USS Tuna (SS-203)
 USS Tuna underway in San Francisco Bay on 10 March 1941.
| |
| History | |
|---|---|
 United States | |
| Name | Tuna |
| Namesake | Tuna |
| Builder | Mare Island Naval Shipyard[1] |
| Laid down | 19 July 1939[1] |
| Launched | 2 October 1940[1] |
| Commissioned | 2 January 1941[1] |
| Decommissioned | 11 December 1946[1] |
| Stricken | 21 October 1948[2] |
| Fate | Used as target for Operation Crossroads atomic bomb tests,[1] then scuttled off southern California 24 September 1948[2] |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type | |
| Displacement | |
| Length | 307 ft 2 in (93.62 m)[3] |
| Beam | 27 ft 3 in (8.31 m)[3] |
| Draft | 14 ft 7+1⁄2 in (4.458 m)[3] |
| Propulsion |
|
| Speed | |
| Range | 11,000 nautical miles (20,000 km) at 10 knots (19 km/h)[3] |
| Endurance | 48 hours at 2 knots (3.7 km/h) submerged[3] |
| Test depth | 250 ft (76 m)[3] |
| Complement | 6 officers, 54 enlisted[3] |
| Armament |
|
USS Tuna (SS-203) was a
Tuna was the second ship of the U.S. Navy to be named for the tuna, a vigorous, spiny-finned fish highly esteemed for sport and food.
Construction and commissioning
Tuna's
Pre-World War II
Tuna departed San Diego, California, on 19 May 1941 for Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, and shakedown training. Operations in Hawaiian waters revealed that her torpedo tubes were misaligned. This problem necessitated her returning to the Mare Island Navy Yard for repairs.
Wartime operations
During the Japanese
Initial patrols
The first of Tuna’s 13 war patrols lasted from 26 January to 21 March 1942, as she roved the waters of the
Standing out of Pearl Harbor on 14 April, Tuna once again set her course towards the Japanese home islands and the hunting off
Following refit, Tuna became Task Unit 8.5.12, with orders to proceed to the
Patrolling New Guinea waters
After routine overhaul, Tuna set out from
Setting out again on 18 January 1943 to begin patrol number five, she arrived in waters off the east coast of
After refitting at Brisbane, Tuna set out on her sixth war patrol on 4 March to take up a position in the Bismarck Archipelago, off Lyra Reef, on the northeast side of New Ireland. En route, she patrolled west of Bougainville. On 16 March, she received orders to shift her position to a point southeast of a line between Mussau Island and Manus Island in the Admiralty Islands. Late in the afternoon of 29 March, she sighted a convoy of four merchantmen, with two escort ships and two aircraft. After stalking the convoy all night, Tuna attacked the following morning, firing three torpedoes at the largest vessel. Two hits, and the 4697-ton Kurohime Maru plunged to the bottom.
On 4 April, Tuna changed patrol zones, prowling now to the northwest of the Manus-Mussau line in the East Caroline Basin on the traffic lanes to Rabaul. After no further attack opportunities developed, Tuna returned to Brisbane on 20 April.
On 19 May, en route to her war patrol station for the seventh patrol, Tuna came under attack by a Japanese submarine which fired one torpedo at the American ship before breaking off the attack. After that brush with destruction, Tuna prepared to bombard
Friendly fire
On 29 July 1943, as Tuna set out from
Arriving back at
Following her ninth patrol, Tuna proceeded across the Pacific to
The Takima Maru
On 4 May 1944, Tuna sighted a 100-ton trawler. Bound for Wake Island with classified documents on board, Takima Maru put up a fight when taken under fire by the submarine's two 20-millimeter guns. In the face of the returned fire, Tuna opened up with her three-inch deck gun and scored a hit on the first salvo, holing Takima Maru near the stern. Ten minutes later, the trawler settled beneath the waves, stern first, leaving the waters littered with secret papers and the surviving Japanese.
Meanwhile, submarine USS Haddock (SS-231) arrived on the scene and assisted in the pickup of confidential documents and prisoners. Each submarine picked up 30 documents; Tuna fished out three prisoners, one of whom died later. The two remaining prisoners were transferred to Haddock. Tuna lost her senior enlisted man, the Chief of the Boat, who was swept overboard and drowned while recovering material from the sea.
Ten days later, Tuna bombarded the
Final war patrols
After commencing her 11th patrol upon departing
Following refit, Tuna departed Pearl Harbor on 8 October, bound for the western Pacific. In conjunction with Operation "King Two," the invasion and liberation of the
Tuna’s final war patrol began on 6 January as she left
Post-war assignments
Thereafter, based at Fremantle, Tuna operated on training duty until she sailed for
After moving through the
Atomic testing
After once again transiting the Panama Canal, Tuna arrived at Pearl Harbor on 2 March 1946 and reported for duty with Commander, Joint Task Force 1. In company with submarines Skipjack, Skate, and Searaven, Tuna departed Pearl Harbor on 21 May 1946.
Upon her arrival at
Decommissioning
Underway for the
References
Citations
- ^ ISBN 1-55750-263-3.
- ^ ISBN 0-313-26202-0.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k U.S. Submarines Through 1945 pp. 305-311
- ^ ISBN 978-0-313-26202-9.
- ^ U.S. Submarines Through 1945 pp. 261–263
- ^ a b c U.S. Submarines Through 1945 pp. 305–311
- ^ "Navy Cross Citation.Lt John L. DeTar". Hall of Valor. Military Times.
- ^ a b c Hinman & Campbell, p. 314.
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.
