Gato/Balao/Tench class submarines

[emperor_andreas]

Very nice work!

[Colosseum]

Thanks guys.

Finally onto the BALAO class:



This is BALAO (SS-285) in October of 1944 after the completion of a refit period at Mare Island. She is camouflaged in Measure 32/3SS-B.

The BALAO class submarines were externally almost identical to the GATO class, with the main difference in their construction being the use of thicker high tensile steel to allow for a max diving depth of 600' versus the 400' limitation of the GATO class. The BALAO class were built with the cut-down bridge fairwaters retroactively fitted to the GATO class. The BALAOs benefitted from wartime experience with the GATOs, and all of them received a simplified periscope shears design that eliminated the heavy bracketing and complicated support structure from the previous design. BALAOs built by government yards (such as Mare Island and Portsmouth) were launched with oval limber holes along the entire length of the main deck, while Electric Boat yards (Groton and Manitowoc) continued to build their boats with only a single row of semi-circular limber holes forward. Government boats also featured a portside anchor, while the Electric Boat design mounted the single anchor to starboard.

BALAO herself mounts two 20mm Oerlikons on the fairwater positions, with a 4"/50-caliber Mark 12 deck gun forward. This would be replaced in 1945 with the usual 5"/25 Mark 40 mount seen on almost every sub towards the end of the war. BALAO has been fitted with the ST range-only radar set, visible as the small bump under the forward periscope's optic. This was a set similar to the ranging radars used aboard the surface ships, and performed the same function, allowing the officer using the periscope to quickly range his target. BALAO mounts the SD air search set on the new mast aft of the periscope shears, as well as the SJ-1 surface search set between them.

BALAO would survive the war to be sunk as a target in 1963.

[reytuerto]

Thanks for your drawings! Colosseum! Excellent work!

[Colosseum]

Thanks guys.



This is PAMPANITO (SS-383) in July of 1945, at the conclusion of a refit period at Hunter's Point near San Francisco. She is camouflaged in Measure 32/3SS-B.

PAMPANITO (like the class leader BALAO) was a "government built" boat, with two rows of limber holes and a portside anchor. PAMPANITO was launched with a 4"/50-caliber deck gun, but the July 1945 refit period removed this gun in favor of the newer 5"/25 wet mount. PAMPANITO also received two 40mm Bofors Mark 3 single mounts on the fairwater, and the aft end of the fairwater itself was shortened to reduce the boat's silhouette when running surfaced. The SV air search radar sits on a mast aft of the periscope shears, with the SJ-1 surface search antenna ahead of it, and the ST range-only radar on the forward periscope. APR-1 radar countermeasures stub antennas sit atop the periscope shears, and the usual DF loop (for underwater HF reception) hangs between the shears, suspended from the topmost brace.

PAMPANITO would survive the war to become a museum in San Francisco, CA.

[erik_t]

Do you know what practical/service difference (if any) resulted from the different arrangement of holes in the casing? Noise, speed of dive, anything like that?

For submarines especially, it would almost be neat to have a little blown-up (double bucket scale? Probably not FD) close-up of the sail or the top of the sail, so rapidly did this area change and so important was it to service effectiveness.

I read all of this interesting text and then try to tell which pixel is which

Beautiful drawing, as expected.

[emperor_andreas]

Ah, the Stingray from Down Periscope! Nice!

And thanks for drawing Balao...I'm commanding her right now in Silent Hunter 4. We just finished making a visit to Kure. (Where - if you can believe it, NO warships were sighted...not even a freaking subchaser! It was August 1944, for cripes' sake! )

[Colosseum]

Do you know what practical/service difference (if any) resulted from the different arrangement of holes in the casing? Noise, speed of dive, anything like that?

The additional limber holes allowed air to escape faster from the deck casing, shaving valuable seconds/minutes off crash dive times. Crews and tenders regularly cut their own holes into the decks (Trigger's CO was the one who initiated this), and the amount of different patterns you find when researching these ships is bewildering.

For submarines especially, it would almost be neat to have a little blown-up (double bucket scale? Probably not FD) close-up of the sail or the top of the sail, so rapidly did this area change and so important was it to service effectiveness.

It would certainly be a nice addition, but frankly I barely have the time to even finish these... The research alone is what consumes most of my time!

[erik_t]

Wasn't suggesting you do so, only that it would be cool

[Colosseum]

Maybe one of these days I'll draw a favorite submarine in FD Scale

[Hood]

Excellent additions as ever.
I guess with any mass produced class the minor differences are always going to be too many to show them all.