Oscar Allen Abbott

Torpedoman’s Mate 3rd Class Oscar Allen Abbott was killed in action on 5 May 1944 when his submarine, the U.S.S. Gudgeon, disappeared after departing from Johnston Island atoll located between the Marshall and Hawaiian islands in the Pacific. He was 18 years old.

Abbott was born in Clayton, North Carolina, on 25 September 1925, the son of Allen W. Abbott and Isabelle Bennett Abbott. In 1930, he was living with his parents and siblings in Toltec, Pinal County, Arizona. In 1940, he was living in Vance County, North Carolina, with his mother and siblings and Isabelle’s second husband, John Early Twisdale. Abbott attended Townsville High School and was a member of Island Creek Baptist Church. He enlisted in the U.S. Navy and was assigned to the U.S.S. Gudgeon.

Commissioned on 21 April 1941, Gudgeon sailed from the coast of California on 28 August 1941 to Hawaii, where she moored at the Pearl Harbor submarine base on 10 October 1941. Training exercises and local operations filled Gudgeon’s time for the next two months. During the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December she was a Lahaina Roads on special exercises, but returned to base immediately.

On 11 December, Gudgeon (commanded by Elton W. “Joe” Grenfell) departed Pearl Harbor on the first American submarine war patrol of World War II. Her commanding officer was provided with explicit written orders to carry out unrestricted submarine warfare. She was the first American submarine to patrol along the Japanese coast itself, as her area took her off Kyūshū in the home islands. On 27 January 1942, en route home, Gudgeon became the first United States Navy submarine to sink an enemy warship in World War II. Gudgeon fired three torpedoes, and the submarine I-73 was destroyed.

In ten subsequent war patrols in the Pacific 1942-1944, Gudgeon scored 14 confirmed kills, placing her 15th on the honor roll of American submarines.

Gudgeon sailed for the 12th war patrol on 4 April 1944. The submarine stopped off for fuel at Johnston Island on 7 April, and was never seen or heard from again. Gudgeon was officially declared overdue and presumed lost with all hands, on 7 June 1944.

Abbott’s name is inscribed on the Honolulu Memorial Monument within the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in an extinct the volcano (“The Punchbowl”) near the center of Honolulu, Hawaii.

Last edited: 22 December 2025