine U-759 was a Type VIIC U-boat of Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine during World War II. The submarine was laid down on 15 November 1940 at the Kriegsmarinewerft yard at Wilhelmshaven, launched on 30 May 1942, and commissioned on 15 August 1942 under the command of Oberleutnant zur See Rudolf Friedrich.
The Battle of the Caribbean refers to a naval campaign waged during World War II that was part of the Battle of the Atlantic, from 1941 to 1945. German U-boats and Italian submarines attempted to disrupt the Allied supply of oil and other material. They sank shipping in the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico and attacked coastal targets in the Antilles. Improved Allied anti-submarine warfare eventually drove the Axis submarines out of the Caribbean region.
German submarine U-214, was a Type VIID mine-laying U-boat of Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine during World War II.
German submarine U-575 was a Type VIIC U-boat in service of Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine during World War II. She carried out ten patrols, sailing for 472 days and sinking eight ships totalling 36,010 gross register tons (GRT) and damaged one other of 12,910 GRT. She was a member of 18 separate wolfpacks and was sunk north of the Azores by Allied ships and aircraft on 13 March 1944.
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