World War II broke out
at sea on September 3, 1939, when German submarine U-30, helmed
by Oberleutnant Fritz-Julius Lemp, sank British passenger liner Athenia, which had been mistaken
for an auxiliary cruiser. Six years later, a torpedo salvo put
an end to that war at sea as well. That salvo was launched
by U.S. submarine Torsk, commanded by Bafford Lewellen. The Mark 28 had
a nearly 600-pound warhead. …and these torpedoes would be able
to find their way to their target by themselves, based on the sound
of the enemy's engine noise. …and they would try to get off
a shot within one minute at that target. And it was with these torpedoes that Torsk was able to sink the last
Japanese warship of World War II. Naval Legends
USS Torsk During the 1930s, American shipbuilders closely
interacted with the Naval High Command in order to find design
solutions for submarines that would satisfy
the needs of the Navy. According to the
High Naval Command, in order to oppose
the Imperial Japanese Navy, which was seen
as their main probable enemy, they required submarines capable
of operating in vast naval theaters for a long time—up to 60 days— as well as traveling at high speeds
when both submerged and surfaced. The habitat conditions and
combat performance of submarines were also important. Submarines should be
comfortable for their crews so they wouldn’t suffer
from diminishing combat efficiency and should carry powerful
torpedo and artillery armament. Starting in November 1941, Gato-class submarines were
commissioned into the U.S. Navy. The optimal
combination of characteristics allowed the submarines of that class
to fight in the Pacific Ocean effectively throughout the entire war. Balao-class submarines, an improved
version of Gato-class submarines, began entering service
in the U.S. Navy in 1942. The main difference compared
with their predecessors was a tough hull made of
22.2-mm-thick carbon alloy steel. The operating diving depth
increased to 120 meters thanks to it. The combat deployment experience
of the Gato and Balao submarines required another
upgrade of the project that eventually became “Tench,”
named after the lead ship of the series. The new submarine class utilized
low-speed propeller electric motors that allowed the engineers to get rid of
excessively loud gear reduction units. Rearranging the main ballast tanks enabled an increase to the
cruising range and torpedo capacity. These upgrades were initiated
by the Naval High Command, which tended to apply high-concealment
features to U.S. submarines. The reason behind this was that, even though the combat initiative in the
Pacific Theater was on the American side, the Japanese anti-submarine
forces remained very strong. Their submarine hunters were equipped
with advanced hydroacoustic stations, which were capable
of detecting submarines at ranges of up to 5 kilometers. Specifications of submarine Torsk, 1944. Length: 95 meters. Beam: 8.3 meters.
Mean draft: 5.2 meters. Displacement submerged: 2,415 tons. The submarine belongs
to the double-hull type, except for the aft end,
which had a single-hull design. Maximum diameter of the
pressure hull: almost 5 meters. Pressure hull thickness: 22.2 mm. The submarine is divided
into eight compartments: Compartments one and
eight are torpedo rooms; Compartments two and four are battery
rooms with living accommodation; Compartment three is the control post
with the conning tower above it; Compartments five and six
are engine rooms; Compartment seven
is an electromechanical room. Armament: ten 533-mm torpedo launchers.
Ammo capacity: 28 torpedoes. The torpedoes that Torsk carried were the Mark 27 and Mark 28
acoustic homing torpedoes. These are different than the Mark 14s,
because the Mark 14s were, basically, “plot a targeting solution
to your target, fire them, and hope they detonated on impact.” With these,
these were a lot more deadly. Each of these torpedoes was equipped
with an acoustic homing sonar that would allow it to be able to
home in on the enemy's engine noise. Artillery armament:
127-mm Mark 17 gun, 40-mm Bofors anti-aircraft gun,
20-mm Oerlikon anti-aircraft autocannon. The gun crew would be the first
members of the ship's complement to be out on deck, and they would try to get off a shot
within one minute at that target. And if they were good,
and if they were lucky, that shot would hit the target, take it by surprise and
take out that enemy vessel. So, battle surface was one
of the types of tactical evolutions that submarine crews trained for when
Torsk was first commissioned in 1945. Propulsion: four Fairbanks-Morse diesel engines
with total power of 5,400 horsepower; two General Electric engines with
a total power of 2,740 horsepower; two groups of accumulator
batteries with 126 elements in each. Maximum Speed: surfaced:
20 knots; submerged: 8.7 knots. Operating diving depth: 75 meters.
Calculated: 120 meters. Cruising range: 16,000 miles
while surfaced at a 10-knot speed. Endurance: 75 days.
Crew: 81 persons. What about the men in a submarine?
What can they do? There are two chief means of
escape from a sunken submarine— individual (S.E.A.) and
collective (the rescue chamber). This film will show
conditions in a sunken submarine and how to escape
by these two methods. This is the after torpedo
room of a sunken submarine. These men are in plenty
of trouble, and they know it. So, we are in the forward
torpedo room of the USS Torsk, and with additional
crew’s berthing right here, we also have our escape hatch, which
all US submarines were outfitted with when they were
built in World War II. Get those mouthpieces
between your teeth, open the neck valves, and pull
those goggles over your eyes. How it worked, is we have a hatch
here through the pressure hull that would allow at least
four people inside at a time, inside of the trunk itself. At which point they would
have to close that top hatch, and then open the hatch above them
to allow water into the escape trunk. Once it was filled with water,
they would open the uppermost hatch and swim out,
while wearing a respirator. And then they would have to be sure
to close the top hatch behind them, so that the escape trunk
can drain off water, and the next group of people could
enter in order to escape the submarine. Prepare for individual
escape immediately. The first item on the escape bill
is to rig the compartment and trunk. Since it’s impossible to talk with
the mouth piece between the teeth, the lieutenant must make
all his communications by gestures. Here he’s signaling for four men to break out the inflatable
life raft pictured here. But with a crew of 81 people
aboard this vessel, it was not really a practical
way to get people evacuated, and really, it was just
a “peace of mind” for submariners. It looks like the smartest
move is to do nothing. Just sit here and wait. Alright men, you’re all
experts in grabbing sack time. Now is the time to prove it—
just lie down and take it easy. Keep the air as pure as possible;
keep the men resting and quiet; and then wait
for the rescue chamber. Fortunately, Torsk’s crew didn't
have to use that rescue chamber. The submarine was
commissioned in December 1944, and she went for her first
combat raid on April 15, 1945. Torsk’s first war patrol,
which was largely on lifeguard duty, was close to Tokyo Bay, and on the eastern side
of the big island of Honshu. Torsk’s second war patrol, which began
in July of 1945, was an offensive patrol where they penetrated the
minefields in the Tsushima straits. Torsk had been outfitted
with mine detecting sonar, she was one of the few
boats to get this modification before her second war patrol. The minehunting sonar that
USS Torsk was equipped with, according to Torsk’s wartime
executive officer Roy Werthmuller, his recollection was that
when this sonar was installed and they trained with it off of Pearl
Harbor, and then again off of Guam, it was extremely effective
in picking up the target mines at a fairly great distance. When they actually got
to the area of the Tsushima Strait, there was so much
foreign matter in the water, so much krill and
other type of marine life, that it actually restricted the effective
range of their minehunting sonar to only a few hundred yards. Roy Werthmuller in his
recollection as executive officer said it was restricted
to the point where it wasn't nearly as effective
as it might have been, and he wasn't sure
whether it actually helped them get into the Sea of Japan
as much as you might think. Fortunately for them,
they had a very good idea of where the Japanese minefields were
in Tsushima, through intelligence data, and that helped a great deal
in getting into the Sea of Japan. Just as much as having
the sonar on board did. In terms of radio electronic
and hydroacoustic hardware, U.S. Tench-class submarines,
with Torsk belonging to that class, were considered the most
advanced in the world at that time. The submarine had
on-board radar stations installed for detecting aerial and surface
targets; a radio range finder; a radio direction finder for determining
the direction of enemy radar; and radio reconnaissance stations. The hydroacoustic hardware
included a sonar and hydrophone that output information for targeting to the TDC Mark IV automatic
torpedo launching system. All that hardware, in addition
to the submarines’ other systems, required a pretty complex
power supply control circuit. This is the aft maneuvering
room on the USS Torsk. And this space wasn't
used to maneuver the vessel, rather it was used to maneuver where the electricity produced
by the electric generators went. How the whole system worked is that Torsk has a set
of four electric batteries, each of them are attached
to an electric generator. And while the
submarine was submerged, we would be using electric
power to power all the systems and power the engines themselves. So what this space is really for,
is controlling where the electricity produced by the electric engines
and stored in the batteries would go, how much of it would go where. That's what these switches are for,
and by maneuvering each switch, you'd turn the battery on,
and then you can use these dials to increase the voltage going to what
space and how much of it you need. On August 11, 1945, after Torsk had successfully avoided
the minefields in the Tsushima strait, she spotted several
Japanese civilian sailors floating on the wreckage of a ship that had been destroyed
earlier by U.S. aviation. They had spent around
4 days out on the open sea, were suffering from sun exposure,
and were very exhausted. Torsk surfaced, and they were
able to send a rubber boat over and bring six of those Japanese
prisoners aboard immediately. A seventh, who was
very reluctant at the time, was eventually coaxed
to come aboard the vessel. Those seven Japanese prisoners of war
actually were kept aboard the Torsk for the entire war patrol
from that point forward. And they were given clothing to
wear by members of the Torsk’s crew, they ate their meals along with
the Torsk’s crew in the mess deck, they were given jobs onboard, like helping with preparing meals
or cleaning, or polishing, brightwork. On the morning of August 14, 1945,
Torsk was patrolling in the Sea of Japan, and she picked up
medium-sized Japanese freighter escorted by one
coastal defense frigate. She fired a Mark 28 acoustic
homing torpedo at the escort, which hit the escort vessel and sank it. The freighter then
escaped into a nearby port. Later on, around
noontime on August 14, a second Japanese coastal defense
frigate, this was frigate number 47, came out looking
for this American submarine, which had torpedoed the other frigate. Torsk’ captain, Commander Llewellyn, fired a Mark 28 acoustic
homing torpedo at that vessel, then went into deep submergence,
waiting for the explosion. They were afraid that when
they didn't hear the explosion that the torpedo had missed, so they fired a Mark 27
acoustic homing torpedo as well. And both torpedoes actually
exploded almost simultaneously, taking out coastal
defense frigate number 47. Less than 24 hours later,
the Japanese agreed to surrender. And so it turned out that
coastal defense frigate number 47 was the very last ship to be
torpedoed in all of World War II. And the distinction… And the distinction
went to the USS Torsk. The submarine returned
to the base on Guam a week after Japan had signed
an act of unconditional surrender. Torsk performed just
two raids during the war but still managed
to mark her name in history. Nevertheless,
it was time to bury the hatchet, and speaking about the further destiny
of armament and military vehicles that endured after World War II,
this catch phrase can be taken literally. Now the vessels are retired,
but kept in condition. Hulls are sandblasted to receive
a special paint against corrosion. Below, engines, pumps, air compressors,
steering and diving motors are put in perfect working order. Later the submarine
is sealed against air. Deck guns get a coating
of a special plastic— a cocoon which is airtight
and moisture proof. If needed again, these submarines
could be ready in 10 days. However, it was still too early for the submarine that sunk
the last ship in World War II to rest on her laurels
in a plastic cocoon. A different fate awaited her. After World War II, the USS Torsk
immediately went into the role of a training submarine
in New London, Connecticut. And up until 1955 she was
what they called a school boat. And as a school boat at New London,
they were basically training American submarine crews
and prospective submarine officers in diving procedures and
other submarine operations. Navy had many submarines like this
that were still basically brand-new, however, after World War II, Navy had required a lot
more from their submarines. They wanted submarines that could
dive deeper, move more silently, and have a greater endurance
than those in World War II. They wanted to be able to
carry out the same missions that modern submarines of today
use, like carry ballistic missiles. So the Navy had instituted the
GUPPY fleet modernization program to basically keep
these boats updated. The GUPPY program presented
an effective means of adjusting the available submarine fleet to the
changing conditions of naval warfare. For a relatively small
price, in the 1950s, the U.S. Navy received 74 submarines that corresponded to the
requirements of that time. Together with a small number of diesel-
electric submarines of a new design, these submarines formed the
core of the American submarine fleet until mass commissioning
of nuclear submarines commenced at the
beginning of the 1960s. In 1952, Torsk was
one of those submarines that underwent some minimal
upgrades within this program— the submarine received a new conning
tower with a bridge and snorkel. Torsk is outfitted with a fleet snorkel. This is of course from
captured German technology, specifically the type XXI U-boats. And like a snorkel for a person, this allows the submarine
to breathe while submerged. Torsk is powered by diesel
engines, so what the snorkel is, it allows air into the submarine
while it's still submerged. Big problem with this system, is that it's a big pipe
just behind our periscopes, and the water is able to get in,
because there’s a big hole into the boat. So, to prevent that, we have a rubber ball that is fixed
into the inside of the snorkel, and when the waves come up, pushes that rubber ball inside of the
snorkel preventing water from getting in. In heavy seas, one of the
disadvantages of the snorkel procedure was that the intake head had
a flapper valve on the top of it, which would close when the sea
broke over top of the snorkel. That caused the engines to immediately
pull a temporary vacuum inside the boat, and tended to cause
discomfort for the crew because the pressure inside
the boat would change, they'd have to clear their eardrums,
and it could be rather tiresome if you were snorkeling for any
length of time in rough seas. The snorkel would
gradually become obsolete with the development
of nuclear submarines, but at that time, in the 1950s
and at the beginning of the 1960s, there was a majority of such
submarines as Torsk in the U.S. Navy. They turned out to be quite popular
also at the time of, probably, the most intense episode of the
Cold War—the Cuban Missile Crisis. In October 1962, Torsk was part
of the forces that blocked Cuba. The submarine found herself at the confrontation frontier
between two superpowers. During the operation,
the submarine dispatched teams to inspect Soviet
transport ships several times, and for this, she was eventually awarded
the Commendation Medal of the U.S. Navy. After the crisis was resolved, the submarine returned
to her usual training activities. My favorite Torsk
story was from 1964, when she was part
of war games in the Pacific. And by that time Torsk was showing
her age as a World War II submarine. And they had a big
meeting before the war games, with all the captains
of all the respective vessels that were going to be participating. And they gave Torsk’s
captain a lot of grief. They were like “there's no way
you're gonna get close enough, we will hear you, you're in this
rickety old World War II submarine!” So the captain leaves that
meeting without saying a word. The war games commence, and how Torsk would show that it
fired its torpedo at its primary target, which was the aircraft
carrier USS Forrestal, was they would launch a poof of
purple smoke that everyone would see, so they'd know that a torpedo
had been fired at them. The entire war games go through,
and there's no poof of purple smoke. So they have a big
meeting again at the end, when the captain of Torsk shows up
with a big manila folder in his hands. And once again, all the other
captains gave him all this grief, they're like “Oh, you never got
close enough, you didn't even try, we would have gotten you
had you tried again”. All he did is take this manila folder and throw it down on the table
in front of all these captains. And inside that folder was
a picture of the USS Forrestal, like, right off of its bow. And it was a totally a mic-drop
moment, and the captain of Torsk just turned around and left
with everyone else in shock. Torsk herself was
decommissioned on March 4th, 1968. She had compiled at that time a very impressive record
of 10,668 career dives— a record number of dives mostly attained
from her role as a training vessel, where diving was a regular
thing that they did all the time to train diving officers. But that number
of 10,668 career dives is one of the highest totals
of any fleet-type sub, and in fact, any
submarine in the US Navy. And it's a record that will never be
approached by any of the nuclear subs, because they operate so differently, and they dive much less than
a diesel-electric sub such as the Torsk. A very eloquent fact that characterizes
the Tench-class submarines is that one of these submarines
is still in service. After having served for
27 years, Torsk was excluded from the list of warships of
the U.S. Navy in December 1971. In September of the following year, the submarine was transferred
to the state of Maryland. Today, the submarine is permanently
berthed in the Inner Harbor, the historic port of Baltimore.
