USS Cavalla (SS-244)
The USS Cavalla ( SS/SSK/AGSS-244 ) was a submarine of the United States Navy and was among the Gato - class.
History
The Cavalla was laid in March 1943 at Electric Boat in Kiel and ran after eight months of construction of the stack. End of February 1944, the boat was put into service.
On May 9, the Cavalla Pearl Harbor reached under there ran a short repair and ran from May 31 to the west, in the waters east of the Philippines. Along the way she made on June 17 on a Japanese task force, and pursued them for several hours. Then put the Cavalla from a contact alert and helped to secure the victory in the Battle of the Philippine Sea on 19 and 20 June. On June 19, the boat spotted the Japanese aircraft carrier Shokaku, the aircraft just landed. The Cavalla shot down six torpedoes, three of which met and the ship sank. Three Japanese destroyers, who responded with water bombs, escaped the boat.
The second mission took place in September in the Philippine Sea. The Cavalla was there part of a " Wolf Pack", a group of three submarines that constantly operated together in contrast to the German " wolf packs ", and helped in the invasion of Peleliu. The end of 1944 the boat sank the Japanese destroyer Shimotsuki and escaped a sister ship of the sunken. On January 5, 1945, the Cavalla attacked a convoy and sank two tender.
The fourth and fifth trip took place in the southern Chinese and the Java Sea. On 21 May 1945, the Cavalla took on the British submarine HMS Terrapin, which was badly damaged and could not dive. Together reached the two submarines on 27 May Fremantle.
The truce experienced the Cavalla ahead of Japan. Shortly after receiving the message, the boat was attacked by a Japanese plane, but not damaged. On August 31, the Cavalla sailed into Tokyo Bay and witnessed the signing of the declaration of surrender of Japan with so direct. On September 3, the boat ran out and reached New London on 8 October, where it was delivered in March 1946 divided the reserve fleet.
On 10 April 1951, the Cavalla was put back into service and took part in several exercises in the Caribbean and off Nova Scotia in part. On 3 September 1952, the boat was re- decommissioned and rebuilt at its shipyard at EB in a hunting - submarine and reclassified to SSK -244. The recommissioning was held on 15 July 1953. Your new sonar made it a suitable test platform so that it carried out several tests from 1954. 1959, the classification was changed back to SS 244.
On November 3, 1961 the diesel submarine supported the nuclear submarine USS Thresher (SSN -593 ) with electricity. On board the Thresher, the reactor was shut down and the diesel generator failed, so that the boat was no longer current. Since this also the ventilation was failed, the interior reached temperatures of over 60 ° C until a power cable from the Cavalla made again for energy on the atomic submarine. In July 1963, the Cavalla was finally as an auxiliary submarine or Auxiliary Submarine reclassified ( AGSS -244 ) and the end of 1969, finally decommissioned. In early 1971, the Cavalla was towed to the Pelican Iceland near Galveston, Texas, and is there as a museum ship in Seawolf Park.