USS Grayback (SS-208)

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USS Grayback (SS-208) during World War II, 1941
USS Grayback (SS-208) during World War II, 1941
Overview
Shipyard

Electric Boat Corporation , Groton (City) , Connecticut

Keel laying April 3, 1940
Launch January 31, 1941
1. Period of service flag
period of service

June 30, 1941 - February 27, 1944

Whereabouts sunk on February 27, 1944 near Okinawa
Technical specifications
displacement

1475  ts surfaced
2370 ts submerged

length

93.6 meters

width

8.3 meters

Draft

4.45 meters (maximum)

Diving depth 76 meters
crew

6 officers ,
54 NCOs and
men

drive

4 × 1350 PS diesel engines
(total 5400 PS)
4 × electric motors
(total 2740 PS)

speed

Surfaced 20.4 knots submerged
8.75 knots

Range

11,000  nautical miles at 10 knots

Armament

10 × 53.3 cm torpedo tubes
(6 in the bow; 4 in the stern)
1 × 7.6 cm (3 inch) gun

USS Grayback (SS-208) was a submarine of the Tambor-class of the United States Navy . She was in service from 1941 to 1944.

She was the first submarine of the United States Navy, after the fish American whitefish , lat. Coregonus artedi , engl. Grayback , was named.

history

She was keeled at the Electric Boat Corporation in Groton , Connecticut. The launch took place on January 31, 1940. Godmother was the wife of Admiral Wilson Brown .

Her first in command was Lt. Willard Arthur Saunders.

The Grayback was subordinate to the Atlantic Fleet for sea trials as well as for training trips and first patrols .

Second World War

After the USA entered the war , the Grayback was ordered to Pearl Harbor , where it arrived on February 8, 1942. In total, the submarine completed 10 combat missions in the Pacific theater of war. Due to Japanese enemy action, the boat sank on February 27, 1944 under Commander JA Moore. On March 30, 1944, the US Pacific Fleet Command ComSubPac classified the boat as missing and had to assume the loss of the entire crew of 81 submarine drivers of the SS-208.

Whereabouts

The Japanese Navy has archival records of the sinking of the SS-208. Due to an earlier translation error, the wreck was searched for in the wrong place for decades. On November 10, 2019, the private research group Lost 52 announced that they had discovered the wreck of the Grayback off the coast of Okinawa on June 5, 2019. The boat lies in an upright position at a depth of approx. 430 m and has clearly visible bomb hits.

Web links

Commons : USS Grayback (SS-208)  - Collection of images, videos, and audio files

Footnotes

  1. ^ A b c d Norman Friedman: US Submarines Through 1945: An Illustrated Design History . United States Naval Institute, Annapolis, Maryland 1995, ISBN 1-55750-263-3 , pp. 285-304.
  2. ↑ Lost52.org Grayback History. Retrieved November 13, 2019 .
  3. ^ A b c Norman Friedman: US Submarines Through 1945: An Illustrated Design History . United States Naval Institute, Annapolis, Maryland 1995, ISBN 1-55750-263-3 , pp. 305-312.
  4. ↑ a b [1] at navsource.org.
  5. ^ Submarine Photo Index. Retrieved November 13, 2019 .
  6. ^ Grayback (SS-208) of the US Navy - American Submarine of the Gar class - Allied Warships of WWII - uboat.net. Retrieved November 13, 2019 .
  7. ↑ http://lost52.org/ Lost 52 Project
  8. ^ Grayback Expedition 2019. Retrieved November 13, 2019 .