Gato/Balao/Tench class submarines

[Colosseum]

A small update to one of my favorite subs. I highly recommend "Thunder Below", the account of BARB's skipper Eugene Fluckey.

During research to create the plan view, I discovered that none of the submarine Measure 32 camouflage schemes used the blue-tinted paints (all used the later flat greys). I have some work ahead of me to update all the boats in this thread ...



This is BARB (SS-220) after the boat's eleventh war patrol, off the coast of China. During this patrol, BARB penetrated Namkwan Harbor on the eastern China coast, firing torpedoes on a convoy of nearly 30 Japanese ships at anchor. The boat's daring escape through uncharted and heavily mined waters while being pursued by Japanese subchasers earned Commanding Officer Eugene Fluckey the Medal of Honor, and the boat the Presidential Unit Citation.

BARB is camouflaged in Measure 32/3SS-B, the submarine light grey system that reduced visibility during surfaced operations. The boat mounts the usual late-war electronics fit of SJ-1 surface search radar and SD air search on a telescoping antenna mast aft of the shears. The ST range-only radar has been fitted to the no.1 periscope. A 40mm Bofors single mount sits ahead of the fairwater, with a 20mm Oerlikon on the cigarette deck. The highly successful 5"/25 Mark 40 open mount sits aft of the fairwater. Built by Electric Boat at Groton, CT, BARB shows the characteristic pattern of half-moon shaped limber holes in the deck casing forward. Her bow planes have been rigged at a down angle to increase diving speed (a common modification late in the war), and the T-shaped head of the JP sonar is visible ahead of the fairwater along the main deck.

BARB would complete one more patrol in this configuration, famously attacking Japanese factories with 5" rockets and landing a shore party to set demolition charges on a railroad track, which later destroyed a Japanese train. BARB would survive the war to be sold to the Italian Navy, where it was recommissioned as ENRICO TAZZOLI (S 511). The boat was sold for scrap in 1972.

BARB is noted as the "submarine which sank the most tonnage by Japanese records" in most literature.

[emperor_andreas]

Nice!

[dtn]

Are you trying to give acelanceloot a heart attack?

[acelanceloet]

Are you trying to give acelanceloot a heart attack?

Uhm you mean me? why on earth....

[Rainmaker]

Canadian Balao/Tench - class Submarines

Following WWII, the Royal Canadian Navy had an interest in re-establishing its submarine service and in the late 1950s, as an essential stopgap to further purchases, they sought a boat to train in. The United States Navy gave them a choice from among ten boats in the Reserve Fleet and USS Burrfish was selected. An official agreement to loan a submarine to the Royal Canadian Navy for five years was finalized after approval by the Canadian Cabinet and ratification by the United States Congress in May 1960.

In the fall of 1960, the prospective crew was sent to New London, Connecticut for US submarine training. On 11 May 1961, USS Burrfish was decommissioned and recommissioned into the Royal Canadian Navy at New London as HMCS Grilse (SS-71), the second vessel to bear the name.

Having re-established the Canadian submarine service, Grilse was acquired by the Royal Canadian Navy for use as a training vessel for anti-submarine warfare training on the Pacific coast; while more modern, newly acquired Oberon- class submarines would serve on the Atlantic. However, the HMCS Grilse lacked the speed of more modern subs and her sensor and weapons outfit were not up to the task of anti-submarine warfare. As a result, Grilse spent most of her time serving as a mobile target for Canadian and American surface ships and aircraft.

In May 1966, her five-year loan was renewed for $1 million, and the sub underwent a refit in 1967 for $1.2 million. In 1968, the Canadian Navy, now called Maritime Command, was offered a more modern Tench-class submarine by the US, and Maritime Command chose to accept the offer. Despite being recently refit and having three years left on her lease, the Canadian government was unwilling or unable to fund the operation of a second submarine for Canada's West Coast, thus Grilse was left to languish alongside once her successor was selected.

The former USS Argonaut, a Tench-class submarine, was purchased by Canada outright for a cost of $153,000 and refit at an additional cost of $2.5 million. Argonaut had received the Fleet Snorkel upgrades which included a snorkel system, streamlined sail, as well as a chin-mounted sonar. She was commissioned on 2 December 1968 as HMCS Rainbow (SS-75). The modernization took eight months to complete and following its completion, Rainbow took up the duties of the out-of-service Grilse of performing anti-submarine warfare training on the West Coast.

With the arrival of the new HMCS Rainbow, Grilse never sailed again. Some of Grilse's more modern gear was taken out and transferred to Rainbow, however Grilse had to remain operationally capable in accordance with the lease agreement and the transfer was limited. The sub returned to the US in September 1969.

HMCS Grilse was struck from the Naval Register on 19 July 1969. Grilse was officially paid off from Maritime Command on 2 October 1969 and returned to the US Navy the same day. She was sunk as a target off San Clemente Island, California, on 19 November 1969.

HMCS Rainbow was decommissioned on 31 December 1974, after only six years, due to budget cuts and her need for a refit. Maritime Command kept the submarine in reserve, laid up until 1976, hoping to return her to service. However, in 1976, the boat was returned to the United States and scrapped at Portland, Oregon in 1977. After this, the story of Canadian submarines on the West Coast would come to a close for more than 30 years, until HMCS Corner Brook, the first of two Victoria - class submarines to be assigned to Maritime Forces Pacific (MARPAC), would be transferred to Esquimalt, BC in May 2011.





As always, comments and critique are much appreciated! Many thanks and much respect to Colosseum - 99% of the work is his, this is more or less a simple repaint and small modification on my part. Hopefully it's acceptable to post this here instead of creating a new thread.

[Colosseum]

Nice work! Great to see others making derivatives of my work.

[eswube]

Well done!

[Hood]

Very interesting, for some reason I had never realised that the RCN had operated any ex-US submarines, so this was very interesting to me. Good work.

[rickdog]

Hi everyone,

In my lurking around the site, in the "real life design section", specifically in the chilean section, there happens to be a Balao class "Simpson-1983", which must sure be from some sort of alternative universe, as by April 1982, the chilean navy had disposed of all Balao class submarines, and the actual Balao class, formally named "Simpson" shortly after it was sold, while being towed, got lose in a storm and after going adrift for a while, it sank on it's side, near the shore line close to where the river Lebu meets the ocean.

By 1983, though, there was another sub which in the near future (actually the next year), was going to be called "Simpson", which was still being built in Germany (a U-209 unit which still serves, in our navy, at present day).

[Kangaeru Kitsune]

Pakistani Tench-Class submarine PNS Ghazi

Summary from Wikipedia.
PNS Ghazi (ex-USS Diablo, reporting name:Ghazi) is a Tench-class diesel electric submarine that was leased from the USA for 4 years under the Security Assistance Program (SAP) after successful negotiation between the Ayub administration and the Kennedy administration. It saw action in the Indo-Pakistani theatres of 1965 and 1971 and was a flagship submarine of the Pakistani Navy. She sank under mysterious circumstancesnear India's eastern coast while conducting naval operations en route to the Bay of Bengal, with the Indian Navy attributing it to it's destroyer INS Rajput (the Indian Navy destroyed and suspended it's own investigations into the matter as many see this as a falsification of history), and the Pakistani Navy attributing it to "either an internal explosion or accidental detonation of mines being laid by the submarine off the Visakhapatnam harbour".



Unfortunately, I cannot get enough good pictures in the making of this submarine. I would like to thank Colo and Rain for providing me with the drawing of HMCS Rainbow for me to use and create a derivative. As always, criticism is welcome.

PS: And oops, about that clipped of parenthesis, it was a mistake by me.