USS Gabilan
| |
| History | |
|---|---|
 United States | |
| Name | USS Gabilan |
| Builder | Electric Boat Company, Groton, Connecticut[1] |
| Laid down | 5 January 1943[1] |
| Launched | 19 September 1943[1] |
| Commissioned | 28 December 1943[1] |
| Decommissioned | 23 February 1946[1] |
| Stricken | 1 June 1959[1] |
| Fate | Sold for scrap, 11 January 1960[1] |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type | |
| Displacement | |
| Length | 311 ft 9 in (95.02 m)[3] |
| Beam | 27 ft 3 in (8.31 m)[3] |
| Draft | 17 ft 0 in (5.18 m) maximum[3] |
| Propulsion |
|
| Speed | |
| Range | 11,000 nmi (20,000 km) surfaced at 10 knots (19 km/h)[2] |
| Endurance |
|
| Test depth | 300 ft (90 m)[2] |
| Complement | 6 officers, 54 enlisted[2] |
| Armament |
|
USS Gabilan (SS-252), a Gato-class submarine, was the only ship of the United States Navy to be named for the gabilan, an eagle ray of the Gulf of California.
Construction and commissioning
Gabilan′s
First and second war patrols, April – August 1944
After shakedown out of
Third and fourth war patrols, September 1944 – February 1945
Her third war patrol (26 September – 12 November) took her south of the Japanese Empire in company with
Her fourth war patrol was in the South China Sea (29 December 1944 – 15 February 1945). She joined Perch and Barbel in a coordinated patrol off the southern entrance to Palawan Passage and the western approach to Balapac Strait, where Japanese battleships Ise and Hyūga were expected to appear en route to threaten American invasion forces in the Philippines. There were many quick dives to avoid aircraft; floating mines were sunk by rifle fire from the submarine, but there was no sign of their quarry.
Passing back through the
Fifth and sixth war patrols, March – August 1945
Gabilan conducted the greater part of her fifth war patrol (20 March – 28 May) as a unit of a "
Gabilan outwitted three escorts to sink a small freighter the morning of 14 April 1945, then scored hits on two cargo ships of another convoy. After a short stay off the coast of Hainan, where she destroyed drifting mines, she returned to Pearl Harbor 28 May for refit.
Gabilan's sixth and last war patrol (20 June – 17 August 1945) was on lifeguard station for American fliers off Tokyo Bay. She first rescued six men, the crews of two torpedo bombers, then raced well inside Tokyo Bay, in easy range of Japanese shore batteries, to rescue another three-man crew. Six Navy Hellcat fighter planes gave her cover for the mission. On the way out, she paused to destroy a drifting mine with gunfire.
On 18 July 1945, the U.S. Navy destroyers USS Hank (DD-702) and USS Wallace L. Lind (DD-703) opened gunfire on Gabilan at a range of 12,800 yards (12,000 m) while Gabilan was on the surface in the Pacific Ocean off the Bōsō Peninsula, Honshu, Japan, at 35°05′N 140°50′E / 35.083°N 140.833°E.[7] Gabilan had difficulty diving in the heavy seas and broached, and the destroyers' gunfire straddled her an estimated ten times before she finally submerged undamaged to a depth of 150 feet (46 m). As the destroyers approached, she descended to a depth of 300 feet (91 m) and broke contact with them.[7]
On 1 August 1945, Gabilan rendezvoused with the submarine USS Toro (SS-422) and received three British fliers Toro had rescued earlier. Altogether, Gabilan rescued 17 aviators during her patrol.
Post-World War II
En route to Pearl Harbor, Gabilan received news of the
Honors and awards
Gabilan received four
References
Citations
This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here.
Bibliography
- Hinman, Charles R., and Douglas E. Campbell. The Submarine Has No Friends: Friendly Fire Incidents Involving U.S. Submarines During World War II. Syneca Research Group, Inc., 2019. ISBN 978-0-359-76906-3.
External links
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Shipwrecks and maritime incidents in July 1945 | |
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| Shipwrecks |
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| Other incidents |
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