History | |
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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: | |
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: |
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Speed: |
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Range: | 11,000 nmi (20,000 km) surfaced at 10 knots (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 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.)