On August 9th, 1942, two companies from 2nd Raider Battalion embarked at Pearl Harbor aboard two submarines, the SS Argonaut (SS-166) and the SS Nautilus (SS-168), and sailed for the Gilbert Islands. A week later, 2nd Raider Battalion conducted the famed assault landing on Butaritari Island, Makin Atoll, launching rubber raiding boats from the decks of the submarines.