Accardy, John George, PO3

Fallen

Service Photo

Service Details

Last Rank
Signalman 3rd Class

Last Primary NEC
SM-0000-Signalman

Last Rating/NEC Group
Signalman

Primary Unit
1944-1944, SM-0000, USS Tang (SS-306)

Service Years
1943 - 1944

Last Photo

Personal Details

Home State

Connecticut

Year of Birth
1925

This Military Service Page was created/owned by Sheila Rae Myers, HM3 to remember Accardy, John George, SM3c.

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Casualty Info

Home Town Darien, CT	Last Address 3362 Copely Ave San Diego, CA

Casualty Date Oct 25, 1944
Cause Non Hostile- Body Not Recovered	Reason Torpedoed
Location Pacific Ocean	Conflict World War II
Location of Interment Manila American Cemetery and Memorial - Manila, Philippines	Wall/Plot Coordinates (cenotaph)
Military Service Number Not Specified

Official Badges

Unofficial Badges

Additional Information

Last Known Activity

USS Tang (SS-306) was on her fifth war patrol when she came upon a Japanese convoy. On the morning of 24 October 1944 she had sunk three ships when she fired her 24th and last torpedo. That torpedo turned to the left, making a circular turn. Tang tried to clear the path of the torpedo, but was struck by her own torpedo and sank. Nine men survived, and spent the war as Prisoners of War. Signalman, Third Class Accardy was listed as missing in action and later declared dead 7 December 1945.

Comments/Citation

Service number: 8789732

Submarine war patrols: USS Tang (SS-306) - 5th

Presidential Unit Citation
For extraordinary heroism in action during her Fourth War Patrol against enemy Japanese shipping in the Honshu Area from July 31 to September 3, 1944, and her Fifth War Patrol in Formosa Straits, September 27 to October 24,1944. Boldly searching out the enemy through perilous coastline shoal waters to establish contact with a large hostile convoy, the USS Tang penetrated a heavy escort screen to launch a series of smashing torpedo attacks and sink five Japanese ships totaling 22,500 tons. With every surface unit vital to the enemy during accelerated hostilities pointing toward the crucial battle for Leyte Gulf, the Tang daringly challenged two large, well armed, heavily escorted convoys bound for the Philippines with reinforcements and supplies. Operating without support and in heroic defiance of severe countermeasures, she attacked relentlessly from all sides, waging furious battle against terrific odds and climaxing her aggressive Fifth Patrol by sending every ship of both convoys to the bottom. A seaworthy fighting ship, handled brilliantly by her gallant officers and men, the Tang rounded out her previous distinguished record of achievement by her crushing blows against the enemy's power to wage war, therefore materially furthering the vital operations to control the Pacific and upholding the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service.

The information contained in this profile was compiled from various internet sources.

Photo Album (More...)

USS Tang (SS-306)

World War II/Asiatic-Pacific Theater
From Month/Year December / 1941	To Month/Year September / 1945
Description The plan of the Pacific subseries was determined by the geography, strategy, and the military organization of a theater largely oceanic. Two independent, coordinate commands, one in the Southwest Pacific under General of the Army Douglas MacArthur and the other in the Central, South, and North Pacific (Pacific Ocean Areas) under Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, were created early in the war. Except in the South and Southwest Pacific, each conducted its own operations with its own ground, air, and naval forces in widely separated areas. These operations required at first only a relatively small number of troops whose efforts often yielded strategic gains which cannot be measured by the size of the forces involved. Indeed, the nature of the objectivesùsmall islands, coral atolls, and jungle-bound harbors and airstrips, made the employment of large ground forces impossible and highlighted the importance of air and naval operations. Thus, until 1945, the war in the Pacific progressed by a double series of amphibious operations each of which fitted into a strategic pattern developed in Washington.