On September 2, 1944, the USS Finbeck received an SOS signal from a plane crashed into the ocean. After 4 hours "Finbek" arrived in the area of the disaster and pulled the frightened lanky pilot out of the water. Saved was George Herbert Bush, the future 41st President of the United States.
What associations do the fancy words "Sargo", "Balao", "Gato" evoke in you?
There are not so many versions: a night shipwreck, fear of plunging into a blue abyss, a foamy trail of rushing torpedoes, a periscope hiding in the waves … Japanese sailors well understood the meaning of the word "Gato". Going on a long hike, samurai put on a clean underwear and said goodbye to loved ones - few were destined to return back.
Ahead, in the vast expanses of the ocean, the underwater ghosts of the US Navy moved silently. The meeting with the boat did not bode well - the submariners shredded the Imperial Navy to shreds, burying the once best naval forces in the world alive on a cold day.
The dying Japanese fleet resisted to the last breath - even when all the aircraft carriers and battleships were lost, when the last kamikaze pilots were killed, and the exits from the naval bases were tightly locked by enemy aircraft and submarines, the Japanese submariners stubbornly continued to search for targets in the ocean.
On July 30, 1945, the I-58 submarine was lucky for the last time - the fired torpedoes overtook the American heavy cruiser Indianapolis. The sinking of Indianapolis was the largest casualty disaster in the history of the US Navy. But the main mystical circumstance became clear much later: the I-58 submarine was only four days late. The cruiser managed to deliver the components of the Malysh nuclear bomb (dropped on Nagasaki on August 9, 1945) to the Tinian airbase.
Wolf laws
During the Second World War, boats staged some kind of horrible massacre in the Pacific Ocean. From the standpoint of our days, it is difficult to understand how these tiny "pelvis" made transoceanic crossings and fought with the enemy at a distance of thousands of miles from their native shore.
Nevertheless, the statistics sound just awful: the primitive diesel-electric submarines, which spent 90% of their time on the surface, sank a third of the ships of the Imperial Navy! A total of 201 warships, ranging in size from an ASW frigate to an attack aircraft carrier. The closest "competitor" - carrier aviation - lagged behind the submarines by 40 points.
Among the trophies of submariners are attack aircraft carriers "Taiho", "Shokaku", "Shinano", "Zunyo", "Unryu", heavy cruisers "Takao", "Atago", "Maya", dozens of destroyers …
In addition to the Americans, the Japanese fleet was tormented by Her Majesty's submarines - the heavy cruiser Ashigara was recorded on the account of the British submariners (the actions of the allies are not reflected in the diagram).
They did not stand on ceremony for a long time with Japanese transports and supply vessels - the "diesel people" mercilessly killed everyone who met them on the way. Here, the submariners were generally out of competition - 1113 sunk ships with a total tonnage of 4,779,902 gross register tons - purely torpedo attacks are considered, excluding the mines laid by the boats and group victories of the heterogeneous fleet forces.
Distribution of losses of the Japanese fleet, indicating the causes of death (warships / transports)
From left to right: US Navy submarines were most likely to burn. Next - carrier-based aviation (the minimum gain in terms of the tonnage of destroyed warships, but an absolute loss in terms of the tonnage of sunk transports). Basic aviation. Mines. Torpedo-artillery duels of surface ships (unexpectedly a lot of trophies!). Mixed losses (coastal batteries, group victories, etc.)
The diagram contains many secrets: for example, the "mines" column - 95% of the merit of base aviation - the Yankees preferred to mine sea communications from the air.
And most of all warships were destroyed by submariners - the formal "gain" of deck aviation in terms of tonnage is explained by the sinking of a large number of large targets (Midway aircraft carriers, battleships "Musashi" and "Yamato"), while among the victims of American submariners there are a great many destroyers, frigates and enemy submarines.
Who are you listening to? - exclaim the sailors of the Kriegsmarine, - these are the Yankees - famous mediocrities and idlers. Which ones are divers? They only know how to decorate cockpits with photographs of naked Hollywood stars.
Indeed, the achievements of the Americans pale against the background of the "wolf packs" of Grand Admiral Doenitz - more than 2,600 ships with a total tonnage of 13 million tons are recorded on the account of German submariners!
Unlike the US Navy, the Germans had to operate in much more severe conditions - the anti-submarine defense and convoy system of the allies was incomparable in strength with the Japanese ASW system (for comparison: during the war years, the Americans lost 50 boats; the Germans - 783).
Typical American submarine during WWII
On the other hand, the number of boats the Germans had was five times greater, and the density of cargo traffic in the Atlantic was incommensurate with the Japanese maritime traffic.
As a result, the result is almost 5 million tons of sunk cargo in four years of fighting in the Pacific Ocean. Solid.
In reality, it is difficult to say which is more important: the sinking of a cruiser, transports with weapons or tankers with oil?
One thing is clear: US Navy boats disrupted Japanese communications, depriving Japan of supplies of strategically important raw materials. And the garrisons on the distant islands, thanks to American boats, were left without provisions and ammunition.
This is how wars are won.
Cat Shark
In just four years of the war, about 200 American boats of eight basic types have reached the war zones in the Pacific:
- type V - a series of 9 obsolete submarines, built in the 1920s;
- "Porpoise", "Salmon", "Sargo" and "Tambor" - 38 more submarines of pre-war construction;
- Gato (77 units), Balao (122 units) and Tench (29 units). Many "Balao" and "Tench" were completed after the war, and did not have time to take part in the battles.
In addition, in training units and in the reserve there were about fifty outdated boats of the "O", "R" and "S" types, built during the First World War.
Undoubtedly, the main striking force of the American submariners was the legendary "Gato" - powerful and sophisticated boats that entered the fleet en masse at the height of the battles in the Pacific Ocean. In total, in the period 1940 to 1944. American shipyards have hammered 77 submarines of this type.
The USS Drum (SS-228) is one of the Gato-class boats.
One of the ten most efficient American submarines - 15 trophies with a total displacement of 80 thousand tons
The submarines owe their fancy name - "Gato" - to the cat shark (gato - cat in Spanish). In order not to tire the impatient reader by listing the boring performance characteristics of the boats, let us note their key feature: the American Gato was three times larger than the average German U-boat.
A strong, fast and armed to the teeth underwater killer, created for operations on ocean communications. The surface speed is 20 knots, 10 torpedo tubes and 24 torpedoes, a universal artillery battery consisting of a 76 mm gun, Bofors and Oerlikon anti-aircraft guns (20 and 40 mm caliber). High-quality "stuffing" and electronic means - radars for detecting targets on the water surface and in the air, sonars, communication equipment - in this area, Gato set the best world standards. A stock of provisions and fuel on board made it possible to carry out 75-day transoceanic raids from Hawaii to the coast of Japan.
Being submerged, a large boat could go to periscope depth in just 30-35 seconds - the ascent / sink rate of the Gato was beyond praise.
As for the shortcomings: the main problem of "Gato" was the relatively shallow diving depth: the range of working depths was limited to 90 meters (for comparison: an ordinary German U-boat of the VII-series could fearlessly dive into the depths of 200 or more meters).
The problem was partially corrected on the next generation American boats, the Balao.
Structurally, "Balao" was the previous "Gato", but now the boat's hull was made of high-strength steel with a high yield point, which made it possible to increase the working depth of immersion to 120 meters. During one of the test dives, the USS Tang accidentally "sipped" water with a torpedo tube and sank down 187 meters. The hull has stood the test.
Chronicle of naval battles
In hot sea battles, the steel was tempered, under the blows of the ocean waves the skin shuddered - small evil fish fought to death with the enemy, sending Japanese ships to the bottom in batches. New heroes and legends were born in the battles.
A stray shell exploded on the bridge of the Growler submarine. Wounded Commander Howard Gilmore ordered an immediate dive; the brave sailor himself did not have time to go down the hatch, remaining forever in the ocean (awarded the Medal of Honor).
The submarine "Archer Fish" (type "Balao") managed to sink the largest ship in the history of the submarine fleet - the Japanese aircraft carrier "Shinano" (70 thousand tons).
But the most productive American boat was the Flesher (Gato-type) - the boat sank four large tankers, a cruiser and a number of transports with a total displacement of 100 thousand tons.
Flesher submarine (Groton, Connecticut)
An interesting fate awaited the Mingo submarine. After the war, she was transferred to the Japanese Naval Self-Defense Forces, where she served under the name "Kuroshio" until 1971.
Another boat, the Catfish, was sold to the Argentine Navy. Renamed Santa Fe, she died in 1982 during the Falklands War. But this is not the end of longevity!
The submarine Hai Pao (formerly USS Tusk) is still part of the Republic of Taiwan Navy. Initially, the boat was sold as a test stand with welded torpedo tubes and dismantled weapons, but the cunning Chinese restored the boat, giving it the status of a combat training unit.
The reason for the exceptional longevity of American boats to the wave is obvious - the post-war modernization under the GUPPY (Greater Underwater Propulsion Power Program) program. All outdated weapons and equipment were removed from the boats, the hull contours were optimized, filling all the vacated internal space with batteries. As a result, the underwater speed of the modernized "Gato" and "Balao" sometimes reached 16-18 knots (to the envy of the German "Electrobot"). Kits of modern radars and sonar stations additionally contributed to the popularity of these boats in the world maritime weapons market.
During World War II, American submarines performed many different tasks: in addition to the total extermination of the Japanese fleet, they conducted covert surveillance of naval bases and enemy positions on islands in the Pacific Ocean, were on duty at evacuation points on the routes of B-29 strategic bombers, periodically rescuing pilots jumping out of wrecked cars.
Unlike the Kriegsmarine wolf packs, the Americans preferred to act alone. The vast ocean was divided into many squares, in each of which a US Navy submarine was moving, which had orders to sink everything that moves. Particular attention was paid to important straits and passages in combat zones - every time, breaking through to help their forces, the Japanese squadrons fell under stray torpedo fire.
American submariners made the main contribution to the victory in the Pacific Ocean - the boats strangled the Japanese industry, depriving it without the supply of raw materials and oil. The boats blockaded Japanese granisons in the Pacific Islands and destroyed a third of the Imperial Navy's warships. Without the help of these small, but very vicious "fish", the victory in the sea war would have been impossible.
Heroes of the Imperial Navy
The Japanese submarine fleet suffered from one key drawback - the lack of radars. The legendary radio-electronic industry of Japan did not cope with the task, as a result, primitive radars appeared on cruising boats only by 1945. On medium and small submarines there were no radars at all.
It's not hard to guess about the consequences of this unfortunate situation - the American patrol aircraft instantly calculated helpless boats circling on the surface while recharging batteries, and drowned them like puppies. In total, during the war years, the Japanese lost about 130 submarines for various reasons, some of which became victims of navigational errors and typhoons.
But, despite the lack of radars, the relative weakness of weapons and low performance characteristics (most boats could not dive deeper than 50 … 75 meters), the Japanese submariners performed amazing tasks - they organized a round-the-world "underwater bridge" with Germany for the exchange of important instruments, drawings and materials, supplied garrisons on the islands of the Pacific Ocean surrounded by provisions, ammunition and medicines, delivered reinforcements and evacuated the wounded (for example, the Japanese units on the Aleutian ridge islands - Kiska and Attu held out only thanks to submariners).
Special missions, reconnaissance, dropping sabotage groups. A separate funny page in the history of the Japanese navy was the creation of "submarine aircraft carriers" - in September 1942, a miniature seaplane from the I-25 submarine symbolically "bombed" the forests of Oregon, dropping two incendiary phosphorus tiles on America. The first and only bombing of the continental United States during the entire war carried a much deeper implication: the Japanese General Staff seriously discussed Operation Cherry Blossoms at Night - using submarine aircraft carriers to spray plague, anthrax and other abominations from Japanese military laboratories on the West Coast of the United States. Along the way, it was necessary to bomb the locks of the Panama Canal and then, according to the ideas of the Japanese strategists, the Era of universal Love and Prosperity should have come.
Fortunately for the Yankees, the Japanese did not have the strength or the ability to make their plans come true.
Fantasy is good, but submariners should not forget about their Main Task - disrupting the enemy's sea communications. Against the background of the records of the Kriegsmarine and the US Navy, the successes of the Japanese look more than modest, however, even with the enemy's multiple superiority at sea and in the air, the Japanese submariners managed to brutally terrorize the allies, sending many ships to the bottom.
Japanese submarine killers were active in a vast area - from the icy Bering Sea to the tropical latitudes of the Indian Ocean. According to the data of the injured party (i.e. the data is not an invention of submariners and is fully true) only for the period from November 1942 to March 1943. Japanese boats managed to sink 42 British, Dutch, Australian and American transports in the Indian Ocean.
The US Navy received many painful blows. In addition to the already mentioned "Indianapolis", Japanese boats sank the aircraft carrier "Wasp" and finished off the damaged "Yorktown". The escort aircraft carrier Layscom Bay was sunk. The battleship North Caroline and the attack aircraft carrier Saratoga were severely damaged by torpedoes. Also on the account of the submarines of the Imperial Navy are many enemy destroyers and submarines, seaplane bases, naval tankers, supply vessels … Japanese submariners have something to remember and something to be proud of.
Small photo gallery:
Damage to the underwater part of the battleship North Caroline (BB-55)
Unfinished mini-submarines on the Japanese naval base Kura
Memorial to the submarine "Kavela".
The baby sank 4 enemy ships, including the attack aircraft carrier "Shokaku"
"Cavella" from the inside
Statistical data -
Japanese Naval and Merchant Shipping Losses
During World War II by All Causes, Prepared by
The Joint Army-Navy Assessment Committee
NAVEXOS P 468
February 1947
Illustrations -
