USS Toro (SS-422), a Tench-class submarine, was the only ship of the United States Navy to be named for the toro, a name applied to various fish including the cowfish, the catalufa, and the cavallo.
Construction and commissioning
Toro′s keel was laid down on 27 May 1944 at the Portsmouth Navy Yard in Kittery, Maine. She was launched on 23 August 1944, sponsored by Mrs. Alan G. Kirk, and commissioned on 8 December 1944.
First War Patrol
Following her completion on 26 December 1944, Toro participated in training exercises out of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, Newport, Rhode Island, and New London, Connecticut, before arriving at Key West, Florida, on 11 February 1945. She provided services to the Fleet Sonar School, then, on 28 February, departed Key West in company with submarine , bound for the Panama Canal Zone where she underwent a week of intensive training. The two submarines set a westward course for Hawaii on 15 March and arrived at Pearl Harbor on 1 April. Toro conducted training exercises out of that port with Submarine Division 101 until 24 April when she departed Oahu in company with submarine . She arrived at Saipan on 6 May and, after one false start, got underway for her first war patrol on 10 May.
After arriving in her patrol and lifeguard area south of Shikoku and east of Kyūshū on 16 May, she occasionally encountered Japanese planes as she pursued her duties. On 18 May, following a probable periscope sighting, Toro detected a transmission on Japanese submarine radar frequency and attempted to close the contact but was unsuccessful.
As she patrolled Bungo Suido, she was often assigned as lifeguard for air strikes against the Japanese islands. While off Omino Shima before sunrise on 25 May, she received word that a B-29 Superfortress was in trouble. She began the search in state four seas with only fair visibility and, two hours after dawn, homed in by friendly air cover, she rescued two Army aviators who had been floating in their lifejackets for three and one-half hours. Twenty minutes later, she rescued another aviator and then continued her search for additional survivors until late in the day. The names of the three airmen were Charles Smith, Howard Stein, and Robert Canova. While patrolling on the surface on the following morning, she made radar contact with a possible target at . The submarine turned toward the contact and shortly thereafter a torpedo wake crossed her bow, indicating that an enemy vessel had first located her. Toro dove and had no further contact with the unseen attacker. Toro continued patrols and lifeguard duty in Bungo Suido until 14 June when she set her course for the Mariana Islands. She moored at Apra Harbor five days later.
Second War Patrol
Following refit by submarine tender , Toro got underway from Guam on 14 July; paused briefly at Saipan for fuel, water, and the replacement of her torpedoes with Mark 18s; and arrived in her patrol area south of Shikoku on 24 July. Late in the day, she was drawn far out of her assigned area in a fruitless search for a downed flier. The departure of Toro’s air cover at 18:00 left her in a most dangerous situation due to the expected passage of an American task force on an antishipping sweep. Unable to clear the area in time, Toro made radar contact with the task force at 20:55. Despite attempts to establish her identity, Toro was soon the target of two obviously unfriendly American ships which bore down on her at a speed of . The destroyer opened gunfire and bracketed Toro with her first salvo at a distance of . Toro crash-dived and attempted to establish her identity using a flare, smoke bombs, and sonar, but the ships were still firing when she passed . She continued down to and rigged for depth charges. The surface vessels, thinking that Colahan had sunk a Japanese picket boat, remained in the area for half an hour searching for survivors without discovering that their target had been a friendly submarine. At 01:00 on 25 July, Toro surfaced and set her course back to her patrol area.
That morning, she returned to her lifeguard station and, in the afternoon, rescued three British aviators afloat on a raft. She maintained her station for carrier strikes against Japan on 28 July and, shortly after noon on 30 July, received a distress message from a United States Army Air Corps P-51 Mustang plane. After circling his plane over the submarine the pilot parachuted from the crippled aircraft at an altitude of only . Within seven minutes, Toro’s crew brought the aviator on board.