Balao class

Balao class
USS Archerfish
Overview
Type	Diesel submarine
units	122 built 0 active 11 war losses 9 museum ships
1. Period of service
Technical specifications
displacement	1526 ts (surfaced) 2424 ts (submerged)
length	KWL : 93.60 m Lüa : 95.33 m
width	8.31 m
Draft	4.60 m (surfaced)
Diving depth	Test depth: 140 m, maximum depth: 187 m
crew	60 men (planned) to 91 men (war effort)
drive	4 × 1350 HP diesel engines (5400 HP total power) 4 × 685 HP electric motors (2740 HP total power)
speed	20.25 knots (surfaced) 8.75 knots ( surfaced )
Range	11,000  nautical miles at 10 knots (above water) 95 nautical miles at 5 kn (underwater) Dive time: 48 hours.
Armament	6 bow torpedo tubes ∅ 53.3 cm 4 stern torpedo tubes ∅ 53.3 cm 24 torpedoes 40 sea ​​mines (optional) 1 deck gun (10.2 cm or 12.7 cm) 2 anti-aircraft cannons 20 mm (some 40 mm)

The Balao class was a class of diesel submarines of the US Navy in the Second World War . With 122 (other sources name 128) boats built between 1942 and 1945, it is still the largest class of submarines in the US Navy. In the course of the Second World War , eleven boats of this class were lost due to enemy action or for unknown reasons. Nine units of this type have been preserved as museum ships, and two of them - the USS Becuna (SS-319) and the USS Lionfish (SS-298)  - have been registered as National Historic Landmarks on the National Register of Historic Places .

history

The boats of the Balao class were developed from the Gato class , with particular emphasis on greater diving depth. In 1942, the construction contract for the first of the originally planned 256 submarines was issued, building yards were Portsmouth Navy Yard , Manitowoc, Electric Boat , Mare Island Navy Yard and Cramp Shipbuilding. 122 submarines had been completed by the end of the war, and orders for ten more were canceled. The remaining boats ordered were assigned to the Tench class , which was built as a further development of the Balao class from 1943. The lead ship of the class, the USS Balao , was laid down in June 1942, launched in October of that year and was put into service on February 4, 1943 as the first boat of the class.

Almost all boats of this class were used in the Pacific theater of war and, together with the boats of the Gato class, carried the brunt of the US submarine war against Japan . The submarines achieved great success here, for example US submarines sank 2,451,914 GRT Japanese merchant shipping space in 1944 alone  . By the end of the war in 1945, Japanese losses from submarine attacks amounted to around 4,860,000 GRT (about 56 percent of all Japanese merchant shipping space losses in the entire war). In the last two years of the war, the Balao- class boats also operated in submarine packs , similar to the German submarines in the Battle of the Atlantic . The most successful American submarine of World War II with 33 ship sinkings, the USS  Tang , belonged to this class. A boat of this type, the USS  Archer-Fish , was responsible for the sinking of the Japanese aircraft carrier Shinano , the largest warship sunk by a submarine. A total of eleven boats of this class were lost in the course of the war.

The last boat in the class was the USS  Tiru , whose construction was stopped at the end of the war. The unfinished boat was then rebuilt in the Greater Underwater Propulsion Power Program (GUPPY) and put into service in a more modern configuration in 1948. 51 other boats of the class were also modernized in the GUPPY program after the war. Some of the submarines were converted into guided missile carriers. One boat, the USS  Burrfish , was converted into a radar outpost submarine in 1949 as part of the Migraine I program .

Most of the Balao- class submarines were decommissioned at the end of the war, but some were reactivated at the end of the 1940s and then remained in service until the 1960s. Some of the modernized boats remained in service until the 1970s. Several boats were handed over to the navies of friendly nations.

technology

Propulsion and hull

The hull of the Balaos was a maximum of 95.33 meters long, the length in the waterline was 93.6 meters. With a width of 8.3 meters and a draft of 4.6 meters, the surfaced boats displaced 1,526  ts , submerged the displacement was 2424 ts. The pressure hull was made of high-strength steel with a thickness of 2.2 centimeters and was therefore about half a centimeter thicker than the pressure hull of the previous class. The maximum permitted diving depth was 450  ft (almost 140 m). However, in tests with the USS  Tang , diving depths of up to 187 m were reached.

It was driven by two propeller shafts. Four diesel engines , either 16-cylinder engines from General Motors or 10-cylinder engines from Fairbanks-Morse , which were coupled to generators, delivered an output of 1350 hp each, which means a speed of 20.25 knots (37. 5 km / h) has been reached. The bunkers held a total of 440 cubic meters of diesel fuel , which allowed a maximum range of 11,000 nautical miles and a maximum duration of 75 days. Under water, the drive was carried out by four electric motors from General Electric or Elliott Company with a total of 2740 hp. The energy was drawn from two 126-cell batteries from Exide , which could provide energy for up to 48 hours. The maximum speed under water was 8.75 knots.

Armament and Electronics

View of the torpedo tubes of the Bowfin , now a museum ship

The main armament of the submarines were ten 533 mm torpedo tubes , six of which were housed in the bow and four in the stern. There was space on board for 24 torpedoes . Optionally, up to 40 sea ​​mines could also be carried. The deck gun armament was partly inconsistent. In front of the turret there was originally a 10.2 cm gun, this was later replaced by a more powerful 12.7 cm gun as a test, which, however, due to the relatively high weight of the shell and the long barrel (L / 51) not particularly proven. As a result, a shorter 12.7 cm L / 25 gun was also used on some boats. The anti-aircraft armament initially consisted of two 20 mm Oerlikon cannons and two light 7.62 mm machine guns. In the later course of the war, the 20-mm guns were mostly replaced by 40-mm Bofors cannons (one single mount in front and one aft of the command tower) and two heavy 12.7-mm machine guns. However, the anti-aircraft armament was also not uniform and the equipment could vary from boat to boat.

For locating enemy ships submarines possessed the class via a JK / QC - and a QB -Sonar under the bow, on deck were JP - hydrophones installed. An SD radar with a detection range of 20 nautical miles to locate enemy aircraft was attached to the extendable electronic mast , and the Balaos also had an SJ surface search radar with a range of around 12 nautical miles. When submerged, enemy ships could also be located via the ST radar with a range of 8 nautical miles attached to the periscope .

Movie

In the 1959 comedy Company Petticoat , which parodies the chaotic events on the Pacific Front from late 1941 to early 1942, the fictional submarine USS Sea Tiger plays the leading role. The film was shot with a total of three Balao-class submarines, including the USS Balao itself.

The film Mission: Free the Pipe! was shot on a Balao-class museum ship.

Web links

Commons : Balao class  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Balao class. In: globalsecurity.org (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c} SS-285 Balao. In: globalsecurity.org. Retrieved May 30, 2016.
2. ^ Balao class. In: uboat.net. Retrieved May 30, 2016 . 
3. ↑ USS Becuna (Submarine). In: tps.cr.nps.gov. National Historic Landmark Program, archived from the original on October 22, 2010 ; accessed on May 30, 2016 (English). 
4. ↑ ^{a b} Helmut Pemsel: Sea rule. A maritime world history from steam navigation to the present . Volume 2. Weltbild Verlag. Augsburg 1995, p. 732.
5. ↑ Focus On: The USS Tang. In: nationalww2museum.org. The National WWII Museum, accessed May 30, 2016 . 
6. ^ Edward C. Whitman: US Radar Picket Submarines: Cold War Curiosities. In: navy.mil. United States Navy, December 4, 2012, archived from the original on August 15, 2009 ; accessed on May 30, 2016 (English). 
7. ↑ Richard H. O'Kane: Clear the Bridge! The War Patrols of the USS Tang . Presidio Press, Chicago 1977, p. 40 (English).
8. ↑ Balao Class - Balao Class Specifications. In: fleetsubmarine.com. Fleet Submarine, accessed May 30, 2016 .