Gato class submarine

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Gato class attack submarine

Class Overview
Class Type	Diesel-Electric Submarine
Class Name	Gato (a species of shark)
Preceded By	Tambor-class submarine
Succeeded By	Balao-class submarine
Ships of the Class:	A complete list of Gato-class submarines is below.

The Gato-class submarine was the state of the art in American design at the start of World War II. Using the previous Tambor-class submarine as a basis, Gatos incorporated improvements to increase their overall patrol and combat abilities. Modifications to the diesel engines and batteries increased patrol duration over Tambors, and internal alterations provided more amenities for the crew. The class is named after its lead ship, USS Gato (SS-212).

Several Gatos are on display in the United States. For instance, Cobia (SS-245) is at the Wisconsin Maritime Museum.

1 General characteristics
2 A few highlights
3 Boats
4 See also
5 External link

[edit] General characteristics

Displacement: 1526 tons (1550 t) surfaced,
2424 tons (2460 t) submerged
Length: 307 ft (93.6 m) waterline, 311 ft 9 in (95.0 m) overall
Beam: 27 ft 3 in (8.31 m)
Draft: 15 ft 3 in (4.65 m)
Test depth: 300 ft (90 m)
Speed: 20¼ knots (37.5 km/h) surfaced, 8¾ knots (16 km/h) submerged
Armament: 10 x 21 in (533 mm) torpedo tubes (6 forward, 4 aft, 24 torpedoes); 1 x 3 in (76 mm)/50 cal AA gun, 2 x .50 cal (12.7 mm) and 2 x .30 cal {7.6 2mm} machineguns)
Crew: 60, peacetime; 80 – 85 officers and men, wartime
Powerplant: •4 x 1350 hp (1 MW) 16 cyl General Motors 278A diesel engines (except SS228-239 and SS275-284 10cyl Fairbanks-Morse 38D-1/8), •2 x 1370 hp (1020 kW) General Electric electric motors (except SS228-235 Elliott Motor or SS257-264 Allis-Chalmers) (two 126-cell Exide main storage batteries {except SS.261, 275-278, & 280 Gould})
• two shafts
Range: •11,800 nm at 10 knots (21,900 km at 19 km/h) surfaced
• 100 nm at 3 knots (185 km at 5.6 km/h) (maximum) submerged
Submerged Endurance:
48 hours

[edit] A few highlights

Gato (arguably) formed the basis of the largest class of submarines ever built, counting the Balao & Tench, which weren't substantially different.
Growler's skipper, Howard W. Gilmore, earned the Sub Force's first combat Medal of Honor for ordering his boat to dive after he was wounded 7 February 1943 by fire from provision ship Hayasaki and was unable to reach the hatch in time.
In Grunion, Mannert L. Abele earned the Sub Force's first Navy Cross, when his boat vanished off Kiska in July 1942.
Darter was the only U.S. boat in the Pacific War lost to grounding.
Trigger became famous in Edward L. "Ned" Beach's book Submarine! (which was a kind of eulogy to her).
Wahoo, commanded by the Sub Force's most famous skipper, Dudley W. "Mush" Morton, was the first U.S. sub into the Sea of Japan. She was sunk exiting in 1943 after a second excursion.
Cobia sank Japanese tank reinforcements which were en route to Iwo Jima.
Flasher was the top-scoring U.S. boat of the war, with 100,231 tons officially credited to her by the Joint Army-Navy Assessment Committee JANAC. (Many believe the JANAC figures are very inaccurate as to numbers of ships sunk.)
Harder was commanded by Samuel D. Dealey, the only submariner of the war (perhaps the only one ever) to sink five enemy destroyers, four in a single patrol.
Mingo was loaned to the Japanese after the war, under the name Kuroshio.
Archer-Fish (Joe Enright) sank the largest aircraft carrier in combat, Shinano, 29 November 1944.