Kingfisher floatplane sunk by gunfire from USS Tang on April 30th 1944

On April 30th 1944, during the US Navy carrier strikes on Japanese shipping in Truk between April 29th and May 1st, two Vought OS2U Kingfisher floatplanes were launched from the battleship USS North Carolina (BB-55) to locate fighter pilot Lt. Robert Kanze from USS Enterprise (CV-6) who was reported shot down. The two Kingfishers, piloted by Lt. J.J. Doble and Lt. John Burns, soon spotted the downed pilot afloat in his life raft and Doble landed to pick him up.

As Kanze grabbed the wing float, he was lifted out of his raft. A wave then hit the float broadside which with his weight on the float, submerged it and caused the Kingfisher to capsize throwing Doble and his radioman R. E. Hill into the water. The three were able to retrieve the raft and hold onto it. Burns observed all of this and landed to pick up all three. With five men aboard, the Kingfisher could not take off so Burns taxied to the submarine USS Tang (SS-306) that was on surfaced nearby on "lifeguard" duty. The sub then sank Doble's still-floating Kingfisher with gunfire to prevent it from drifting into Japanese hands.

With his three passengers safely transferred to Tang, Burns got a call to go after another downed pilot, who was soon found and taken aboard. Again unable to take off, Burns decided to wait for Tang to reach the scene. While he was waiting, he saw two TBM torpedo bombers, each with three men aboard, ditch nearby. With nothing else to do while waiting for the sub, Burns went after the TBM crews that had taken to their rafts. He secured both rafts to the Kingfisher and tried to tow them in the direction of the now distant sub, but they caused too much drag so the six men were taken aboard on the wings.

Burns the started taxiing towards the submarine that had gone after yet another downed pilot in the meantime. Tang eventually reached the now-sinking Kingfisher and took all nine occupants aboard, while the floatplane was finished off with gunfire from the submarine's 20mm Oerlikon cannon (with one last burst for good measure at 0:56). Burns would earn the Navy Cross for his actions.

This was Tang's second war patrol, she would eventually be lost on her fifth patrol on October 25th 1944 when a Mark 18 torpedo she launched broached and curved to the left in a circular run, striking the submarine and sinking her with the loss of 78 of her crew.

During her career Tang sank a total of 33 ships totaling 116,454 tons, placing her first in the list of the most successful American submarines in World War II for both number of ships and tonnage. Tang also retains the best patrol by number of ships sunk, her third, with ten for 39,100 tons.