Block, Siteadmin, SkipCaptcha, Upload, Automoderated users, delete, edit, Moderators, move, protect, rollback, Administrators
27,336
edits
Changes
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
USS Growler (SS-215) (view source)
Revision as of 16:27, September 16, 2008
, 16:27, September 16, 2008New page: {| border="1" align="right" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" width="300" style="margin-left:5px" |align="center" colspan="2"|300px |- !colspan="2" align="cente...
{| border="1" align="right" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" width="300" style="margin-left:5px"
|align="center" colspan="2"|[[Image:USSGrowlerSS215.jpg|300px]]
|-
!colspan="2" align="center" style="color: white; height: 30px; background: navy no-repeat scroll top left;"|USS ''Growler'' (SS-215)
|-
!align ="center" style="color: white; height: 30px; background: navy no-repeat scroll top left;"|Career
!align ="center" style="color: white; height: 30px; background: navy no-repeat scroll top left;"|[[Image:US Naval Jack 48 stars.png|48px|United States Navy Jack]]
|-
|-
| Class:
| ''Gato''
|-
| Launched:
| 2 November 1941
|-
| Commissioned:
| 20 March 1942
|-
| Fate:
| Sunk in battle, 8 November 1944
|-
! colspan="2" align="center" style="color: white; height: 30px; background: navy;"| General characteristics
|-
| Displacement:
| 2,424 t
|-
| Length:
| 311 ft 9 in
|-
| Beam:
| 27 ft 2 in
|-
| Draft:
| 15 ft 3 in
|-
| Speed:
| 20 knots
|-
| Complement:
| 66 officers and men
|-
| Armament:
| One 3"/54 deck gun; 10 torpedo tubes
|}
'''USS ''Growler''''' (SS-215) was a ''Gato''-class submarine whose service in [[World War II]] earned the boat eight battle stars and a postumous [[Medal of Honor]] for her commanding officer.
==History==
''Growler'' (SS-215) was launched 2 November 1941, by Electric Boat Company of Groton, [[Connecticut]], and commissioned on 20 March 1942, Lieutenant Commander Howard W. Gilmore in command.
''Growler's'' first war patrol began 29 June 1942 as she cleared [[Pearl Harbor]] for her assigned patrol area around Dutch Harbor, [[Alaska]]; topping off at [[Midway]] on 24 June, she entered her area on 30 June. Five days later she saw her first action: sighting three destroyers, ''Growler'' closed them for a submerged torpedo attack and then surfaced. Her torpedoes struck the first two targets amidships, putting them out of action, and hit the third in the bow, but not before she had fired two torpedoes at ''Growler''. As the Japanese torpedoes "swished down each side" of ''Growler'', she dived deep, but no depth charges followed. One of the torpedoed destroyers, ''Arare'', was sunk, and the other two were severely damaged. ''Growler'' completed her patrol without finding any more targets, and on 17 July berthed at Pearl Harbor.
On 5 August ''Growler'' began her second and most successful war patrol, entering her area near [[Taiwan]] on 21 August. Two days later she conducted a submerged night attack on a freighter, surfacing to give chase when both torpedoes ran under the target and failed to explode; the freighter's quick exit into shallow waters prevented ''Growler'' from gun attack. Patrolling amidst a large fishing fleet on 25 August, ''Growler'' sighted and fired at a large passenger freighter but all three torepdoes missed; after a 3-hour depth charge attack, in which some 53 ash cans were dropped, ''Growler'' surfaced and almost immediately spotted a convoy. After 2 hours of maneuvering, she failed to catch up with the main body of the convoy but did fire at and sink an ex-gunboat, the ''Senyo Maru''. No more ships appeared in this immediate area for 3 days, so ''Growler'' shifted to the east side of the island. First to fall victim was ''Eifu<i></i>ku Maru'', a 5,866-ton cargo ship ''Growler'' sank within 40 minutes after first sighting her on 31 August. On 4 September ''Growler'' sank by gunfire the ''Kashino'', a 4,000-ton supply ship; 3 days later she sent two torpedoes into the 2,204-toh cargo ship ''Taika Maru'', which broke in half and sank in 2 minutes. On 15 September ''Growler'' cleared her patrol area, and arrived back at Pearl 30 September.
During refitting, new surface radar was installed, as well as a new 20mm. gun; thus equipped, ''Growler'' sailed from [[Hawaii]] for her new patrol area in the Solomon Islands across the key Truk-Rabaul shipping lines. Her patrol area in these days of bitter fighting over [[Guadalcanal]] was almost continually covered by enemy planes, and only eight enemy ships were sighted with no chance for attack. ''Growler'' cleared the area 3 December and arrived in Brisbane, [[Australia]], 10 December.
[[New Year's Day]] of 1943 saw ''Growler'' sail from Brisbane for what was to prove one of the most gallant actions in naval history. Entering her patrol area, again athwart the [[Truk]]-[[Rabaul]] shipping lanes, on 11 January, she waited only 5 days before sighting an enemy convoy. Maneuvering inside the escorts, ''Growler'' fired two torpedoes and saw them hit; then, as her war diary reports, she was in the unfortunate predicament of being about 400 yards from the destroyer and had to dive without being able to continue the attack. She was credited with sinking ''Chifu<i></i>ku Maru'', a passenger-cargo ship.
====Loss of Gilmore====
The patrol continued as normal, with two further attacks, but no sinking's until shortly after 0100. 7 February when ''Growler'' stealthily approached a gunboat for a night surface attack. The small fast ship suddenly turned to ram. Comdr. Gilmore then took the only move to save his ship; he brought ''Growler'' left full rudder and rammed the enemy amidships at 17 knots. Machine gun fire raked the bridge at point blank range. The courageous sub seemed lost. Comdr. Gilmore cleared the bridge except for himself. Desperately wounded, he realized that he could not get below in time if his ship were to be saved. "Take her down" he ordered; and, as he floated in the sea, he wrote another stirring tale of inspirational naval history. For his heroic sacrifice to ship and crew, Comdr. Gilmore was awarded the [[Medal of Honor]], one of six submariners to receive it.
Severely damaged, but still under control, ''Growler'' returned to Brisbane under command of her executive officer, Lt. Comdr. A. F. Schade; she docked 17 February for extensive repairs.
==Last patrols==
''Growler's'' fifth, sixth, and seventh patrols, out of Brisbane to the Bismarck-Solomons area, were relatively uneventful; heavy enemy air cover and a lack of targets resulted in her coming home empty-handed from all but the fifth, on which she sank the passenger-cargo strip ''Miyadono Marti''. The seventh patrol was marred by trouble with the storage battery and generators, and on 27 October 1943, only 11 days out of Brisbane, she was ordered to Pearl Harbor, arriving 7 November, and from there to the Navy Yard at Hunter's Point, [[California]] for an extensive overhaul and refitting.
Returning to the Pacific, on 21 February 1944, ''Growler'' departed Pearl Harbor, and after refueling at Midway, headed for her patrol area. However, a week out of Midway a typhoon's high seas and wind delayed her arrival to the patrol area. Once there, ''Growler'' was again plagued by violent weather which made even periscope observation almost impossible.
''Growler'' returned to Majuro 16 April, and departed there 14 May to take up patrol in the Marianas-Eastern [[Philippines]]-Luzon area, where the first stages of the attack on the Marianas and the [[Battle of the Philippine Sea]] were getting underway. Rendezvousing with ''Banff'' and ''Seahorse'' to form a wolfpack, she continued the patrol closing several targets but achieving firing position only once, when she sank the cargo vessel ''Katori Maru''.
Her 10th patrol, from Pearl Harbor 11 August, found her in a new wolfpack, nicknamed "Ben's Busters" after ''Growler's'' skipper Comdr. T. B. Oakley; in company with ''Sealion'' and ''Pampanito'', she headed for the [[Formosa Straits]] area. Aided greatly by reconnaissance and guidance from planes, the wolfpack closed a convoy for night surface action 31 August; their torpedoes plunged the Japanese into chaos, with their own ships shooting at each other in the dark, but no sinkings were reported. Two weeks later. 12 September, the wolfpack sighted a second convoy and closed for torpedo action. A destroyer spotted ''Growler'' and attacked her, but the sub calmly fired a spread at the destroyer. Heavily damaged by the torpedoes, the flaming destroyer bore down on ''Growler'' and only adroit maneuvering took her out of the enemy's way; paint on the bridge was seared by the heat of the passing destroyer. Meantime ''Growler's'' other torpedoes and those of ''Sealion'' and ''Pampanito'' were hitting the convoy, and when Ben's Busters returned to Fremantle 26 September, they were credited with a total of six enemy ships. ''Growler'' had sunk the destroyer ''Shikinami'' and the frigate ''Hirado''; and her companions had racked up two each. The submarines had also rescued over 150 Allied prisoners from one of the torpedoed ships which had served the Japanese as a prison ship. This difficult operation had been carried out despite rough seas caused by an approaching typhoon.
==Loss==
''Growler's'' llth and final war patrol began out of Fremantle 20 October in a wolfpack with ''Hake'' and ''Hardhead''. On 8 November the wolfpack, headed by ''Growler'', closed a convoy for attack, with ''Growler'' on the opposite side of the enemy from ''Hake'' and ''Hardhead''. The order to commence attacking was the last communication ever received from ''Growler''. After the attack was underway, ''Hake'' and ''Hardhead'' heard what sounded like a torpedo explosion and then a series of depth charges on ''Growler's'' side of the convoy, and then nothing. All efforts to contact ''Growler'' for the next 3 days proved futile, and the gallant submarine, veteran of seven successful war patrols, was listed as lost in action against the enemy, cause unknown.
''Growler'' received eight battle stars for her service in World War II.
==Medal of Honor Citation for Howard W. Gilmore==
''"For distinguished gallantry and valor above and beyond the call of duty as Commanding Officer of the USS ''Growler'' during her Fourth War Patrol in the Southwest Pacific from 10 January to 7 February 1943. Boldly striking at the enemy in spite of continuous hostile air and antisubmarine patrols, Commander Gilmore sank one Japanese freighter and damaged another by torpedo fire, successfully evading sever depth charges following each attack. In the darkness of night on 7 February, an enemy gunboat closed range and prepared to ram the ''Growler''. Commander Gilmore daringly maneuvered to avoid the crash and rammed the attacker instead., ripping into the port side at 17 knots and bursting wide her plates. In the terrific fire of the sinking gunboat's heavy machine guns, Commander Gilmore calmly gave the order to clear the bridge and refusing safety for himself, remained on deck while his men preceded him below. Struck down by the fusillade of bullets and having done his utmost against the enemy, in his final moments, Commander Gilmore gave his last order to the officer of the deck, "Take her down." The ''Growler'' dived seriously damaged but under control, she was brought safely to port by her well-trained crew inspired by the courageous fighting spirit of their dead captain."''
----
''Article incorporates text from the Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, a work in the public domain.''
==References==
*[http://www.submarinesailor.com/biography/HowardGilmore/HowardGilmore-4.htm SubmarineSailor.com bio on Gilmore]
{| style="width: 100%; background:transparent; border: 2px solid #000099;" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="1"
!colspan=2 style="width: 100%; text-align: center; background-color: #000088; color: white; "|'''Copyright Details'''
|-
!style="background-color: #000088; color:white;"|License:
|style=" background-color: none;"| <small>This work is in the [[Public Domain]] in the United States because it is a work of the United States Federal Government under the terms of Title 17, Chapter 1, Section 105 of the U.S. Code</small>
|-
!style=" background-color: #000088; color:white;"|Source:
|style="background-color: none;border-top: 2px solid black"| <small>File available from the {{{1|[[United States Federal Government]] [http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/g9/growler-iii.htm]</small>}}}.
|}
[[Category:United States Navy]][[Category:Submarines]]
|align="center" colspan="2"|[[Image:USSGrowlerSS215.jpg|300px]]
|-
!colspan="2" align="center" style="color: white; height: 30px; background: navy no-repeat scroll top left;"|USS ''Growler'' (SS-215)
|-
!align ="center" style="color: white; height: 30px; background: navy no-repeat scroll top left;"|Career
!align ="center" style="color: white; height: 30px; background: navy no-repeat scroll top left;"|[[Image:US Naval Jack 48 stars.png|48px|United States Navy Jack]]
|-
|-
| Class:
| ''Gato''
|-
| Launched:
| 2 November 1941
|-
| Commissioned:
| 20 March 1942
|-
| Fate:
| Sunk in battle, 8 November 1944
|-
! colspan="2" align="center" style="color: white; height: 30px; background: navy;"| General characteristics
|-
| Displacement:
| 2,424 t
|-
| Length:
| 311 ft 9 in
|-
| Beam:
| 27 ft 2 in
|-
| Draft:
| 15 ft 3 in
|-
| Speed:
| 20 knots
|-
| Complement:
| 66 officers and men
|-
| Armament:
| One 3"/54 deck gun; 10 torpedo tubes
|}
'''USS ''Growler''''' (SS-215) was a ''Gato''-class submarine whose service in [[World War II]] earned the boat eight battle stars and a postumous [[Medal of Honor]] for her commanding officer.
==History==
''Growler'' (SS-215) was launched 2 November 1941, by Electric Boat Company of Groton, [[Connecticut]], and commissioned on 20 March 1942, Lieutenant Commander Howard W. Gilmore in command.
''Growler's'' first war patrol began 29 June 1942 as she cleared [[Pearl Harbor]] for her assigned patrol area around Dutch Harbor, [[Alaska]]; topping off at [[Midway]] on 24 June, she entered her area on 30 June. Five days later she saw her first action: sighting three destroyers, ''Growler'' closed them for a submerged torpedo attack and then surfaced. Her torpedoes struck the first two targets amidships, putting them out of action, and hit the third in the bow, but not before she had fired two torpedoes at ''Growler''. As the Japanese torpedoes "swished down each side" of ''Growler'', she dived deep, but no depth charges followed. One of the torpedoed destroyers, ''Arare'', was sunk, and the other two were severely damaged. ''Growler'' completed her patrol without finding any more targets, and on 17 July berthed at Pearl Harbor.
On 5 August ''Growler'' began her second and most successful war patrol, entering her area near [[Taiwan]] on 21 August. Two days later she conducted a submerged night attack on a freighter, surfacing to give chase when both torpedoes ran under the target and failed to explode; the freighter's quick exit into shallow waters prevented ''Growler'' from gun attack. Patrolling amidst a large fishing fleet on 25 August, ''Growler'' sighted and fired at a large passenger freighter but all three torepdoes missed; after a 3-hour depth charge attack, in which some 53 ash cans were dropped, ''Growler'' surfaced and almost immediately spotted a convoy. After 2 hours of maneuvering, she failed to catch up with the main body of the convoy but did fire at and sink an ex-gunboat, the ''Senyo Maru''. No more ships appeared in this immediate area for 3 days, so ''Growler'' shifted to the east side of the island. First to fall victim was ''Eifu<i></i>ku Maru'', a 5,866-ton cargo ship ''Growler'' sank within 40 minutes after first sighting her on 31 August. On 4 September ''Growler'' sank by gunfire the ''Kashino'', a 4,000-ton supply ship; 3 days later she sent two torpedoes into the 2,204-toh cargo ship ''Taika Maru'', which broke in half and sank in 2 minutes. On 15 September ''Growler'' cleared her patrol area, and arrived back at Pearl 30 September.
During refitting, new surface radar was installed, as well as a new 20mm. gun; thus equipped, ''Growler'' sailed from [[Hawaii]] for her new patrol area in the Solomon Islands across the key Truk-Rabaul shipping lines. Her patrol area in these days of bitter fighting over [[Guadalcanal]] was almost continually covered by enemy planes, and only eight enemy ships were sighted with no chance for attack. ''Growler'' cleared the area 3 December and arrived in Brisbane, [[Australia]], 10 December.
[[New Year's Day]] of 1943 saw ''Growler'' sail from Brisbane for what was to prove one of the most gallant actions in naval history. Entering her patrol area, again athwart the [[Truk]]-[[Rabaul]] shipping lanes, on 11 January, she waited only 5 days before sighting an enemy convoy. Maneuvering inside the escorts, ''Growler'' fired two torpedoes and saw them hit; then, as her war diary reports, she was in the unfortunate predicament of being about 400 yards from the destroyer and had to dive without being able to continue the attack. She was credited with sinking ''Chifu<i></i>ku Maru'', a passenger-cargo ship.
====Loss of Gilmore====
The patrol continued as normal, with two further attacks, but no sinking's until shortly after 0100. 7 February when ''Growler'' stealthily approached a gunboat for a night surface attack. The small fast ship suddenly turned to ram. Comdr. Gilmore then took the only move to save his ship; he brought ''Growler'' left full rudder and rammed the enemy amidships at 17 knots. Machine gun fire raked the bridge at point blank range. The courageous sub seemed lost. Comdr. Gilmore cleared the bridge except for himself. Desperately wounded, he realized that he could not get below in time if his ship were to be saved. "Take her down" he ordered; and, as he floated in the sea, he wrote another stirring tale of inspirational naval history. For his heroic sacrifice to ship and crew, Comdr. Gilmore was awarded the [[Medal of Honor]], one of six submariners to receive it.
Severely damaged, but still under control, ''Growler'' returned to Brisbane under command of her executive officer, Lt. Comdr. A. F. Schade; she docked 17 February for extensive repairs.
==Last patrols==
''Growler's'' fifth, sixth, and seventh patrols, out of Brisbane to the Bismarck-Solomons area, were relatively uneventful; heavy enemy air cover and a lack of targets resulted in her coming home empty-handed from all but the fifth, on which she sank the passenger-cargo strip ''Miyadono Marti''. The seventh patrol was marred by trouble with the storage battery and generators, and on 27 October 1943, only 11 days out of Brisbane, she was ordered to Pearl Harbor, arriving 7 November, and from there to the Navy Yard at Hunter's Point, [[California]] for an extensive overhaul and refitting.
Returning to the Pacific, on 21 February 1944, ''Growler'' departed Pearl Harbor, and after refueling at Midway, headed for her patrol area. However, a week out of Midway a typhoon's high seas and wind delayed her arrival to the patrol area. Once there, ''Growler'' was again plagued by violent weather which made even periscope observation almost impossible.
''Growler'' returned to Majuro 16 April, and departed there 14 May to take up patrol in the Marianas-Eastern [[Philippines]]-Luzon area, where the first stages of the attack on the Marianas and the [[Battle of the Philippine Sea]] were getting underway. Rendezvousing with ''Banff'' and ''Seahorse'' to form a wolfpack, she continued the patrol closing several targets but achieving firing position only once, when she sank the cargo vessel ''Katori Maru''.
Her 10th patrol, from Pearl Harbor 11 August, found her in a new wolfpack, nicknamed "Ben's Busters" after ''Growler's'' skipper Comdr. T. B. Oakley; in company with ''Sealion'' and ''Pampanito'', she headed for the [[Formosa Straits]] area. Aided greatly by reconnaissance and guidance from planes, the wolfpack closed a convoy for night surface action 31 August; their torpedoes plunged the Japanese into chaos, with their own ships shooting at each other in the dark, but no sinkings were reported. Two weeks later. 12 September, the wolfpack sighted a second convoy and closed for torpedo action. A destroyer spotted ''Growler'' and attacked her, but the sub calmly fired a spread at the destroyer. Heavily damaged by the torpedoes, the flaming destroyer bore down on ''Growler'' and only adroit maneuvering took her out of the enemy's way; paint on the bridge was seared by the heat of the passing destroyer. Meantime ''Growler's'' other torpedoes and those of ''Sealion'' and ''Pampanito'' were hitting the convoy, and when Ben's Busters returned to Fremantle 26 September, they were credited with a total of six enemy ships. ''Growler'' had sunk the destroyer ''Shikinami'' and the frigate ''Hirado''; and her companions had racked up two each. The submarines had also rescued over 150 Allied prisoners from one of the torpedoed ships which had served the Japanese as a prison ship. This difficult operation had been carried out despite rough seas caused by an approaching typhoon.
==Loss==
''Growler's'' llth and final war patrol began out of Fremantle 20 October in a wolfpack with ''Hake'' and ''Hardhead''. On 8 November the wolfpack, headed by ''Growler'', closed a convoy for attack, with ''Growler'' on the opposite side of the enemy from ''Hake'' and ''Hardhead''. The order to commence attacking was the last communication ever received from ''Growler''. After the attack was underway, ''Hake'' and ''Hardhead'' heard what sounded like a torpedo explosion and then a series of depth charges on ''Growler's'' side of the convoy, and then nothing. All efforts to contact ''Growler'' for the next 3 days proved futile, and the gallant submarine, veteran of seven successful war patrols, was listed as lost in action against the enemy, cause unknown.
''Growler'' received eight battle stars for her service in World War II.
==Medal of Honor Citation for Howard W. Gilmore==
''"For distinguished gallantry and valor above and beyond the call of duty as Commanding Officer of the USS ''Growler'' during her Fourth War Patrol in the Southwest Pacific from 10 January to 7 February 1943. Boldly striking at the enemy in spite of continuous hostile air and antisubmarine patrols, Commander Gilmore sank one Japanese freighter and damaged another by torpedo fire, successfully evading sever depth charges following each attack. In the darkness of night on 7 February, an enemy gunboat closed range and prepared to ram the ''Growler''. Commander Gilmore daringly maneuvered to avoid the crash and rammed the attacker instead., ripping into the port side at 17 knots and bursting wide her plates. In the terrific fire of the sinking gunboat's heavy machine guns, Commander Gilmore calmly gave the order to clear the bridge and refusing safety for himself, remained on deck while his men preceded him below. Struck down by the fusillade of bullets and having done his utmost against the enemy, in his final moments, Commander Gilmore gave his last order to the officer of the deck, "Take her down." The ''Growler'' dived seriously damaged but under control, she was brought safely to port by her well-trained crew inspired by the courageous fighting spirit of their dead captain."''
----
''Article incorporates text from the Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, a work in the public domain.''
==References==
*[http://www.submarinesailor.com/biography/HowardGilmore/HowardGilmore-4.htm SubmarineSailor.com bio on Gilmore]
{| style="width: 100%; background:transparent; border: 2px solid #000099;" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="1"
!colspan=2 style="width: 100%; text-align: center; background-color: #000088; color: white; "|'''Copyright Details'''
|-
!style="background-color: #000088; color:white;"|License:
|style=" background-color: none;"| <small>This work is in the [[Public Domain]] in the United States because it is a work of the United States Federal Government under the terms of Title 17, Chapter 1, Section 105 of the U.S. Code</small>
|-
!style=" background-color: #000088; color:white;"|Source:
|style="background-color: none;border-top: 2px solid black"| <small>File available from the {{{1|[[United States Federal Government]] [http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/g9/growler-iii.htm]</small>}}}.
|}
[[Category:United States Navy]][[Category:Submarines]]