History | |
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Name: | USS Cero |
Namesake: | Cero mackerel |
Builder: | Electric Boat Company, Groton, Connecticut |
Laid down: | 24 August 1942 |
Launched: | 4 April 1943 |
Sponsored by: | Mrs. D. E. Barbey |
Commissioned: | 4 July 1943 |
Decommissioned: | 8 June 1946 |
Commissioned: | 4 February 1952 |
Decommissioned: | 23 December 1953 |
Struck: | 30 June 1967 |
Fate: | Sold for scrap, October 1970 |
General characteristics | |
Class and type: | Gato-class diesel-electric submarine |
Displacement: |
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Length: | 311 ft 9 in (95.02 m) |
Beam: | 27 ft 3 in (8.31 m) |
Draft: | 17 ft (5.2 m) maximum |
Propulsion: |
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Speed: |
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Range: | 11,000 nmi (20,000 km) surfaced at 10 kn (19 km/h) |
Endurance: |
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Test depth: | 300 ft (90 m) |
Complement: | 6 officers, 54 enlisted |
Armament: |
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USS Cero (SS-225), a Gato-class submarine, was the first submarine and second ship of the United States Navy to be named for the cero.
Cero's keel was laid down on 24 August 1942 by Electric Boat Co., Groton, CT. She was launched 4 April 1943 (sponsored by Mrs. Katherine J. Barbey, wife of Rear Admiral Daniel E. Barbey, Commanding officer of the Amphibious Force, Southwest Pacific Force at the time) and commissioned 4 July 1943, Commander David C. White (Class of 1927) in command.
Cero cleared New London 17 August 1943 for Pacific waters, and on 26 September sailed from Pearl Harbor, bound for the East China and Yellow Seas on her first war patrol. This patrol was also the first American wolfpack, comprising Cero, Shad (SS-235), and Grayback (SS-208), commanded from Cero by Captain "Swede" Momsen. At dawn on 12 October, Cero made her first attack, on a convoy of three freighters escorted by two destroyers; one of the merchantmen was heavily damaged. During this patrol, she damaged two other freighters, and a small patrol boat which she engaged on the surface.
After refitting at Midway from 16 November to 13 December 1943, Cero, Edward Dissette commanding, made an unproductive second war patrol along the Truk-New Ireland route, then put into Milne Bay, New Guinea, from 12 January to 4 February 1944. Returning to the Truk-New Ireland shipping lanes, she attacked a freighter (later sunk by one of her sister submarines) and inflicted damage on another merchantman. She put into Brisbane, Australia, 2 March, and sailed 3 April on her fourth war patrol, off the Palau Islands. Her most successful day to date came on 23 May, when she attacked two freighters and a tanker, sinking one cargo ship, and damaging the tanker.