USS Pollack (SS-180)
 Pollack (SS-180) entering Pearl Harbor, c. 1943-44
| |
| History | |
|---|---|
 United States | |
| Name | Pollack |
| Builder | Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, Kittery, Maine[1] |
| Laid down | 1 October 1935[1] |
| Launched | 15 September 1936[1] |
| Commissioned | 15 January 1937[1] |
| Decommissioned | 21 September 1945[1] |
| Stricken | 11 October 1945, then reinstated 28 November 1945, and struck again 29 October 1946[1] |
| Fate | Sold for breaking up, 2 February 1947[1] |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type | |
| Displacement | |
| Length | 298 ft 0 in (90.83 m) (waterline), 300 ft 6 in (91.59 m) (overall)[8] |
| Beam | 25 ft 7⁄8 in (7.6 m)[2] |
| Draft | 13 ft 9 in (4.19 m)[10] |
| Propulsion |
|
| Speed | |
| Range | |
| Endurance | 10 hours at 5 knots (9.3 km/h), 36 hours at minimum speed submerged[2] |
| Test depth | 250 ft (76 m)[2] |
| Complement | |
| Armament |
|
| Notes | 10 Battle stars |
USS Pollack (SS-180), a Porpoise-class submarine, was the first ship of the United States Navy to be named for the pollack, a food fish resembling the true cod, but with the lower jaw projecting and without the barbel.
Construction and commissioning
The first Pollack was laid down 1 October 1935 by the
Service history
1937–1941
Pollack stood out of
1942
Pollack (commanded by Stanley P. Moseley, Class of 1925),
Pollack got underway from Pearl Harbor on 18 February to intercept enemy cargo ships carrying war material to
Pollack departed Pearl Harbor on 2 May and was in waters of the Japanese home islands on 12 May when she battle-surfaced to riddle a 600-ton patrol vessel with
Following four months of overhaul at Pearl Harbor, Pollack put to sea for her fourth war patrol on 10 October. Before she reached her assigned area she was ordered back to Midway, arriving on 23 October. She fueled to capacity and stood out of the Midway channel that same day to patrol the approaches to Truk in an attempt to intercept crippled enemy ships believed en route to that enemy stronghold from sea battles in the Solomon Islands. There were no contacts with enemy shipping during the entire patrol and Pollack returned to Pearl Harbor on 29 November.
1943
Pollack's fifth war patrol was again spent in waters off the Japanese home islands. After departing Pearl Harbor on 31 December, she sighted only one target on 21 January 1943 which fired three shells at the submarine; Pollack fired four torpedoes at a range of 2,400 yards (2,200 m)-results were "undetermined" before terminating her fifth war patrol at Pearl Harbor on 10 February 1943.[11]
Pollack spent her sixth war patrol between the
Underway for her seventh war patrol, Pollack departed Midway on 10 May to reconnoiter Ailuk Atoll and Wotje Atoll, then patrolled to the south and west towards Schischmarev Strait. On 18 May she torpedoed and sank the 3,110-ton ex-gunboat Terushima Maru. Off Jaluit Atoll the next afternoon, she torpedoed and sank the 5,350-ton converted light cruiser Bangkok Maru, which was carrying 1,200 Japanese troops intending to reinforce the garrison at Tarawa. Pollack received a depth charge attack and was lightly damaged.[14] The timing of this attack was important in reducing the number of Japanese troops garrisoned on Tarawa, which was attacked by American forces several months later in the Battle of Tarawa. Pollack returned to Pearl Harbor on 25 June.
Sailing on 20 July, Pollack spent her eighth war patrol off the east coast of
1944
Pollack got underway from Pearl Harbor on 28 February 1944 and battled heavy seas as she entered the assigned area of her ninth war patrol off
Pollack's tenth war patrol was conducted off the Nanpō Islands. She cleared Midway on 6 May and was sixteen days out to sea when she moved in on about ten merchant ships with several escorts. She scored torpedo hits which sank the 1,270-ton Japanese destroyer Asanagi but was held down by a fierce counter-attack while the remaining ships of the convoy escaped. She returned to Pearl Harbor on 7 June.
Pollack departed Pearl Harbor for her eleventh war patrol on 15 July. She touched at
Pollack underwent a refit period at Brisbane, then got underway on 6 October for exercises with
1945
She was underway from Oahu 25 January 1945, in company with USS Permit to the East Coast of the United States, reaching the Sub Base at New London, Connecticut, 24 February. The remainder of her career was spent as a training ship for men of the Submarine School at that base. She entered the Portsmouth Navy Yard on 14 June for inactivation and was decommissioned there on 21 September 1945. Her name was stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on 29 October 1946 and she was sold for scrapping on 2 February 1947 to Ship-Shape, Inc. of Philadelphia.
Honors and awards
- Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal with 10 battle stars for World War IIservice
References
Citations
- ^ ISBN 1-55750-263-3.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j U.S. Submarines Through 1945 pp. 305–311
- ^ a b Alden, p.62.
- ^ ISBN 0-313-26202-0.
- ^ U.S. Submarines Through 1945 pp. 261–263
- ^ a b Alden, p.210.
- ^ a b Alden, p.211.
- ^ Lenton, H. T. American Submarines (New York: Doubleday, 1973), p.39.
- ^ a b Lenton, p.45.
- ^ Lenton, p.39.
- ^ a b "History of Ships Named Pollack" (PDF). NavSource Naval History.
- ^ "Pollack (SS-180) of the US Navy - American Submarine of the Perch class - Allied Warships of WWII - uboat.net". uboat.net. Retrieved 2023-09-04.
- ^ "Microsoft Word - Bangkok Maru.docx - BangkokMaru.pdf" (PDF). United States Naval Academy Class of 1963. Archived (PDF) from the original on 9 December 2021.
- ^ Hinman & Campbell, pp. 146–147.
- This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entries can be found here and 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
- Photo gallery of Pollack at NavSource Naval History
- ^
