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Sunfish (Gato-class)

Country United States Ship Class Gato-class Submarine Hull Number SS-281 Builder Name Mare Island Navy Yard Laid Down 25 Sep 1941 Launched 2 May 1942 Commissioned 15 Jul 1942 Decommissioned 26 Dec 1945 Displacement 1,549 tons standard; 2,463 tons submerged Length 312 feet Beam 27 feet Draft 17 feet Machinery Four Fairbanks-Morse Model 38D8-1/8 9-cyl diesel engines (5,400shp), four high-speed General Electric electric motors (2,740shp), two 126-cell Sargo batteries, two propellers Bunkerage 116,000gal fuel oil Speed 21 knots Range 11,000nm at 10 knots surfaced, 48 hours at 2 knots submerged Crew 60 Armament 6x533mm forward torpedo tubes, 4x533mm aft torpedo tubes, 24 torpedoes, 1x76mm 50cal gun, 2x .50cal machine guns, 2x .30cal machine guns Submerged Speed 9 knots

Contributor: C. Peter Chen

ww2dbaseUSS Sunfish entered service in Jul 1942. Upon completing her shakedown cruise in the San Diego Bay area in southern California, United States and her post-shakedown repairs at San Francisco, California, she headed out to the US Territory of Hawaii on 26 Oct, arriving five days later at Pearl Harbor. Her first war patrol took her to waters off the islands of Honshu and Hokkaido, Japan, where she laid a minefield at the entrance of Iseno Imi. Although this first war patrol would result in only damaging one single Japanese transport, she would go on to have nine successful war patrols during the Pacific War, including a wolfpack attack with USS Peto and USS Spadefish on 17 Nov 1944 that saw the sinking of six ships, including escort carrier Jinyo (credit of which was given to USS Spadefish). At the end of the war, she was decommissioned at Mare Island Navy Yard in Vallejo, California, United States. She would remain a classroom submarine for US Naval Reserve sailors until she was struck and sold for scrap in 1960.

ww2dbaseSource: Wikipedia

Last Major Revision: Dec 2013

Submarine Sunfish (Gato-class) (SS-281) Interactive Map

Sunfish (Gato-class) Operational Timeline

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