Korea – September 1952
Operation FISHNET
As described by the writer James Berry in the U.S. Naval Institutes “Proceedings” of December 1990: “I helped document one of the strangest military actions of the war: A commando ship (USS Weiss (APD-135), an underwater demolition team (UDT-3), and PT boat (Patrol Craft, Torpedo), would attack for the first time the communists’…fish! Dubbed “Operation Fishnet,” it was one of the most bizarre operations of the Korean War. So secret was the mission of the frogmen, that partial details were not disclosed until February 1953, five months later. Other aspects were not declassified until 1988—probably because no one ever heard of it or had bothered to ask.”
During August and September 1952, UDT-3 and UDT-5 participated in Operation FISHNET (UDT-5 operated aboard USS Diachenko (APD-123). Operation FISHNET was aimed to reduce North Korea’s food supplies by destroying vast fields of fishing nets. Phase One of the operation was launched in late summer 1952, with Phase Two following in September. UDT-5 operated south of the port city of Wonsan, located midway on the east coast of the Korean peninsula. UDT-3 operated to the north within 14 miles of the Manchurian border.
FISHNET operations severely damaged the North Korean’s fishing capability, where the economy was based on fish as much as on rice. This was the last extensive UDT operation in the Korean War; an armistice ended fighting on 27 July 1953. For the remainder of the war, UDTs conducted beach and river reconnaissance, infiltrated guerrillas behind the lines from sea, and continued mine-location and clearance operations.
U.S. Navy Underwater Demolition Team members inspect glass ball floats used on North Korean fishing nets. The nets were captured during Operation Fishnet, whose mission was the destruction of the main source of Communist forces’ food supply, the nets of North Korean fishermen. U.S. Navy UDT Frogmen took part in this operation. Photograph is dated 16 September 1952. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives.
