USS Becuna (SS-319)

USS Becuna (SS-319) after surrendering in May 1944
Overview
Order	?
Keel laying	April 29, 1943
Launch	January 30, 1944
1. Period of service
Commissioning	May 27, 1944
Decommissioning	November 7, 1969
Whereabouts	Museum ship
Technical specifications
displacement	1526  tn.l. surfaced 2424 tn.l. submerged
length	95.1 m (312 ft)
width	8.3 m (27 ft)
Draft	4.57 m (15 ft)
crew	8 officers, 72 NCOs and men
drive	4 × 1350 PS diesel engines 4 × electric motors (total 2740 PS)
speed	20 knots surfaced 9 knots surfaced
Armament	6 × torpedo tubes bow, 4 × torpedo tubes aft, a total of 24 torpedoes, 1 × 127 mm on-board cannon

The USS BECUNA (SS-319) is a submarine of the Balao-class submarine , which the United States Navy during World War II in the Pacific War was used. The boat is named after a species of barracuda (Sphyraena spet) native to the North Atlantic. Since 1996 it has been open to the public as a museum ship in the Independence Seaport Museum in Philadelphia and has been recognized as a National Historic Landmark since January 1986 .

history

construction

The boat was laid down at the Electric Boat Shipyard in Groton, Connecticut on April 29, 1943 , and was launched on January 30, 1944. The USS Becuna was christened by Mrs. George C. Crawford, wife of the first in command, and commissioned on May 27, 1944.

(For the technique, see Balao class .)

commitment

Pacific War

The Becuna left the Naval Submarine Base New London (Connecticut) on July 1, 1944 in the direction of Pearl Harbor , which she reached after crossing the Panama Canal on July 29. She set out on her first patrol on August 23, and on September 1 arrested a Japanese soldier in a small boat that was later brought ashore and sank it with machine gun salvos. The submarine carried out its first attack on a small Japanese convoy on September 25, but there are no reports of damage caused. It damaged the tanker Kimikawa Maru on October 8 , and four ships, the San Luis Maru and Tokuwa Maru tankers and two unidentified freighters on the 17th . The Tokuwa Maru was later sunk by another submarine. Becuna left Fremantle , Australia for her second patrol trip on November 16, 1944. In January 1945, she sank two unidentified Japanese 300 and 800 t transport ships with the on-board cannon. In February, the boat left Fremantle on its third patrol and sank the Nichiyoku Maru tanker that same month . In May it left Fremantle for the fourth, and on June 21 for its fifth patrol. On July 15, it unsuccessfully attacked an Otori-class torpedo boat . For further service in the Pacific Fleet it called on September 22nd in San Diego .

post war period

In 1949 the Becuna was moved to the Atlantic fleet and modernized in New London in August 1951 as part of the GUPPY-1A program . In March 1961 and the same month of 1963, she operated on Cabot Street during the ice season . In the summer of 1963 she was relocated to Northern Europe and the Mediterranean for activities with the 6th US Fleet , and then called at various ports in England in the autumn. The submarine was overhauled in the Navy Yard in Philadelphia in November 1964 and relocated to the 6th US Fleet in the summer of 1965. It was decommissioned on November 7, 1969, and removed from the Navy register on August 15, 1973.

monument

On June 21, 1976 it was given to the Cruiser Olympia Association in Philadelphia as a submarine memorial and finally on January 1, 1996 it was officially part of the Independence Seaport Museum of Philadelphia. In August 1978, the Becuna was registered as a structure on the National Register of Historic Places .

USS Becuna with the USS Olympia in the background

Web links

Commons : USS Becuna  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• becuna.com
• hnsa.org

Individual evidence

1. ^ Independence Seaport Museum in Philadelphia ( Memento of May 10, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
2. ↑ Becuna, USS (Submarine) ( Memento October 22, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) in the National Historic Landmark Program. Retrieved January 28, 2015.
   Listing of National Historic Landmarks by State: Pennsylvania. National Park Service , accessed February 11, 2020.
3. ^ Guppy 1A. ss-407.net
4. ↑ USS BECUNA (SS-319) in the National Register Information System. National Park Service , accessed February 11, 2020.

Coordinates: 39 ° 56 '36.8 "  N , 75 ° 8' 28.2"  W.