USS Flasher (SS-249)

History
Builder:	Electric Boat Company, Groton, Connecticut
Laid down:	30 September 1942
Launched:	20 June 1943
Commissioned:	25 September 1943
Decommissioned:	16 March 1946
Struck:	1 June 1959
Fate:	Sold for scrap 8 June 1963, conning tower is a memorial at Groton, Connecticut
General characteristics
Class and type:	Gato-class diesel-electric submarine
Displacement:	1,525 tons (1,549 t) surfaced 2,424 tons (2,460 t) submerged
Length:	311 ft 9 in (95.02 m)
Beam:	27 ft 3 in (8.31 m)
Draft:	17 ft 0 in (5.18 m) maximum
Propulsion:	4 × General Motors Model 16-248 V16 diesel engines driving electrical generators 2 × 126-cell Sargo batteries 4 × high-speed General Electric electric motors with reduction gears two propellers 5,400 shp (4.0 MW) surfaced 2,740 shp (2.0 MW) submerged
Speed:	21 knots (39 km/h) surfaced 9 knots (17 km/h) submerged
Range:	11,000 nmi (20,000 km) surfaced at 10 knots (19 km/h)
Endurance:	48 hours at 2 knots (4 km/h) submerged 75 days on patrol
Test depth:	300 ft (90 m)
Complement:	6 officers, 54 enlisted
Armament:	10 × 21-inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes 6 forward, 4 aft 24 torpedoes 1 × 3-inch (76 mm) / 50 caliber deck gun Bofors 40 mm and Oerlikon 20 mm cannon

USS Flasher (SS-249) was a Gato-class submarine which served in the Pacific during World War II. She received three Presidential Unit Citations and six battle stars, and sank 21 ships for a total of 100,231 tons of Japanese shipping.

She was the first ship of the United States Navy to be named for the flasher. Her keel was laid down 30 September 1942 by Electric Boat Co., Groton, Connecticut. She was launched on 20 June 1943 (sponsored by Mrs. Eleanor Saunders, wife of LCDR Willard Saunders, Commanding Officer of USS Muskallunge) and commissioned 25 September 1943, Lieutenant Commander Reuben T. Whitaker (Class of 1934) in command.

Flasher arrived at Pearl Harbor from New London 15 December 1943 to prepare for her first war patrol, for which she sailed 6 January 1944. Bound for her patrol area off Mindoro, she sank her first target 18 January, sending a 2,900-ton former gunboat Yoshida Maru to the bottom. Adding to what would be the greatest total of enemy tonnage credited to an American submarine in World War II, she sank the freighter Taishin Maru off Manila 5 February, and sank two cargo ships of the same convoy on 14 February. Flasher arrived at Fremantle, Australia 29 February to refit. The 2 vessels sunk 14 February 1944 were the Minryo Maru and the Hokuan Maru. See [1]. (The Hokuan Maru probably rammed and sunk the Grayling 9 September 1943.)

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