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Warship Wednesday, Aug. 9, 2023: The Lost Desert Wind

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Here at LSOZI, we take off every Wednesday for a look at the old steam/diesel navies of the 1833-1954 period and will profile a different ship each week. These ships have a life, a tale all their own, which sometimes takes them to the strangest places. – Christopher Eger

Warship Wednesday, Aug. 9, 2023: The Lost Desert Wind

Photo by Stewart Bale Ltd, Liverpool, Imperial War Museums’ Foxhall Collection, no. IWM FL 19059 http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205121477

Above we see the third flight S-class diesel boat, HM Submarine Simoom (P225), underway, likely in 1943, her only year of service. A rather unlucky boat, Simoom fired 15 war shot torpedoes in her career and, although she never hit a target that she intended to punch a hole into, she did manage to spectacularly claim her only “kill” some 80 years ago today.

The mighty S-class

Built to replace the aging boats in RN service, the first pair, HMS Swordfish, and HMS Sturgeon, were ordered in the 1929 program. Small boats, running just over 200 feet in overall length and displacing around 600 tons (900 submerged), they were relatively fast for the day, capable of breaking almost 14 knots on the surface, making them able to catch up to slow-moving merchantmen, and carried a full dozen Mark VIII torpedoes for their six-pack of forward 21-inch tubes. Meanwhile, a 3-inch deck gun and a Vickers light machine gun gave a topside armament. This could be augmented by a dozen mines. Able to operate in shallow waters, with a draft of only 10.5 feet, and able to submerge in 10 fathoms, they could crash dive in just 25-30 seconds with a good crew if needed.

Not bad for a 1920s design.

The 1929 Chatham Dockyard plan of the flight I S-class boats. Chatham would only produce two boats (HMS Shalimar and Sportsman), whereas most were built by Cammell Laird and smaller numbers by Scotts and Vickers.

As noted by Richard Worth in his Fleets of World War II:

“Meant as replacements for the old H-class, they required the same virtues of maneuverability and quick diving. But the Admiralty wanted more– improvements in range, armament, and surface speed. The “S” types became a pillar of His Majesty’s Submarine Force; not remarkable in any respect, rather they performed well all tasks at acceptable levels, a class of well-balanced and workmanlike boats that proved safe and easy to operate.”

A great period color shot of the S-class submarine HMS Seadog (P216), in the foreground moving off, Holy Loch, 1942. The Group 1 T-class submarine HMS Thunderbolt (N25) is in the background. Of note, Thunderbolt was originally HMS Thetis which sank with heavy loss of life in the Mediterranean just before the war and was subsequently salvaged. The two objects seen on her after casing are containers for human torpedo chariots. IWM TR 612

In all, the British would order no less than 73 S-class boats in three flights across 12 construction programs, and they would remain in production from 1930 through 1945, spanning both the interbellum and WWII era. In all, 62 were completed.

Meet HMS Simoom

The name “Simoom” after the desert wind, dates to an 1842 paddlewheel frigate and was used in no less than five other ships by the Royal Navy. The subject of our tale is the sixth and (thus far) final HMS Simoom.

Ordered in the largest batch of S-class boats (20 hulls) under the 1940 war program, she was a third flight vessel and as such had several minor improvements including a slightly higher freeboard forward, a less complicated and simplified engineering layout that allowed a maximum speed approaching 15 knots (one of the batch, HMS Seraph, could hit 16.75 knots). She also had a seventh tube installed, an external one, giving her 13 torpedoes in total. Also, in lieu of a Vickers gun, the 3rd flight S-boats carried a 20mm Oerlikon AAA gun and a primitive air warning RDF receiver. They also carried a Type 138 ASDIC system and a Type 291/291W early-warning radar.

Laid down at Cammell Laird, Birkenhead (a yard that built at least 26 of the class) on 14 July 1941, Simoom was launched the following October and commissioned on 30 December 1942, her construction spanning just under 17 months.

A series of great images were captured of her in April 1943, steaming in conjunction with the captured German Type VIIC U-boat U-570 (HMS Graph, P715).

HM SUBMARINE SIMMOM AND GRAPH AT HOLY LOCH. 20 APRIL 1943, HOLY LOCH. (A 16049) HMS SIMOOM (right) and HMS GRAPH. Copyright: © IWM. Original Source: http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205149055

HM SUBMARINE SIMOOM. 20 APRIL 1943, HOLY LOCH. (A 16041) The SIMOOM from the beam. Copyright: © IWM. Original Source: http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205149047

HM SUBMARINE SIMOOM. 20 APRIL 1943, HOLY LOCH. (A 16047) The SIMOOM from dead ahead. Copyright: © IWM. Original Source: http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205149053

HM SUBMARINES SIMOOM AND GRAPH. 20 APRIL 1943, HOLY LOCH. (A 16048) HMS SIMOOM (nearer) and HMS GRAPH together at Holy Loch. Copyright: © IWM. Original Source: http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205149054

HM SUBMARINE SIMOOM. 20 APRIL 1943, HOLY LOCH. (A 16043) The SIMOOM from the beam. Copyright: © IWM. Original Source: http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205149049

HMS SIMOOM, BRITISH S-CLASS SUBMARINE. 20 APRIL 1943, HOLY LOCH. (A 16045) Copyright: © IWM. Original Source: http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205149051

HM SUBMARINE SIMOOM. 20 APRIL 1943, HOLY LOCH. (A 16043) The SIMOOM from the beam. Copyright: © IWM. Original Source: http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205149049

As detailed by Uboat.net, her wartime service was brief.

Her first war patrol off Northern Norway to provide cover for convoy operations to and from Northern Russia in early 1943 was uneventful as was her second in the Bay of Biscay.

Transferring to the still very active Med, her third patrol, off the West coasts of Corsica and Sardinia was a bust.

Her 4th, providing coverage for the invasion of Sicily harassed some coastal shipping and, in the end, she would sink the Italian destroyer Vincenzo Gioberti on 9 August 1943.

Simoon had fired a brace of six torpedoes at the big boys of RADM Giuseppe Fioravanzo’s 8th Cruiser Division (light cruisers Giuseppe Garibaldi and Emanuele Filiberto Duca d’Aosta) but caught the smaller Vincenzo Gioberti instead, making her the last Italian tin can sunk in the war.

Italian destroyer Vincenzo Gioberti, photographed before World War II. NH 47663

She is believed to have taken 95 men to the bottom with her after dramatically breaking in two parts and sinking. Some 171 survivors of Gioberti were recovered by MAS torpedo boats from La Spezia.

The end of Italian destroyer Vincenzo Gioberti, torpedoed by HMS Simoom on 9 August 1943. She was the last Regia Marina destroyer to be lost in the war against the Allies. Photo by “Storia Illustrata” magazine

Other rather sedate patrols followed.

The mysterious end of Simoom‘s tale came in November while on her 7th patrol.

Via Uboat.net:

2 Nov 1943
HMS Simoom (Lt. G.D.N. Milner, DSC, RN) departed Port Said for 7th war patrol (5th in the Mediterranean). She was ordered to patrol between Naxos and Mikonos, Greece. At 1142B/2 she reported that she did not hold the letter coordinates for November and would use those of October. This prompted Captain S.1 to communicate them the following evening.

On the 5th she was ordered to patrol off the Dardanelles, five nautical miles west of Tenedos.

On the 13th she was ordered to leave her patrol area PM on the 15th passing between Psara and Khios, through 35°06’N, 26°44’E and then on the surface from 34°25’N, 29°59′ E. She was due in Beirut at 0901B/20 but this was later corrected to the 19th.

Simoom did not show up at Beirut. She was declared overdue on 23 November 1943.

At 1729 hours, on 15 November, the German submarine U-565 (KL Fritz Henning) fired a single stern torpedo from 2000 metres at a target described as “probably a submarine” on course 250°, one hit was heard after 3 minutes and 48 seconds. The position recorded was Quadrat CO 3381 (36°51’N, 27°22’E or off the east coast of Kos) and it is unlikely that HMS Simoom was in the area. Post-war analysis concluded that she was probably mined on 4 November 1943 on a new minefield laid off Donoussa Island (ca. 37°06’N, 25°50’E).

Her roll of lost, marked “missing presumed killed” 19 November 1943:

ADAM, William G, Able Seaman, P/JX 344969, MPK
ANGLESEA, John, Engine Room Artificer 5c, D/MX 102924, MPK
BALSON, Lewis F C, Warrant Engineer, MPK
BEDFORD, Maurice A, Ty/Leading Seaman, D/SSX 27992, MPK
BROADBRIDGE, Thomas G, Stoker 1c, C/KX 83568, MPK
CASPELL, George E, Telegraphist, C/JX 163711, MPK
COLE, Edward, Stoker Petty Officer, P/KX 83973, MPK
CROSS, Charles M, Ty/Sub Lieutenant, RNVR, MPK
DAY, Horace C, Signalman, C/JX 207606, MPK
ELLIN, Sidney, Petty Officer Telegraphist, C/JX 135616, MPK
ELLIOTT, Robert, Able Seaman, P/JX 322974, MPK
FRANCIS, Rolland J, Stoker 1c, D/KX 137871, MPK
GARBETT, Basil M, Lieutenant, MPK
GILL, Geoffrey, Able Seaman, C/JX 235129, MPK
GOWLAND, William R, Able Seaman, D/SSX 15958, MPK
GRIFFITH, Ben, Petty Officer, D/J 113001, MPK
HANNANT, James H, Able Seaman, D/JX 202875, MPK
HARRIS, Walter, Stoker 1c, D/KX 134758, MPK
HATTON, Charles W, Able Seaman, C/JX 169095, MPK
HERD, Charles E, Ordinary Seaman, P/JX 281907, MPK
HERSTELL, Norman, Able Seaman, P/JX 347783, MPK
JOHNSON, Robert J, Able Seaman, C/SSX 26525, MPK
JONES, Louis F, Ty/Sub Lieutenant, RNVR, MPK
KENNEDY, Gordon A, Leading Telegraphist, D/JX 154462, MPK
KERR, David A, Engine Room Artificer 4c, P/MX 55013, MPK
LANDING, John, Leading Stoker, P/KX 84477, MPK
LILLYCROP, Francis W, Stoker 1c, P/KX 145412, MPK
LOVELL, Ernest A, Able Seaman, P/SSX 18599, MPK
MARSDEN, Tom, Engine Room Artificer 4c, P/MX 79301, MPK
MASON, George H, Act/Leading Stoker, P/KX 90779, MPK
MAY, Sidney J, Able Seaman, C/SSX 30974, MPK
MCLENNAN, Harold B W, Ty/Act/Leading Telegraphist, C/JX 259236, MPK
MILNER, Geoffrey D N, Lieutenant, MPK
MORTIMER-LAMB, Robert J, Ty/Petty Officer, C/JX 145875, MPK
OLDING, Walter G, Act/Chief Engine Room Artificer, P/MX 46951, MPK
O’LEARY, Michael T, Electrical Artificer 3c, D/MX49539, MPK
RAWE, James A, Act/Chief Petty Officer, RFR, P/JX 136102, MPK
SALMON, Alfred W, Able Seaman, P/JX 295724, MPK
SAUNDERS, Arthur, Able Seaman, P/JX 155201, MPK
SCHOFIELD, Bernard P, Able Seaman, C/JX 241234, MPK
SEABORNE, William J R, Stoker 1c, D/KX 94051, MPK
SHANKS, Thomas S, Ty/Sub Lieutenant, RNVR, MPK
SHARP, Norman, Able Seaman, D/JX 223594, MPK
SHEPHERD, John V, Stoker 1c, P/KX 83132, MPK
SMITH, William J, Stoker 1c, D/KX 145306, MPK
SONGHURST, Thomas J, Stoker 1c, C/KX 83463, MPK
TAYLOR, James, Engine Room Artificer 4c, C/MX 77617, MPK
WARDALE, Irvin, Able Seaman, D/JX 303574, MPK
WILSON, William, Act/Petty Officer, P/SSX 18131, MPK

Epilogue

In 2016, Turkish wreck-hunter Selcuk Kolay found HMS Simoom (P225) about 6 nautical miles northwest of the Turkish Aegean Island of Bozcaada (Tenedos) in 67 meters of water. There was extensive damage near the starboard hydroplane with the conclusion that Simoom had hit a mine while running on the surface. The mine Simoom hit was believed one sown by the German minelayer Bulgaria and the Italian torpedo boats Monzambano and Calatafimi in September 1941.

Likewise, Simoom’s only “kill,” the Italian destroyer Vincenzo Gioberti, had been discovered the year prior.

The Royal Navy’s wartime losses totaled 74 submarines. Of those, no less than 19 were S-class boats.

Across over 3,000 patrols, HM submarines sank 158 enemy combatant ships and damaged 54 others, in addition to sinking 1.6 million tons of enemy merchant shipping. A lot of that came from S-class boats.

Nonetheless, they were small and slow by postwar standards. By 1946, Janes listed just 39 S-class boats under the British fleet’s entry and a half-dozen of those warned “may be discarded in the near future.”

Soon, nine would be transferred to France, Portugal, and Israel.

One, HMS Sidon (P259), was wrecked by its own torpedo explosion on 16 June 1955 then refloated and sunk as a target. Another, HMS Sportsman/French submarine Sibylle, was lost off Toulon in 1952 in a diving accident.

Of the dwindling number of S boats still in RN service, most were withdrawn in the late 1940s and 1950s while still relatively young with just a couple lingering on for a few years longer. HMS Sea Devil, completed just after VE-Day, was paid off for disposal at Portsmouth on 4 June 1962, and was the last of the S class in service with the Royal Navy, completing 17 years of service. She was sold to the shipbreaker Metal Recoveries and arrived at Newhaven on 15 December 1965.

The sparsely used trio of boats operated postwar by Portugal (HMS Saga/NRP Nautilo, HMS Spearhead/NRP Nepunto, and HMS Spur/NRP Narval) were disposed of in 1969.

The last of the class afloat, HMS Springer, was used by Israel until 1972 as INS Tanin and had landed commandos in Egypt during the Six-Day War.

Submarine INS Tanin (ex-HMS Springer) arrives at Port of Haifa in 1959. She would be the last S-class boat

Ships are more than steel
and wood
And heart of burning coal,
For those who sail upon
them know
That some ships have a
soul.

If you liked this column, please consider joining the International Naval Research Organization (INRO), Publishers of Warship International

They are possibly one of the best sources of naval study, images, and fellowship you can find. http://www.warship.org/membership.htm

The International Naval Research Organization is a non-profit corporation dedicated to the encouragement of the study of naval vessels and their histories, principally in the era of iron and steel warships (about 1860 to date). Its purpose is to provide information and a means of contact for those interested in warships.

With more than 50 years of scholarship, Warship International, the written tome of the INRO has published hundreds of articles, most of which are unique in their sweep and subject.

PRINT still has its place. If you LOVE warships you should belong.

I’m a member, so should you be!

Navy’s new SEAL Mini Sub Finally Reaches IOC

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Lockheed Martin’s Dry Combat Submersible– the Navy’s long-promised minisub for SEALs

News coming out of Lockheed:

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla., July 24, 2023 — U.S. Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) declared Initial Operational Capability for Lockheed Martin’s Dry Combat Submersible (DCS) last month. This milestone represents a transformational capability for USSOCOM forces in Maritime and Undersea Systems.

“The Dry Combat Submersible has the potential to transform undersea warfare for special operators,” said Gregg Bauer, C6ISR vice president and general manager at Lockheed Martin. “DCS provides safe, clandestine delivery for occupants over long distances in a completely dry environment and features a lock-in and lock-out chamber. Occupants arrive at the mission warm, rested, hydrated, and ready, making this vessel a key advantage in mission success.”

A Deeper Dive

With this capability, U.S. Special Operations Forces traveling extended distances below the surface of the ocean will be safe to do so without a wetsuit and without exposure to the elements. Due to the DCS’s lock-in/lock-out technology, special operators can get in and out of the vehicle while entirely submerged and undetected.

DCS is designed to transport a special operations team to their destination and enables personnel to arrive discretely to their desired exit point.

“The Lockheed Martin team is proud of the work that has gone into the development and delivery of DCS and supporting USSOCOM to this IOC milestone,” says Jason Crawford, senior program manager for Manned Combat Submersibles. “We look forward to delivering the third DCS and supporting DCS into Full Operating Capacity, filling a critical gap for USSOCOM.”

DCS is manufactured in Palm Beach, Florida. Sustainment operations will include lifecycle support, post-delivery logistics support, pilot and special operator training, and training equipment to ensure the safe and effective operation of the new capability in future special forces efforts.

Of note, DCS, designated the S351 Nemesis, has been under contract to Lockheed for seven years with a single 39-foot boat delivered and as many as three could be produced. Sized to fit in a standard 40-foot shipping container to send it low-key anywhere on the globe, it is designed to carry half a SEAL platoon (eight operators) and two dedicated crewmen to a target out to 60nm away.

It is considerably smaller than the failed 65-foot Advanced SEAL Delivery System (ASDS) which was in limited service from 2003-2008, but much more capable than the old four-operator “Eight Boat” the standard 22-foot wet sub (or “turbine” in SEAL parlance) that has been in service since 1983.

The Mark 8 Mod 1 wet sub, the standard frogman ride, is a 22-footer SDV that carries four operators and two crew in a very “open” environment and at shallow depths. The maximum endurance is 18 nm.

Warship Wednesday, July 19, 2023: Red Sub Circumnavigator

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Here at LSOZI, we take off every Wednesday for a look at the old steam/diesel navies of the 1833-1954 period and will profile a different ship each week. These ships have a life, a tale all their own, which sometimes takes them to the strangest places.- Christopher Eger

Warship Wednesday, July 19, 2023: Red Sub Circumnavigator

Above we see the type IX-bis S (Stalinets) class “medium” Guards Red Banner submarine S-56 returning to Polyarni in early 1944 from a patrol off the coast of German-occupied Norway. The most celebrated of her class, she claimed one of her biggest “kills” some 80 years ago today.

The S-class

It is a little-known fact that the Tsarist Imperial Navy entered the Great War in 1914 with more submarines in its inventory than anyone else. Following the national disaster that was the Russian Revolution and Civil War, the reformed Red Navy inherited a few of these old boats and even managed to keep some of them in operation into the 1950s!

When it came to new designs, by the late 1920s the Soviets built a half dozen modest 1,300-ton Dekabrist-class (Series I) submarines constructed with Italian expertise, followed by 25 minelaying Leninets-class (L class, or Series II) submarines of the same size which were essentially reverse engineered from the lost British L-class submarine HMS L55 which was recovered by the Soviets, and a staggering 88 Shchuka-class (Series III, V, V-bis, V-bis-2, X, X-1938) “medium” submarines that went some 700 tons and were ideal for use in the cramped Baltic and Black seas.

Then, the Stalinets class in IX, IX-bis, IX-bis-II, and XVI series, began to appear in 1936.

Besides the lessons learned in making the Italian-based Dekabrist-class and English-based Leninets-class boats, the Russians, who were very close to a quietly rearming Weimar Germany in the early 1930s, worked with the Dutch front company Ingenieurskantoor voor Scheepsbouw (IvS), which was, in fact, a dummy funded by the German Weimar-era Reichsmarine using design assets from German shipyards AG Vulcan, Krupp-Germaniawerft, and AG Weser to keep Berlin in the sub-making biz while skirting the ban on such activity by the Versailles treaty.

IvS had previously built boats and shared technology with Finland and Spain and it was with the latter’s planned Submarino E-1 that the Soviet S-series was based.

Spanish submarine E-1 at the shipyard in Cádiz. Built in Spain from 1929-30, Soviet engineers participated in her construction and trails. Although her design would go on to be used as the basis for both the German Type IA submarine and the Russian Stalinets class, ironically, the Spanish Navy never operated E-1, as she was sold to Turkey in 1935 just before the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War. She went on to fly the star and crescent until 1947 as TCG Gür.

Some 255 feet long and with an 840/1070 ton displacement, the basic Stalinets design was good for 19.5 knots on the surface and a cruising range of 4,000nm. Carrying four forward torpedo tubes and two sterns, they also mounted a 100mm deck gun and a 45mm backup as well as machine guns that could be set up for AAA use. Besides the six 533mm torpedoes in the tubes, they could carry another six spare fish.

Stalinets class

The first flight of three boats used German diesels, something that was corrected in follow-on ships that evolved slightly across their construction, hence the four different flights. In all, some 41 Stalinets would be completed. The first, C-1, was laid down on Christmas Day 1934 (because who needs religion in the worker’s paradise) and delivered on 23 September 1936 while a final eight whose construction began at around the same time languished on the builder’s ways during WWII, and were only finished post-war.

The subject of our tale is the most successful of the class. Of the 33 Stalinets class boats completed in time for WWII, 16 were lost. Of the 30 that saw combat patrols, 19 claimed tonnages. This would include the infamous S-13, which sank five ships including two large transports Wilhelm Gustloff and General Steuben, regarded as among the worst maritime disasters in history.

1946 Janes entry on what was left of the class at that time

Two submarines of the class were awarded the rank of Guards, and seven boats earned the Red Banner, only S-56 was awarded both distinctions.

Meet S-56

A 2nd series (IX-bis) Stalinets, S-56 was intended for service in the Pacific Fleet and therefore was assembled at the Dalzavod works at Vladivostok from a kit sent across Siberia from Leningrad starting on 24 November 1936. Launched Christmas 1939, she was commissioned on 20 October 1941, as the Germans were on the outskirts of Moscow.

With the Soviets eschewing combat against the Japanese until after Berlin was licked, on 6 October 1942, S-56, along with sisters S-51, S-54, and S-55, departed Vladivostok ahead of the ice to join the Red Navy’s Northern Fleet at Murmansk. They would be joined by the Leninists-class minelaying subs L-15 and L-16 sailing from Petropavlovsk on a 17,000-mile transoceanic voyage across both Pacific and Atlantic, maneuvering the seas of Japan, Okhotsk, Bering, Caribbean, Sargasso, Northern, Greenland, Norwegian and Barents with stops in Dutch Harbor, San Francisco, the Panama Canal, Guantanamo Bay, Halifax, and Rosyth.

At least that was the plan.

L-16 was lost en route with all hands, believed torpedoed and sunk by the Japanese submarine I-25 on 11 October 1942 approximately 500 miles west of Seattle. This was even though the Soviet Union and Japan were officially at peace. Fog of war, after all.

Via Combined Fleets on I-25:

While returning to Japan on the surface, I-25 spots two ships, apparently en route to San Francisco. The seas are rough. LCDR Tagami first identifies the ships as two battleships. Later, he identifies them as two “American” submarines. At 1100, he dives and fires his last remaining torpedo. It hits 30 seconds later. Several heavy explosions follow. One of the explosions wrecks a head aboard I-25.

The leading submarine starts to sink rapidly stern first with its bow up 45 degrees. A second explosion follows. When the smoke clears there is only an oil slick on the water. The submarine sinks with all 56 hands (a Russian crew of 55, a naturalized American and American interpreter/liaison officer Sergey A. V. Mikhailoff (USNR) who boarded the submarine at Dutch Harbor) at 45-41N, 138-56E. (Postwar, it is learned that the submarine was Soviet Cdr Dmitri F. Gussarov’s 1,039-ton minelayer L-16 en route from Petropavlovsk, Siberia via Dutch Harbor, Alaska to San Francisco.)

The accompanying Soviet L-15 reports seeing one more wake, fires five 45-mm rounds at I-25 and mistakenly claims a hit on I-25’s periscopes.

The five remaining Russian boats were captured several times by American and Canadian cameras while en route to Murmansk.

Russian S-type submarine probably photographed about 1942. 80-G-636837

The Russian submarine S-54 is seen departing Mare Island on 11 November 1942. USN photo # 6697-42

Russian submarine SS-55 is seen departing Mare Island on 11 November 1942. USN photo # 7001-42

The skippers had a chance to meet and pose for a snapshot in Panama, where they rested from 25 November 25 to 2 December 1942.

From left to right: S-54 skipper, LCDR Dmitry Kondratievich Bratishko, S-51 skipper Captain 3rd rank Ivan Fomich Kucherenko, submarine group commander, Captain 1st Rank Alexander Vladimirovich Tripolsky, commander of S-56 LCDR Grigory Ivanovich Shchedrin, commander L-15 Captain 3rd Rank Vasily Isakovich Komarov, Commander S-55 Captain 3rd Rank Lev Mikhailovich Sushkin. Unfortunately, the names of the American officers are not noted.

Soviet “L” Class submarine (L-15) in Halifax harbor. Date: January 1943. Reference: H.B. Jefferson Nova Scotia Archives 1992-304 / 43.1.4 180.

In March 1943, S-56 became part of the 2nd division of the submarine brigade of the Northern Fleet, after a voyage of 153 days.

Her combat career would encompass 125 days underway on eight patrols against the Germans in which she was declared overdue and likely destroyed no less than 19 times, more an issue of poor radio communications than anything else.

S-56 in the Northern Fleet

She logged 13 attacks and fired 30 torpedoes. This included several runs on German convoys, escaping a surface duel with a pair of escorts, surviving a glancing torpedo strike from the German U-711, and reportedly hitting at least one large freighter with a dud torpedo.

Although she would claim 14 enemy transports and warships sunk with a total displacement of 85,000 tons, her post-war validated tally is a good bit smaller (as are most subs from all sides).

Her successes detailed by U-boat.net, included:

  • 17 May 1943 sank the German tanker Eurostadt (1118 GRT) off the Kongsfjord.
  • 17 July 1943 sank the German minesweeper M 346 (551 tons) west of the Tanafjord.
  • 19 July 1943: Torpedoed and sank the German auxiliary patrol vessel NKi 09 / Alane (466 GRT, former British ASW trawler HMS Warwickshire) off the Tanafjord near Gamvik.
  • 31 July 1943 sank the German merchant Heinrich Schulte (5056 GRT) west of the Tanafjord.

C56 Victory Parade July 1945

Epilogue

In 1954, the now famed S-56 was sent back to her birthplace at Vladivostok via the then very perilous Northern Sea Route through the Arctic, thus becoming the first Russian submarine to circumnavigate the globe.

Decommissioned in 1955, she was retained in the Pacific Fleet as a floating charging station and damage control training hulk, renamed ZAS-8 and then UTS-14.

In 1975, on the 30th anniversary of VE Day, she was installed as a museum ship on the Korabelnaya Embankment, where she remains well preserved today, the last of her class.

She is also celebrated in several heroic Soviet maritime art pieces.

Ships are more than steel
and wood
And heart of burning coal,
For those who sail upon
them know
That some ships have a
soul.

If you liked this column, please consider joining the International Naval Research Organization (INRO), Publishers of Warship International

They are possibly one of the best sources of naval study, images, and fellowship you can find. http://www.warship.org/membership.htm

The International Naval Research Organization is a non-profit corporation dedicated to the encouragement of the study of naval vessels and their histories, principally in the era of iron and steel warships (about 1860 to date). Its purpose is to provide information and a means of contact for those interested in warships.

With more than 50 years of scholarship, Warship International, the written tome of the INRO, has published hundreds of articles, most of which are unique in their sweep and subject.

PRINT still has its place. If you LOVE warships, you should belong.

I’m a member, so should you be!

Incident #3658

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80 Years ago today: Attack on the Type VIIC German submarine, U-134 (Kptlt. Hans-Günther Brosin), by a PBM Mariner of the “Flying Tigers” of VP-201, lat 27-04W, Long 59-48W, the pilot was LT John T. Hitchcock– a gunfighter’s name– in incident #3658, on 8 July 1943.

U.S. Navy photo in the National Archives. 80-G-205264

The U-boat survived this attack, along with three others on 18 and 19 July and 21 August. U-134 notably knocked USN Blimp K-74 (Sqdn ZP 21) from the sky on the 18 July encounter– the only airship shot down during WWII.

U-134 finally met her match on 27 August 1943 in the Bay of Biscay north of Cape Ortegal, in position 44.03N, 08.05W, by depth charges from the British frigate HMS Rother. (Axel Niestlé & Eric Zimmerman, July 2004).

All hands were lost, with Brosin and his 47 tough-to-kill members of the Ubootwaffe, still on patrol.

The pilot of the lumbering flying boat in the image above, LT Hitchcock, would become an anthropologist and college professor of some note after the war, hanging up his guns so to speak.

As for VP-201, it was redesignated VPB-201 on 1 October 1944, then on 15 May 1946 to VP-MS-1, then to VP-ML-8 the next year when they converted to the new P2V Neptune, and finally Patrol Squadron (VP) 8 on 1 September 1948, later becoming the first squadron to field the P-3 Orion. The Flying Tigers are still around, based at Jacksonville as part of AIRLANT. These days they fly the P-8A Poseidon.

Getting back in the game after 3 years in the penalty box

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80 years ago today, several French Navy warships that had been interned at Alexandria from June 1940 to June 1943 were rearmed, saluted, and welcomed back to the war. Among these was the cruiser Suffren.

French heavy cruiser Suffren leaving Alexandria Harbor, Egypt, 23rd June 1943, after a three-year stay during which she was interned by the British. She sailed out to join the Free French forces- IWM Photo

French heavy cruiser Suffren, shown leaving Alexandria Harbor, Egypt, on 23rd June 1943, after a three-year stay during which she was interned by the British. She sailed out to join the Free French forces- IWM Photo

To students of naval history, the name “Suffren” is quick to jog memories.

An homage to Admiral Comte Pierre André de Suffren, an 18th-century hero who doggedly fought the Royal Navy from the East Indies to the West Indies and off the coast of North America during the Seven Years War and later the American Revolution, more than a half-dozen French ships have carried his name.

These included the 74-gun ship of the line that tangled with HMS Victory directly at Trafalgar, an event that led to Nelson’s death; the early and somewhat innovative central battery ironclad of the late 19th Century; a Great War-era République-class pre-dreadnought that covered the withdrawal from the Dardanelles in 1915 with her 12-inch guns only to be sunk by a German U-boat the next winter; the lead-ship of a four-vessel class of heavy cruisers that saw combat in WWII; and the lead ship of a class of guided-missile destroyers that served during the Cold War.

The WWII-era Suffren, a handsome 12,000-ton CA, survived WWII in Free French service and went on to serve off Indochina and elsewhere, only heading to the breakers in 1974.

In 2019, the eighth Suffren, a brand new Barracuda-class submarine (Q284), was launched. The name was, once again, set aside for the first ship of her class.

The 7th warship to carry the name for France, Suffren (D602), was decommissioned in 2008 after nearly a decade in reserve. The 8th was commissioned in late 2020.

The submarine’s skipper was presented with relics from past Suffrens, including the long-interned cruiser

Welcome Back, Iowa

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The future USS Iowa (SSN 797) was officially christened by Christie Vilsack, the ship’s sponsor and former first lady of Iowa, during a ceremony at the Electric Boat shipyard facility in Groton, Connecticut last Saturday. She is the 23rd Virginia-class submarine and the 6th advanced Block IV boat of the class.

230617-N-UR986-0140 GROTON, Conn. (June 17, 2023) – Christie Vilsack, sponsor of the pre-commissioning unit (PCU) USS Iowa (SSN 797), christens the ship during a ceremony at General Dynamics Electric Boat shipyard facility in Groton, Connecticut , June 17, 2023. Iowa and crew will operate under Submarine Squadron (SUBRON) FOUR 

230617-N-UR986-0042 GROTON, Conn. (June 17, 2023) – The crew of the pre-commissioning unit (PCU) USS Iowa (SSN 797), stand in ranks next to their ship during a christening ceremony at General Dynamics Electric Boat shipyard facility in Groton, Connecticut, June 17, 2023. 

The future USS Iowa (SSN 797) is the fourth U.S. Navy vessel and first submarine named in recognition of the state. Previous ships named after the state were battleships, as well as, a converted merchant ship that was never activated.

Her crest includes BB-61, “The Grey Ghost” that I saw recommission in 1984 as an excited 10-year-old at Pascagoula– and accidentally bumped into then Veep George Bush in a passageway.

The final battleship Iowa decommissioned on 26 October 1990 and her name was stricken from the NVR on 17 March 2006, leaving an almost 16-year gap on the Navy List without the Hawkeye State.

Ironically, the first USS Iowa (Battleship No. 4) was launched on 16 June 1897– 126 years and one day prior.

Triumph, located

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British T class submarine HMS Triumph (N18) underway, circa 1940. IWM FL 5477

HM Submarine Triumph (N 18), a Royal Navy T class boat, was ordered from Vickers in 1936 just after Hitler ordered the Rhineland reoccupied, launched in early 1938 as his forces made ready to roll into Austria for the Anschluss, and commissioned in early 1939 as the Czechoslovakia crisis was coming to an end following that country disappearing from the map.

Beginning her first war patrol off Norway the day Germany and Britain opened hostilities, Triumph would go missing while on her 21st war patrol in January 1942 while conducting special operations off Axis-occupied Greece.

She never made it back to Alexandria and her skipper, Lt. John Symons Huddart, two SOE commandos hitching a ride, and his crew of 6 officers and 55 ratings were marked lost with HMS Triumph on 23 January.

Well, it looks like this mystery has been solved by Greek wreck diver Kostas Thoctarides, with a wreck found at a 203m depth in the Aegean Sea.

His group, ROV Services, has extensively documented the wreck verifying the following:

  • 84.28 meters long
  • A maximum width of 7.77 meters.
  • The tropid depth at periscopic depth was 34 feet (10.36 meters).
  • The TRIUMPH was the only of its T Class without external primary torpedo tubes, as they were removed during repairs in 1940 following an impact into a mine.

Of note, the Royal Navy lost 79 commissioned submarines during WWII, compared to the 52 lost by the U.S. Navy. This figure does not include such special operation vessels as the seven X craft, 18 chariots, and 5 Welmans.

Coast Guard Welcomes Back an Old Name, Retires Another

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One thing I like about the USCG is that they ditch a lot of the political rhetoric when it comes to cutter naming conventions, and make sure they salute their heroes and storied past vessels.

For instance, the first flight of 11 new 360-foot Offshore Patrol Cutters, large OPVs that will surely be sent into harm’s way several times at some point in their likely 50-year careers, all will carry the recycled names of traditional cutters that fought in the War of 1812, the Quasi-War, WWII, Vietnam, and the Great War.

One of the pending OPCs will honor USCGC Icarus (WPC-110) the famed 165-foot “B”-Class cutter that sank one of the first Nazi U-boats, U-352, in 1942 just after U.S. entry into World War II.

A great retelling of that lopsided David v Goliath sea clash, in which the German submarine had superior speed, surface and subsurface armament, is retold in Hickam’s Torpedo Junction.

In the book, Hickam spends a whole chapter on the humble Icarus— a gunboat that didn’t even have a sonar range finder– commanded by 52-year-old LT Maurice David Jester, a life-long Coastie enlisted in the service as a surfman in 1917, and its epic combat against Kptln. Helmutt Rathke’s U-352.

In the end, it came down to a surface action in which the cutter used all of its weapons, including Tommy guns, against the German, sending the sub to the bottom.

Then, in typical Coast Guard fashion, they saved 33 of her crew, including Rathke, and took them ashore to POW captivity for the duration.

Before steaming for Charleston, Jester transmitted: 

“Contacted submarine Destroyed same. Lat 34°12 ½” Long 76° 35″. Have 33 of her crew members on board. Proceeding Charleston with survivors.” 

Man, she looks short! USS Icarus, CG arriving at Charleston Navy Yard after its epic battle with U-352, photo dated 10 May 1942.

Coast Guard Cutter Icarus drawn in profile. (Coast Guard Collection)

The wreck site of the U-352 as it appears today. (Courtesy of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration)

Jester was the first Coast Guardsman to receive the Navy Cross and one of only six service members to receive it during the war.

He retired in 1944 with the rank of full commander, capping 27 years of service that spanned the First World War, Prohibition, and the Second World War.

He is interred at Arlington.

In a fitting salute to the hard-charging commander of the Icarus, the Coast Guard late last week commissioned USCGC Maurice Jester (WPC-1152), a new 154-foot Sentinel-class fast response cutter. Fittingly, she also carries the WPC designation as Icarus and is only 11 feet shorter.

The fast response cutter’s motto is “Against All Odds”.

U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Maurice Jester (WPC 1152), dressed overall during its commissioning ceremony in Newport, Rhode Island, June 2, 2023. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Lyric Jackson) . (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Lyric Jackson)

Farewell, Bayberry

As Jester comes to life, the Coast Guard is putting one of its longest-serving cutters to pasture.

Originally commissioned in 1954 just as Buoy Boat CG-65400-D, the USCGC Bayberry (WLI 65400) picked up her name a few years later when the service authorized naming vessels 65 feet long or larger.

Captained by a senior chief petty officer and crewed by seven other enlisted, she had been working hard from San Francisco to Washington to Oak Island where she has been stationed since 2009. The “Keeper of Cape Fear” was just decommissioned after 69 years of service.

The Cutter Bayberry sits at a pier at Station Oak Island, N.C. Jun. 7, 2023, before its special status ceremony to signify the beginning of it being decommissioned after 69 years of active Coast Guard service. The Bayberry was built by Reliable Welding Works in Olympia, Washington. U.S. Coast Guard Photo by Petty Officer 2nd class Katie Lipe.

As noted by the USCG:

The Bayberry’s recent accomplishments include post-hurricane Dorian operations, where the crew led a waterways reconstitution mission, completed a complex voyage correcting 40 aids to navigation discrepancies, enabling the rapid resumption of ferry service, and facilitating the delivery of emergency supplies to 700 residents stranded on Ocracoke Island.

In typical Coast Guard fashion, Bayberry is to be replaced by the rather stalled 35-vessel Waterways Commerce Cutter program, which is far from its first delivery.

Warship Wednesday, June 7, 2023: Shutterbug SSK

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Here at LSOZI, we take off every Wednesday for a look at the old steam/diesel navies of the 1833-1954 period and will profile a different ship each week. These ships have a life, a tale all their own, which sometimes takes them to the strangest places.- Christopher Eger

Warship Wednesday, June 7, 2023: Shutterbug SSK

Time-Life Archives, Bernard Hoffman, photographer, from a series that ran in LIFE in 1943 entitled, How to Build a Submarine.

Above we see a fantastic original Kodachrome from 80 years ago of a female shipyard worker at Electric Boat in New London with an acetylene torch near the forward escape hatch of a building Gato-class submarine. Inscribed on the hatch is the hull number SS-243, making this the future USS Bream.

A couple of other great shots from that day, seemingly centered on the rear hatch: 

About the Gatos

One of the 77 Gatos cranked out by four shipyards from 1940 to 1944 for the U.S. Navy, they were impressive 311-foot long fleet boats, diesel-electric submarines capable of extended operations in the far reaches of the Pacific.

Able to swim an impressive 11,000 nautical miles on their economical power plant while still having room for 24 (often cranky) torpedoes. A 3-inch deck gun served for surface action in poking holes in vessels deemed not worth a torpedo while a few .50 and .30-cal machine guns provided the illusion of an anti-aircraft armament.

A development of the Tambor-class submarines, they were the first fleet boats able to plumb to 300 feet test depth, then the deepest that U.S. Navy submersibles were rated.

Meet Bream

Our subject, Bream, was the only U.S. Navy ship to carry the name of the “A common food and game fish of the carp family typically found in lakes and slow rivers,” as noted by DANFS.

USS Bream (SS 243), insignia, showing a fish nipping a horned Japanese admiral. Photographed by Lieutenant Commander Charles Jacobs, USN, on 14 August 1943, at her builder’s yard, the Electric Boat Company, Groton, Connecticut. National Archives photograph: 80-G-468313.

Built by Electric Boat Co. of Groton, Connecticut, she commissioned on 24 January 1944, one of the staggering 74 submarines and 398 PT boats EB made for Uncle during WWII.

Her first skipper was LCDR Wreford Goss “Moon” Chapple (USNA 1930), a former heavyweight boxing champion at Annapolis who had already earned two Navy Crosses and two Silver Stars in command of the submarines USS S-38 and USS Permit.

To tell you a bit about Chapple, he was officially reprimanded in February 1942 for bringing 40 officers and men out of besieged Corregidor, pulled on the carpet because of the gross overcrowding on his little boat. Here, he is seen with his wife, Mrs. Chapple, who was the boat’s sponsor, and son, at Bream’s christening. (EBCo Photo)

Following shakedown and exercises on the East Coast and off Panama, Bream crossed “The Ditch” into the Pacific in April 1944 then made for Seeadler Harbor in the Admiralties by way of Australia.

From Seeadler, she put to sea on 29 May for her 1st War Patrol, loaded with Mark 23 torpedoes for the Morotai Strait.

Chasing down contacts and avoiding Japanese sub busters, she made two unsuccessful attacks on passing convoys in early June before hitting paydirt on 16 June when she torpedoed and sank the Japanese army cargo ships Yuki Maru (5704 GRT) and Hinode Maru (1916 GRT) off Halmahera Island. Bream promptly got 25 depth charges dropped on her roof in exchange.

From her patrol report:

Bream ended her 1st War Patrol at Manus on 29 June then put back out for an unsuccessful 2nd War Patrol, south of the Philippines, three weeks later that ended in early September with a return to Australia.

Her 3rd War Patrol would be much more fruitful.

Heading out on 2 October, Moon, besides his command on Bream, was commander for a submarine “search and attack group” (Yankee wolfpack) consisting of USS Raton (SS-270) and USS Guitarro (SS-363), bound for a patrol in the central Philippines, where they would be joined briefly by USS Ray (SS-271).

On the 23rd, Bream torpedoed and damaged the 9,000-ton Japanese heavy cruiser Aoba off Manila Bay, with one of six torpedoes hitting the warship’s No. 2 engine room. In return, the cruiser’s escorts dropped 32 depth charges on our boat.

From Bream’s patrol report:

The heavily damaged Japanese cruiser Aoba 

Aoba limped into Cavite Navy Yard near Manila for emergency repairs. She would eventually make it back, slowly, to Kure but her damage was deemed irreparable and she never sailed again. Related to a floating AAA battery, Aoba was later sent to the bottom there at the hands of TF 38 carrier aircraft.

On 24 October, Bream ran across floating debris that included several dead bodies (listed by Moon as “non-survivors”) and six Japanese who they took prisoner after one sailor, White, “showed unusual solicitude in diving overboard to retrieve one who slipped back into the water.”

From her patrol report:

These EPOWs were quartered in the forward torpedo room and then transferred to Australia-bound sister USS Cod (SS-224) five days later, with Moon noting in his ship’s log “Cod was not too crazy about the Japs.”

Then, on 4 November, the Bream-Guitarro-Ray wolfpack shared the sinking of the Japanese seaplane tender/transport Kagu Maru (6806 GRT), picked off from convoy TAMA-31A off Dasol Bay, Philippines. The poor Kagu Maru, carrying troops of the 218th Naval Construction Unit, had no chance, being hit by one of four torpedoes from Bream, then one of eight torpedoes from Guitarro, and finally two of two from Ray in a third attack.

During the November 4 attack, Bream was also attacked by a Japanese plane, which dropped two bombs that resulted in a near miss that nonetheless caused some flooding and damage to our boat.

From her patrol report:

Two days later, on 6 November, the pack found the Japanese heavy cruiser Kumano west of Lingayen.

From her patrol report:

Japanese heavy cruiser Kumano anchored at Rabaul, with a Mitsubishi F1M Pete reconnaissance seaplane in the foreground, December 4-5, 1942

Part of the cover force for convoy MATA-31, Kumano had narrowly avoided the submarine USS Batfish the day prior but, out of a staggering 23 torpedoes fired from the Bream-Guitarro-Ray-Raton wolfpack, two made good, blowing off the cruiser’s bow section and flooding all her engine rooms. Dead in the water, Kumano had to be towed into Dasol Bay with an 11-degree list. Towed from there to Santa Cruz harbor, she was found still under repair on 25 November by aircraft from the carrier USS Ticonderoga and bombed to the bottom of the harbor.

By that time, Bream’s submariners were already throwing back a cold one in Australia and returned home early.

Her third patrol ended after just 52 days (35 submerged), with Bream traveling 10,833 miles. Her primary reason for calling it quits early was that she only had three torpedoes left. It would be her most successful patrol.

There, plankowner skipper Moon Chapple was pulled from his boat, given a Gold Star in lieu of the Second Silver Star Medal, and sent back to New London to become a tactics instructor at the Submarine School, replaced by LCDR James Lowell Page McCallum.

Targets thinned out notably by this stage of the war, with most subs managing only to bag the occasional coaster or trawler via surface action as the small fry wasn’t worth wasting a torpedo on. For instance, Bream on 14 March 1945 bagged the auxiliary submarine chaser Keihin Maru (76 GRT) in a surface action in the Java Sea, while on her 5th War Patrol, after adding no tonnage on her 4th Patrol in early 1945.

An extensive depth charging in March that cut her 5th Patrol short led to the submarine’s periscopes, her starboard shaft, and both of her screws being replaced in Freemantle, a patch job that was done in three weeks. She was thought capable of another patrol and sortied out on 20 April.

On her 6th War Patrol, Bream came across the German minesweeper/submarine depot ship Quito (1230 GRT) off Borneo’s Tanjong Puttion on 29 April, just a week away from VE Day. Loaded with fuel for Monsoon U-boats, she had been steaming from the oil fields of Balikpapan for Jakarta, and, with her daily position reports intercepted by the Navy’s FRUMEL unit in Melbourne, she was never going to make it.

From her patrol report:

The next day, a severely burned survivor from Quito, picked up by the submarine USS Besugo (SS-321), passed on the identity of the fireball that Bream had sent to the bottom.

Later on the same patrol, Bream was given orders to recon the anchorage at Miri in Japanese-occupied Borneo, where she found no shipping but was spotted by a passing American B-24 who got overly excited. As noted in her war history, “USS Bream made the big time on the 22nd when a U.S. Army plane reported her as a carrier, but still no targets. No flight pay either.”

She was also pressed into duty as a minelayer, sowing 23 Mark 12 mines off Pulo Ob in the Gulf of Siam on 8-9 May. Ironically, she would have to get really involved in navigating such fields directly after.

While on lifeguard duty in the Philippines in late May, she picked up the pilot of a downed USAAF P-51 Mustang on the 19th “after barreling through a minefield at four main engine speed,” then negotiated a different minefield on the 26th to pluck four survivors of a downed B-25 bomber from the water. The patrol report noted, “We are mighty ready to get these boys but wish they wouldn’t pick the minefields to ditch in.”

After 18 months and six hard charging patrols, during which she received rail cars full of depth charges and at least two air-dropped bombs, Bream was in need of refit and left Saipan in June 1945 for Bethlehem Steel Company shipyard at San Francisco.

She stopped off at Pearl on the way and a series of photos, taken by Photographer’s Mate First Class L. Strawger, likely stationed ashore rather than part of her crew, were taken. It is rare that images of wartime Gatos exist, and these are some of the best, despite their poor condition.

USS Bream (SS 243) entering Pearl Harbor after a successful war patrol. Photographed by Photographer’s Mate First Class L. Strawger, 15 June 1945. 80-G-325193

USS Bream (SS 243) entering Pearl Harbor after a successful war patrol. Photographed by Photographer’s Mate First Class L. Strawger, 15 June 1945. 80-G-325192

Note her rough appearance. Hard to believe she is only been in the fleet for 18 months at the time this image was snapped. This is a fighting submarine! USS Bream (SS 243) entering Pearl Harbor after a successful war patrol. Photographed by Photographer’s Mate First Class L. Strawger, 15 June 1945. The two large ships directly behind the sub at the center of the photo are both later Baltimore class cruisers.

USS Bream (SS 243) entering Pearl Harbor after a successful war patrol. View of the conning tower. Note her homeward-bound pennant and mounted Oerlikons. Photographed by Photographer’s Mate First Class L. Strawger, 15 June 1945. 80-G-325197

At the Pearl Harbor submarine base, crew members touch up the rusted areas on USS Bream (SS 243), which has just completed a successful war patrol. Note her 5″/25. Photographed by Photographer’s Mate First Class L. Strawger, 15 June 1945. 80-G-325172

Another great view of the 5″/25. At the Pearl Harbor submarine base, crew members touch up the rusted areas on USS Bream (SS 243), which has just completed a successful war patrol. Photographed by Photographer’s Mate First Class L. Strawger, 15 June 1945. 80-G-325173

USS Bream (SS 243). Crew members inside torpedo tube. Photographed by Photographer’s Mate First Class L. Strawger, 15 June 1945. 80-G-325176

USS Bream (SS 243). Crew members in engine room spaces. Note the “patrol beard” and the snipe chewing a cigar. Talk about old-school Navy! Photographed by Photographer’s Mate First Class L. Strawger, 15 June 1945. 80-G-325181

In true Navy tradition, shipmates of John O. Tibs toss him overboard from USS Bream (SS 243) at Pearl Harbor, Territory of Hawaii, on his promotion to Chief Machinist’s Mate. Photographed by Photographer’s Mate First Class L. Strawger, 15 June 1945. 80-G-495544

Bream was in San Francisco on VJ Day. Following her refit, she was decommissioned there on 31 January 1946 and was placed in reserve.

Bream earned four battle stars for her World War II service.

Cold War

After five years in mothballs, war came again and Bream was dusted off for Korea, then, along with six other sisters– USS Angler (SS-240), USS Grouper (SS-214), USS Bashaw (SS-241), USS Bluegill (SS-242), USS Cavalla (SS-244), and USS Croaker (SS-246), she was selected to become a submarine hunter-killer (SSK) via an SCB 58 conversion, sometimes called a “Grouper conversion” after the first boat that underwent the transition from fleet boat to SSK.

Comparing Fleet Boat Gato to SSK Gato. Forgive the bend in the page. The SSK conversion did not have that crazy hull deformity

As noted by DANFS:

As a part of the Navy’s fleet expansion program in response to the communist invasion of the Republic of Korea, Bream was recommissioned on 5 June 1951 and reported to Submarine Squadron 3, Pacific Fleet. From June 1951 until August 1952, she was engaged in type training and provided services to the Fleet Sonar School at San Diego. She was decommissioned once again on 10 September 1952 to undergo conversion to an antisubmarine “killer” submarine at the San Francisco Naval Shipyard.

The conversion included the installation of a snorkel, which enabled her to take in air and operate her diesel engines while submerged. In addition, her conning tower was streamlined, the habitability of the crew’s living spaces was improved, and special sonar listening equipment was installed. The warship was redesignated SSK-243 in February 1953. Bream was placed back in commission on 20 June 1953.

USS Bream (SSK-243) photographed during the 1950s. Description: Courtesy of Commander Donald J. Robinson, USN (MSC), 1974. Catalog #: NH 78980

USS Bream (SS-243) USN 1042361

Our new SSK would spend the next decade on a series of training, exercises, antisubmarine warfare tactical development duty, and West Pac cruises. Shifting her homeport to Pearl Harbor in 1956, she roamed the largest ocean Pacific spanning from Adak, Alaska to Aukland, New Zealand, and from Hong Kong to Pago Pago, notably spending both Christmas Day 1957 and 1962 in Yokosuka.

Bream (SS-243) is seen here on 1 January 1962 off the coast of Hawaii. The fairwater has been streamlined and all guns removed. Also, she has been fitted with an enlarged sonar dome on her bow. USN Archives photo # USN-1039531 courtesy of All Hands magazine by the Naval Historical Center, April 2002, pg. 47 & submitted by Bill Gonyo. Text courtesy of The Floating Drydock, Fleet Subs of WW II” by Thomas F. Walkowiak.

In April 1964, Bream was reclassified as an auxiliary submarine (AGSS-243), as were most of her remaining sisters still in U.S. Navy in service, and switched primarily from duty as a warfighting submarine to a training boat, largely in conjunction with ASW assets such as destroyers and patrol aircraft as an OPFOR. This included a trip to Vietnam in late 1965 as well as three extended WestPac deployments to perform the same services to allies in the South Korean, Taiwanese, and Philippine fleets.

Bream (AGSS-243) underway in the Pacific in the late 1960s, via Navsource.

With time not kind to these old WWII-era diesel boats, and the Navy desperately wanting to be SSN-only, Bream was slated to decommission in 1969. On 28 June, she and four sisters– USS Bluegill (AGSS 242), 1944 Wolfpack pal USS Raton (AGSS 270), USS Tunny (AGSS 282), and USS Charr (AGSS 328), were decommissioned on the same day.

Raton (AGSS-270) and Bluegill (AGSS-242) during the decommissioning ceremony at Mare Island on 28 June 1969. Bream (AGSS-243), Tunny (AGS-282) and Charr (AGSS-328) are forward of Raton and Bluegill. Chara (AE-31) is in the background. Photo courtesy of the Vallejo Naval and Historical Museum via Darryl L. Baker. Via Navsource.

In a fitting allegory that there would be no going back for these old “smoke boats,” Bream was struck from the Naval Register and sunk as a target, on 7 November 1969, sent to the bottom in tests of the new Mk48 heavyweight torpedo by the Skipjack-class nuclear-powered submarine USS Sculpin (SSN 590).

Epilogue

Almost all of Bream’s war patrol reports, war history, and Cold War-era logbooks are digitized in the National Archives and sometimes make very entertaining reading.

Her battle flag is one of 49 preserved in the Submarine Force Library and Museum and is certainly colorful.

Note her six service stripes for her patrols, the minelaying flag, the Swazi for the German ship Quito, two rising suns for the two Japanese cruisers she accounted for, and the lifeguard flag for the five Army aviators she plucked from the Japanese minefields off Takao in the PI. Note that she is seen sailing into the setting sun. She had a busy 18 months.

As for her WWII skipper, “Moon” Chapple commanded the heavy cruiser USS Pittsburgh in the Korean War and would go on to retire as a rear admiral in 1959. He died in 1991, aged 83.

One of Bream’s Cold War era crewmembers, EM1 Bob Droke, a shutterbug who later became a commercial photographer, has a great collection of period images from Bream on Flickr. 

1955-57 USS Bream at Sea photo by Bob Droke

USS Bream, docked at Pearl Harbor, photo by Bob Droke

As for her sisters, other Gatos lived on, although an amazing 20 were lost in the Pacific during WWII. The last two Gato-class boats active in the US Navy were USS Rock (SS-274) and Bashaw (SS-241), which were both decommissioned on 13 September 1969 and sold for scrap. Nine went to overseas allies with the last, USS Guitarro (SS-363) serving the Turkish Navy as TCG Preveze (S 340) in one form or another until 1983.

A full half-dozen Gatos are preserved in the U.S. so please visit them when you can:

  • USS Cavalla is at Seawolf Park near Galveston, Texas
  • USS Cobia is at the Wisconsin Maritime Museum in Manitowoc, Wisconsin
  • USS Cod is on display in Cleveland
  • USS Croaker is on display in Buffalo, New York
  • USS Drum is on display on shore at Battleship Memorial Park in Mobile, Alabama
  • USS Silversides is on display in Muskegon, Michigan

Two of these, Cavalla and Croaker, are rare SSK Gato conversions, like Bream, while Cod and our boat were liked via the POW incident.

Ships are more than steel
and wood
And heart of burning coal,
For those who sail upon
them know
That some ships have a
soul.

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‘Just’ 11,400 Hours

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The last Norwegian Lockheed P-3 Orion mission is planned for the end of the month, ending a 54-year-long era of the converted Electra airliners turned sub-busters. The service still has six airframes, the four P-3C IIIs (delivered in 1989) and two P-3N (modified former P-3Bs delivered in 1969) of the historic No. 333 Sqn, based at Andøya Air Station.

They are being replaced by new P-8 Poseidon.

Also taking his last flight in Norwegian service is Major Leif Otterholms, who has flown P-3s since 1985, the last 20 years as TACCO. All in all, he has logged over 11,400 flight hours.

An impressive career, for sure. 

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