USS Gar

Coordinates: 14°30′N 115°43′E / 14.500°N 115.717°E / 14.500; 115.717
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

SS-206 Gar, c. 1943 off Mare Island
USS Gar (SS-206) off Mare Island, California, on 22 November 1943
History
United States
BuilderElectric Boat Company, Groton, Connecticut[1]
Laid down27 December 1939[1]
Launched27 November 1940[1]
Commissioned14 April 1941[1]
Decommissioned11 December 1945[1]
Stricken1 August 1959[1]
FateSold for scrap, 11 December 1959[1]
General characteristics
Class and type
diesel-electric submarine[6]
Displacement
  • 1,475 long tons (1,499 t) standard, surfaced[2]
  • 2,370 long tons (2,410 t) submerged[2]
Length307 ft 2 in (93.62 m)[2]
Beam27 ft 3 in (8.31 m)[2]
Draft14 ft 7+1⁄2 in (4.458 m)[2]
Propulsion
Speed
  • 20.4 knots (38 km/h) surfaced[2]
  • 8.75 knots (16 km/h) submerged[2]
Range11,000 nautical miles (20,000 km) at 10 knots (19 km/h)[2]
Endurance48 hours at 2 knots (3.7 km/h) submerged[2]
Test depth250 ft (76 m)[2]
Complement6 officers, 54 enlisted[2]
Armament

USS Gar (SS-206) was the first of the Gar subclass of the

Lepisosteidae
.

Construction and commissioning

Gar′s

Electric Boat Company in Groton, Connecticut. She was launched on 7 November 1940, sponsored by Mrs. Leila P. Pettengill, wife of Rear Admiral George T. Pettengill, and commissioned at New London
, Connecticut, on 14 April 1941.

Depth charge tests and other operations, April 1941–January 1942

Gar conducted shakedown training along the New England seaboard from Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and New London, Connecticut.

During 1941, Gar, along with the submarines

periscope depth and was subjected to explosions of 300 pounds (136 kg) of TNT set at various distances from her. The data these tests generated influenced the design of shock proofing in later submarines.[7]

Gar departed New London on 24 November and transited the Panama Canal on 3 December 1941 en route to San Diego, California, where she arrived on 10 December 1941, three days after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor that brought the United States into World War II. She prepared for combat in the Mare Island Naval Shipyard at Mare Island, California, then departed San Francisco, California, on 15 January 1942 bound for Pearl Harbor,Hawaii.

First war patrol

Gar's maiden patrol, from 2 February to 28 March 1942, was conducted around

gross register ton cargo ship
Chichibu Maru on 13 March 1942.

Second, third, and fourth war patrols

During her second war patrol, from 19 April to 8 June, she fired on a freighter off Kwajalein atoll, which her commanding officer believed was hit, but the ship did not sink.

JANAC postwar.[10]

Her third war patrol, from 3 July to 21 August, took her to the

Gulf of Siam, where her only contact was a hospital ship. Her fourth war patrol, from 17 September to 7 November, took her to the northernmost waters in the Gulf of Siam, where on 19 October she laid 32 mines in the entrances to Bangkok. This was one of the strategic plants covering important Japanese shipping lanes previously patrolled by American submarines. Both patrols produced few contacts, thanks to timid patrolling, and no sinkings.[11] Gar' executive officer and third officer both requested transfers on her return, while her commanding officer received a "blistering" endorsement from his squadron commander and was relieved.[12]

Fifth, sixth, and seventh war patrols

Gar sank Indus Maru on 15 May 1943

Gar's fifth, sixth and seventh war patrols were conducted largely in approaches to

Negros Islands on 9 May, then six days later attacked a convoy west of Mindoro, sinking the 3197-ton passenger-cargo ship Meikai Maru and the 4361-ton Indus Maru.[15]

Captain Philip D. Quirk served on numerous ships and submarines in World War II and was also the commanding officer on

George R. Tweed from the Japanese-held island of Guam. Tweed had been marooned there since the Japanese invasion, and later wrote a book about his adventures titled Robinson Crusoe, USN. Quirk then commanded USS Walker (DD-517), before transferring to the Submarine Service and assuming command of USS Gar. He was awarded his fifth Bronze Star Medal in 1946 for Gar's fifth patrol. Quirk was awarded the Silver Star
for the seventh patrol, which sank three Japanese ships totaling 8000 tons.

Quirk complained loudly about the Navy's faulty torpedoes, and was assigned to shore duty in July 1943. This scandal was soon proven all too true and corrected. Quirk was restored to grace, but transferred back to destroyer commands.

Eighth and ninth war patrols

Her eighth war patrol, from 18 June to 23 July, was spent patrolling the

Mare Island Navy Yard
.

Gar returned to Pearl Harbor 30 November 1943, now in the hands of George W. Lautrup, Jr. (class of 1934),[16] to resume combat duty in the Pacific, based out of Fremantle.[16] Her ninth patrol saw her credited with one ship of 4,000 tons (reduced to 1,000 tons in the postwar accounting).[16]

Tenth through thirteenth war patrols

Her tenth war patrol, out of Fremantle from 16 December 1943 to 9 February 1944, was conducted off Palau, where on 20 January she sank the 5325-ton cargo ship Koyu Maru; damaged two ships of another convoy on 22 January; then attacked a third convoy the following day and sank the 3670-ton Taian Maru. She then returned to Pearl Harbor.[17]

Her 11th war patrol, from 3 March to 21 April, found her performing lifeguard duty for aviators making the first carrier-based air strikes on Palau. She saved eight aviators, one less than two miles (3 km) off the beach and within range of enemy gun emplacements.

Her 12th patrol, from 20 May to 5 July, was spent in the Bonin Islands area, where she made gunfire attacks on a convoy of Japanese sea trucks, leaving a small freighter raging in flames and dead in the water.

Her 13th patrol (now commanded by Maurice Ferrara, the first officer of the

Palau Islands. She also performed reconnaissance duty off Surigao Strait. She bombarded installations on Yap from 6 to 8 September and ended her patrol at Brisbane
, Australia.

Fourteenth and fifteenth war patrols

On her 14th war patrol, from 3 to 30 November, Gar landed 16 men and 25 tons of supplies at

Schouten Islands
.

On her 15th and final war patrol, from 4 to 27 December, she landed 35 tons of supplies on the west coast of Luzon, near Darigayos Inlet[19]: 171–173  on 11 December, returning to Pearl Harbor with urgent intelligence documents including maps locating enemy gun emplacements, beach defenses, troop concentrations, and fuel and ammunition dumps on Luzon. Some of those supplies and personnel made their way to Donald Blackburn's guerrilla force.[21]: 255 

End of World War II and fate

After overhaul in the

San Francisco, California, and the Panama Canal to the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery, Maine
, where she arrived 20 October.

She decommissioned there 11 December 1945 and remained in reserve until September 1948, when she began an overhaul in the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard which lasted until through October. She was then transferred as a

Chicago Canal on 28 November 1948. She continued her reserve training until her name was stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on 29 May 1959. She was sold for scrapping 18 November 1959 to Acme Scrap Iron and Metal
Company.

Honors and awards

Gar received 11

battle stars
for service in World War II.

References

Citations

  1. ^
    ISBN 1-55750-263-3
    .
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k U.S. Submarines Through 1945 pp. 305-311
  3. ^
    OCLC 24010356
    .
  4. ^ U.S. Submarines Through 1945 p. 261
  5. ^ a b c U.S. Submarines Through 1945 pp. 305–311
  6. ISBN 0-313-26202-0
    .
  7. ^ "HyperWar: War Damage Report 58: Submarine Report [Section 18]".
  8. exploders
    were so bad, it is quite likely they prematurely detonated.
  9. ^ Blair, p. 534, points out the first Imperial Japanese Navy Q-ship, Delhi Maru, did not even make her maiden voyage until January 1944, when she was sunk by Swordfish.
  10. ^ Blair, p. 908. In addition, McGregor's exec, John Fitzgerald, criticized him for lacking aggressiveness. Blair, p. 230.
  11. ^ Blair, pp.350, 911, & 921.
  12. ^ Blair, p.350.
  13. ^ Blair, p. 922. Nor does Blair mention any Heinan Maru, sunk or otherwise.
  14. ^ a b Blair, p. 925.
  15. ^ Blair, p. 925, records only three ships for 8000 tons by JANAC credit; it may have omitted ships of under 500 tons.
  16. ^ a b c Blair, p. 936.
  17. ^ Blair, p. 937.
  18. ^ Blair, p. 724.
  19. ^
    ISBN 9780393350227
  20. ^ a b Hinman & Campbell, p. 70.
  21. ^ Harkins, P., 1956, Blackburn's Headhunters, London: Cassell & Co. LTD

Bibliography

14°30′N 115°43′E / 14.500°N 115.717°E / 14.500; 115.717

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