USS Pampanito (SS-383)

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USS Pampanito
USS Pampanito
Overview
Keel laying March 15, 1943
Launch July 12, 1943
1. Period of service flag
Whereabouts Museum ship
Technical specifications
displacement

1525 ts surfaced
2415 ts submerged

length

95.0 meters

width

8.3 meters

Draft

4.6 meters

Diving depth 120 meters
crew

6 officers, 60 sailors

speed

23 knots surfaced
11 knots surfaced
Range

11,000  nautical miles (10 kn)

Armament
  • 6 bow torpedo tubes
  • 4 stern torpedo tubes
  • 40-mm and 20-mm flak

The USS Pampanito (SS-383) is a submarine of the Balao-class submarine , which the United States Navy in the Pacific War during World War II was used. Today it is moored as a museum ship in Fisherman's Wharf in the port of San Francisco .

history

The USS Pampanito was built in 1943 at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in New Hampshire . On November 6, 1943, the boat entered service under the command of Lieutenant Commander Charles B. Jackson, Jr. During her career, the USS Pampanito was also commanded by Commander Paul E. Summers and Lieutenant Commander Frank W. Fenno. During the Second World War, the boat completed six operations, in the course of which six Japanese ships were sunk and four others were damaged.

Already during the first venture, the boat narrowly escaped sinking after being discovered by escort ships while chasing a Japanese convoy. In the ensuing depth charge pursuit of the USS was Pampanito severely damaged. In the following venture, some torpedoes of unknown origin only narrowly missed the submarine.

On September 12, 1944, the USS Pampanito sank the Japanese "ship of hell " Kachidoki Maru , which had 900 US prisoners of war on board, during its third operation . Two days later, the Pampanito returned to the sinking site and took in 73 shipwrecked people who had been prisoners of war on board another, also sunk “ship of hell”. The Rakuyo Maru had been sunk a few days earlier by the USS Sealion , also a Balao boat. The ship had 1,300 prisoners of war on board, of whom a total of 295 were rescued, 159 of them by their own armed forces. 656 of the US soldiers who were on board the Kachidoki Maru were picked up by Japanese ships and interned in Japan. Around 500 of them were freed from their own troops at the end of the war.

In November 1944, several Japanese ships were sunk in the Pacific by a massed contingent of US submarines, some of which were based on a type of group tactic known as wolfpack (see also " pack tactics "). The USS Pampanito sank a ship with 1,200 GRT.

The submarine was last deployed in the spring of 1945 under the command of Lieutenant Commander Summers. The boat patrolled between Luzon and the Kuril archipelago in February , where Commander Summers sank two Japanese ships with a total of 10,488 GRT.

On December 15, 1945, the submarine was decommissioned. In 1962, however , the USS Pamponito was reactivated and served as the training ship of the United States Navy Reserve until December 20, 1971 . The boat was finally decommissioned on December 20, 1971 and handed over to the National Maritime Museum Association in 1976 . On March 15, 1982, the boat was opened to the public as a museum ship .

The USS Pampanito is currently on the quayside at Fisherman's Wharf in the port of San Francisco and can be visited. The boat was featured in the 1996 film Mission: Rohr frei! used, which is about a World War II submarine being reactivated for a secret mission. Since the submarine can no longer be moved on its own, the USS Pampanito was towed for some scenes.

Web links

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

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Jürgen Rohwer , Gerhard Hümmelchen : "Chronik des Seekrieges 1939-1945" , Manfred Pawlak Verlagsgesellschaft under license from Gerhard Stalling Verlag, Herrsching 1968, ISBN 3-88199-0097 , page 500
  2. ^ Jürgen Rohwer , Gerhard Hümmelchen : "Chronik des Seekrieges 1939-1945" , Manfred Pawlak Verlagsgesellschaft under license from Gerhard Stalling Verlag, Herrsching 1968, ISBN 3-88199-0097 , page 523
  3. ↑ Information on "Mission: Rohr Frei!" On imdb.com