USS Gudgeon (SS-211)
|
|
 insert caption here (insert link to larger image here) | |
| Career | |
|---|---|
| Ordered: | |
| Laid down: | |
| Launched: | 25 January 1941 |
| Commissioned: | 21 April 1941 |
| Fate: | lost, cause unknown |
| Stricken: | |
| General Characteristics | |
| Displacement: | 1475 tons |
| Length: | 307 feet |
| Beam: | 27 feet 3 inches |
| Draft: | 13 feet 3 inches |
| Speed: | 20 knots |
| Complement: | 85 officers and men |
| Armament: | one three-inch/50-caliber gun, ten 21-inch torpedo tubes |
USS Gudgeon (SS-211), a Tambor-class submarine, was the first ship of the United States Navy to be named for the gudgeon, a small slender European freshwater fish often used as bait. Her keel was laid down by the Mare Island Navy Yard. She was launched on 25 January 1941, sponsored by Mrs. William S. Pye, and commissioned on 21 April 1941 with Lieutenant Commander Elton W. Grenfell in command.
After shakedown along the California coast, Gudgeon sailed north on 28 August, heading for Alaska via Seattle, Washington. On her northern jaunt the new submarine inspected Sitka, Kodiak, and Dutch Harbor for suitability as naval bases. Continuing to Hawaii, she moored at the Pearl Harbor submarine base 10 October. Training exercises and local operations filled Gudgeon’s time for the next two months. During the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December she was at Lahaina Roads on special exercises, but returned to base immediately.
On 11 December Gudgeon, in company with Plunger (SS-179), sailed from Pearl Harbor on the first American submarine offensive patrol of World War II. When she returned some 51 days later, Gudgeon had contributed two more impressive "firsts" to the Pacific submarine fleet. She was the first American submarine to patrol along the Japanese coast itself, as her area took her off Kyushu in the home islands. And on 27 January 1942 Gudgeon became the first United States Navy submarine to sink an enemy warship in World War II, Japanese submarine I-173. The Japanese submarine had just returned from a patrol which took her well into American water off the coast of California and Washington.
On her second war patrol, 22 February to 15 April 1942 Gudgeon scored kills on two unknown marus, both freighters, 26 March and 27 March. She then checked into dry-dock for overhaul, but undocked three weeks early and readied for sea in a remarkable 40 hours to participate in the momentous Battle of Midway. Departing Pearl Harbor on 18 May, Gudgeon took station off Midway Island as part of the submarine screen which encircled the two giant fleets clashing there. Although she had a ringside seat for the action, which saw Japan handed its first naval defeat in 350 years, Gudgeon was prevented from offensive action by the confusion of battle and the possibility of mistaken identity. She returned to Pearl Harbor on 14 June.
Departing for her fourth patrol 11 July, Gudgeon sank the 4858-ton Naniwa Maru in a night submerged attack 3 August, her only kill of the patrol. An aggressive attack on a four-ship convoy 17 August seriously damaged two marus before the patrol ended at Fremantle, Australia, on 2 September.
Now a part of the Southwestern Pacific submarine forces, Gudgeon sank the 8783-ton Choko Maru on 21 October during her fifth war patrol, 8 October to 1 December, and carried out a daring attack on a seven ship convoy on 11 November, torpedoing several ships but sinking none.
The submarine's sixth war patrol, from 27 December 1942 to 18 February 1943, was unsuccessful terms of ships sunk, but she carried out two special missions. On 14 January 1943 Gudgeon successfully land six men on Mindanao, Philippines, to carry out the vital guerrilla resistance movement there. Returning from her patrol area, Gudgeon was diverted to Timor Island on 9 February, and the following day rescued 28 men -- Australian, English, Portuguese, and Filipino -- for passage to Fremantle.
Gudgeon’s seventh war patrol, from 13 March into April 1943, netted her two more Japanese ships before she ran out of torpedoes and had to return to Australia. On 22 March she sank the 5434-ton Meigen Maru as well as seriously damaging two other ships in the convoy. Five days later Gudgeon took on 9997-ton tanker Toko Maru in a night surface attack punctuated by bursts of gunfire as the Japanese ships spotted and fired on the submarine. It took five torpedoes to sink Toko Maru, and most of Gudgeon’s crew enjoyed the rare treat of watching her slide into the depths.
On her eighth war patrol, conducted as she sailed from Australia to Pearl Harbor on 15 April to 25 May 1943, Gudgeon chalked up three more kills. Her first came 28 April as she sank Kamakura Maru, a former ocean liner. The 17,52-ton transport was the largest Japanese transport, and one of the largest enemy ships sunk by an American submarine. Special operations interrupted Gudgeon’s patrol as she landed six trained guerrilla fighters and three tons of equipment for the guerrilla movement on Panay on 30 April. After sinking a small trawler, Noko Maru, with her deck guns 4 May, Gudgeon battle-surfaced again that same day and left a coastal steamer burning and settling. Eight days later, 12 May, she torpedoed and sank freighter Sumatra Maru. Returning to Pearl Harbor, the veteran submarine was sent to San Francisco, California, for badly needed overhaul, her first since commissioning two years earlier.
A refreshed sub and crew departed Pearl Harbor for their ninth war patrol 1 September 1943. Before returning to Midway Island on 6 October with all torpedoes expended, Gudgeon had sunk Taiau Maru and seriously damaged several others.
Heading along the China coast for her tenth war patrol, form 31 October to 11 December, Gudgeon chalked up two more marus. Early in the morning of 23 November she spotted a convoy of four ships and closed for attack. Gudgeon fired a spread of six torpedoes with gratifying results. The frigate Wakamiya, hit by one torpedo, broke in two, sinking almost immediately. A tanker and a freighter were also hit but managed to escape. Gudgeon closed in to finish off the transport Nekka Maru.
Several attacks but no kills highlighted Gudgeon’s 11th war patrol. On 2 February 1944, she sighted a damaged aircraft carrier with two escorts. Gudgeon closed for attack, but the escorts spotted her and attacked. A down-the-throat shot with four torpedoes temporarily discouraged the destroyers and allowed Gudgeon to seek deep water and safety, but when she surfaced the Japanese men-of-war were gone. Later in the same patrol Gudgeon was forced to try another down-the-throat shot at an enemy escort, but no hits. She returned to Pearl Harbor on 5 March 1944.
Gudgeon sailed for her 12th war patrol on 4 April 1944. The submarine stopped off at Johnston Island on 7 April, and was never seen or heard from again. On 7 June 1944, Gudgeon was officially declared overdue and presumed lost. Captured Japanese records shed no light on the manner of her loss, and it remains one of the mysteries of the sea.
During her three-year career, Gudgeon scored 12 confirmed kills of a total of 71,047 tons sunk, placing her 15th on the honor roll of American submarines.
For her first seven war patrols Gudgeon received the Presidential Unit Citation. She earned 11 battle stars for World War II service.
See USS Gudgeon for other ships of the same name.
References
This article includes information collected from the Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships.