USS SPRINGER SS414 was a member of the SPADEFISH variant of the BALAO class of submarine. She had a surface displacement of 1526 tons and 2424 tons submerged. Her length was 311' 8"and she had a beam of 27' 3". Her draft was 15' 2". While on the surface she had a speed of 20.25 knots. Her submerged speed was quite a bit lower at 8.75 knot.The great difference in submerged and surface speeds in fleet boats was caused by the hull design. The hulls were basically the same shape as surface craft. SPRINGER was one of the "thick skinned boats" with a test depth of 400 feet.Her armament consisted of ten 21 inch torpedo tubes (six in the Forward Torpedo Room and four in the After Torpedo Room), 24 torpedoes, One 5 ' 25 caliber deck gun, one 40 MM, one 20 MM and two 50 caliber machine guns. She was manned by 6 officers and 60 enlisted men.

USS SPRINGER (SS-414) sailed for San Diego on 3 December to conduct sea trials and shakedown training. After availability, she departed Mare Island for Hawaii on 8 January 1945 and arrived at Pearl Harbor the following week. On 4 February, she steamed to Guam; topped off her stores and oil; and on the 17th, sailed for the Ryukyus to begin her first war patrol.

SPRINGER rode out several heavy storms and was driven down many times by enemy aircraft, but she finally spotted two Japanese warships on 11 March. The ships were at a range of 22,000 yards, steaming at 17 knots, so the submarine surfaced to give chase. She was forced to submerge immediately by planes, and the pursuit was abandoned. Later in the month, the submarine made a radar contact with three ships, and she tracked the largest for three hours. When it was in torpedo range, she made a surface attack with four torpedoes. She scored two hits and the target began to burn. An hour later, Transport No. 18 was still afloat so she sank it with another torpedo. The submarine returned to Guam on 25 March and was refitted by USS PROTEUS (AS-19).

SPRINGER, USS TREPANG I (SS-412), and USS RATON (SS-270) sailed on 20 April for the Yellow Sea where they were to operate as a wolf pack. Eight days later, the pack checked Tomei Harbor on Fukue Shima. At 0515, SPRINGER sighted two ships hugging the coastline, but she found it impossible to close nearer than 6,500 yards. She heard 14 explosions at approximately 0630. TREPANG had sunk Transport No. 146 and was being depth charged by the victim's escort. SPRINGER headed out of the harbor, and sighted the escort returning alone. At 0830, the submarine fired three torpedoes. The target went dead in the water; and as the crew was abandoning ship, SPRINGER fired another torpedo. It hit under the target's No. 1 turret and blew off her bow. Two planes and two patrol craft approached, so SPRINGER went deep and cleared the area, leaving Japan's Submarine Chaser NO. 17 to sink.

SPRINGER and TREPANG contacted three targets on 30 April. The morning was very foggy, and the submarines decided to make a surface attack. Just as SPRINGER reached a favorable firing position around noon, the fog suddenly lifted and left her exposed to a destroyer escort crossing her stern. The escort turned toward the submarine with all guns firing. SPRINGER submerged, went deep, and rigged for silent running. Soon the first of 27 depth charges came down, and all were uncomfortably close. Speakers were knocked off the bulkhead, bulbs were smashed, and valves were lifted off their seats. When all was quiet, the submarine surfaced for a look as the fog closed in again. One more explosion was heard as TREPANG sank the cargo ship Miho Maru.

On the night of 2 May, SPRINGER attacked a ship and two small escorts with a spread of four torpedoes. She heard the first explode and then saw and heard two more hits which blew up and sank the frigate OJIKA. The next night, she fired a spread of torpedoes at a ship making an antisubmarine sweep and sank the Japanese Coast Defense Vessel NO. 25. On 4 May, SPRINGER sailed toward Honshu for lifeguard duty. No American pilots were sighted but, on 14 May, after watching a dogfight between a Japanese fighter and four of our carrier planes, she fished the dead enemy pilot from the water. After removing his papers, the submarine's commanding officer returned his body to the sea. The submarine concluded her patrol at Guam, on 18 May and was refitted by PROTEUS.

SPRINGER sailed to Saipan on 16 June and began her third war patrol the next day. This was a combination offensive and lifeguard patrol in the Tokyo Bay area. On 26 June, she rescued eight men from a downed B-29 and transferred them to USS TIGRONE (SS-419). SPRINGER and TREPANG were notified that there was another crew down about 50 miles distant. They raced to the scene and SPRINGER rescued one airman while TREPANG picked up seven. The airman was transferred to USS DEVILFISH (SS-292) several days later. After an uneventful patrol in Kii Suido from 17 to 23 July, the submarine sailed for Guam.

SPRINGER was at Guam when hostilities with Japan ceased. She departed there on 17 August and headed for the west coast of the United States. She arrived at Mare Island on 5 September 1945 and shortly thereafter was attached to Mare Island Group, Pacific Reserve Fleet. In 26 June 1946, her status was changed to in reserve, out of commission.

In April 1960, SPRINGER was moved from Mare Island to the San Francisco Naval Shipyard to be modernized (the only thing we did to her was clean her up and re-install a 5"-25 deck gun on the after deck, not exactly modern submarine technology, even in 1960) in preparation for her transfer to the Republic of Chile, the overhaul completed on 15 November. The only problem we ever had with her occurred while firing the 5"-25. We only got to fire four rounds for test purposes. When we fired the first round, the recoil caused a 1/4 inch pipe plug to pop out of the Safety Tank vent piping under the superstructure. From 19 December 1960 to 19 January 1961, she held alongside and underway training for the Chilean crew.