Halibut was a Gato-class submarine. The name is the flatfish. Portsmouth Navy Yard laid SS-232 down in May 1941. She was launched on 3 December 1941, four days before the attack on Pearl Harbor, sponsored by Mrs. P. T. Blackburn, and commissioned on 10 April 1942, Commander Philip H. Ross in command. This is not the later guided-missile submarine of the same name.
She finished shakedown on 23 June 1942 and reached Pearl Harbor on 27 June. She made ten war patrols. The Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships counts seven battle stars, for patrols 3 through 7, 9, and 10.
On the morning of 5 November 1943, near the Bungo Strait, she torpedoed the carrier Junyo. The wartime report identified the target as Shokaku. It was Junyo. The carrier was damaged and not sunk. Four of her men were killed. She was repaired at Kure.
On 25 October 1944 she met what was left of Admiral Ozawa's force and attacked. The Dictionary says she inflicted some damage. No sinking from that day is pinned to her.
Lieutenant Commander Ignatius J. Galantin had her on the tenth patrol. On 14 November 1944, in Luzon Strait, she attacked a convoy and was attacked in turn. Aircraft, apparently using magnetic detectors, directed a short depth-charge attack. Escorts joined in. The conning tower and the hull were dished in. No one was killed. She stayed under control, made temporary repairs, and reached Saipan on 19 November. The Navy Unit Commendation is for that patrol. She reached San Francisco on 12 December and Portsmouth in 1945. The damage was not worth repairing. She was decommissioned on 18 July 1945, struck on 8 May 1946, and sold for scrap on 10 January 1947.