Submarines of the Balao type ( English Balao ) - a series of cruising submarines of the US Navy during the Second World War . Thanks to the 122 units built [1] it is considered the most numerous class built for the US Navy . Representing the development of the earlier Gato type , these submarines have some differences from their ancestors. The most significant improvement is the use of a thicker steel with a higher yield strength for cladding and building a solid body [2] , which allowed to increase the working depth to 400 feet (120 m ). In practice, the USS Tang managed to exceed the estimated depth in the test dive, [3] and then, avoiding the collision with the destroyer , [4] exceed it, having collected water in the front torpedo compartment and reached a depth of 612 feet (187 m ) according to the depth gauge.
| Submarines of the Balao type | |
|---|---|
| Balao-class | |
 USS Balao (SS-285) | |
| Project | |
| A country |
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| Manufacturers |
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| Operators |
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| Preceding type | gato type |
| Subsequent type | type "Tench" |
| Years of construction | 1942 - 1946 |
| Years in the ranks | 1943 - 1975 |
| Built | 128 |
| In the ranks | one |
| Saved | 9 |
| Canceled | 63 |
| Losses | eleven |
| Main characteristics | |
| Surface displacement | 1,526 t (1,550 t) |
| Underwater displacement | 2 391 - 2 424 t (2 429 - 2 463 t) |
| Length | 94.9 - 95.0 m |
| Width | 8.3 m |
| Draft | 5.13 m max. |
| Engines | 4 × high-speed electric motors with reduction gears or 2 × low-speed electric motors ( Elliott Company or General Electric ) |
| Power point | 4 × diesel engines rotating Fairbanks-Morse or General Motors electric generators ); 2 × 126 chemical batteries Sargo ; |
| Power | 5400 h.p. surface 2740 h.p. underwater |
| Surface speed | 20.25 knots |
| Underwater speed | 8.75 knots |
| Working depth | 120 m |
| Above-water swimming range | 11,000 nautical miles (20,000 km) at 10 knots (19 km / h) |
| Underwater swimming range | 48 hours at 2 knots (3.7 km / h) |
| Crew | 10 officers, 70–71 junior officers |
| Armament | |
| Artillery | 1 x 5-inch (127mm) deck gun with a barrel length of 25 calibers |
| Flak | Bofors L60 and Oerlikon |
| Mine torpedo armament | 6 × nasal TA cal. 533 mm 4 × feed TA cal. 533 mm 24 torpedoes |
Content
- 1 Propulsion
- 2 submarines in service
- 3 Museums
- 4 See also
- 5 notes
- 6 References
Propulsion
Basically, the propulsion system of the Balao -type submarines is identical to the Gato's predecessor-type submarine system. Like their ancestors, they were completely diesel-electric , thanks to four electric generators rotated by diesel engines and electric motors that rotate shafts. There was no direct connection between diesels and shafts.
General Motors diesel engine model 16-248 V16
The main engines of the Balao boats were supplied by two firms: Fairbanks-Morse supplied the Model 38D8⅛, the counter-piston engine and General Motors ( Cleveland Diesel ) supplied the Model 16-248 and Model 16-248A ” V16 engines in Fairbanks-Morse initially supplied 9- cylinder engines, but subsequently, starting with USS Sand Lance (SS-381) , boats began to receive 10- cylinder diesel engines. Boats equipped with General engines Motors began to receive an updated Model 16-278A diesel starting with USS Perch (SS-313) . In both cases the updated versions had a larger working volume , but about the same power - the average effective pressure (compression) was reduced to provide greater reliability.The engines of both suppliers were push-pull .
Two submarines - USS Unicorn (SS-429) and USS Vendace (SS-430) were supposed to receive a Hooven-Owens-Rentschler diesel engine (HOR), however the order has been canceled.
The electric motors of the Balao type submarines were also supplied by two suppliers: Elliott Company they were mainly placed on boats with Fairbanks-Morse engines, and General Electric were placed on boats equipped with General Motors diesel engines. However, a number of boats with FM diesel engines received GE electric motors. Also, on boats from SS-530 to SS-536 , Allis-Chalmers electric motors were to be installed However, their construction was canceled even before receiving their own names.
The early submarines were equipped with four high-speed electric motors (two per shaft), equipped with reduction gears, to ensure an acceptable speed of rotation of the screws. However, such a scheme was quite noisy, which made the boats easily detectable using a hydrophone , so most of the later boats of the Balao type were equipped with bilingual low-speed electric motors that rotated shafts directly, which made these submarines much quieter. It must be added, however, that until the appearance of the subsequent type of Tench, this improvement was not necessary. Since the diesel engines were not connected to the shafts, their rotation was constantly provided by electric motors .
In general, the Balao type was very successful, and it was the boat of this type - USS Archer-Fish (SS-311) that holds a kind of record - the largest ship sunk by a submarine. It was she who destroyed the aircraft carrier of the Imperial Navy of Japan, " Sinano " (59,000 gt ) on November 29, 1944 .
Submarines in formation
For 2007, only two submarines of the Balao type, built during World War II, remained in service throughout the world. One of them is the USS Tusk (SS-426) transferred to Taiwan in the early 1970s. [5] [6]
Museums
Eight submarines of the Balao type are open to public access. Basically, they are kept on the money earned from the sale of tickets, and are maintained in accordance with the US Navy standards, passing an annual inspection and receiving an “inspection card”. Some boats, such as Batfish and Pampanito, in order to enhance the patriotic spirit, even allow groups of volunteers to spend the night on board so that they can be inspired.
Full list of submarine museums of the Balao type:
- USS Batfish (SS-310) at the Muskogi Memorial Park (Oklahoma)
- USS Becuna (SS-319) at the Independent Port Museum in Philadelphia (PA)
- USS Bowfin (SS-287) presenting a museum in Honolulu (Hawaii)
- USS Clamagore (SS-343) at the Patriot's Point Maritime Museum Mount Pleasant (Southern California)
- USS Ling (SS-297) at the New Jersey Naval Museum in Hackensack (New Jersey)
- USS Lionfish (SS-298) at the Battleship Cove in the Fall River (Massachusetts)
- USS Pampanito (SS-383) in the San Francisco Historic Memorial Park in San Francisco (California) . It was this boat that played the role of the USS Stingray in the film Remove Periscope
- USS Razorback (SS-394) at the Arkansas Maritime Terrestrial Museum in North Little Rock (Arkansas)
See also
- Gato Submarines - Previous Project
- Submarines of the Tench type - follow-up project
- U.S. Navy Submarine Types
- The GUPPY program is an intensive modification program for part of the class submarines.
Notes
- ↑ Lenton, HT American Submarines (New York: Doubleday, 1973), p. 5.
- ↑ Peter T. Sasgen. Red scorpion: the war patrols of the USS Rasher. - Naval Institute Press, 2002 .-- P. 17.
- ↑ Richard H. O'Kane. Clear the Bridge! The War Patrols of the USS Tang. - Presidio Press, 1977 .-- P. 40.
- ↑ Richard H. O'Kane. Clear the Bridge! The War Patrols of the USS Tang. - Presidio Press, 1977 .-- P. 111.
- ↑ Museum documents an operating US, WW II built submarine in Taiwan
- ↑ Jimmy Chuang . World's longest-serving sub feted , Taipei Times (Tuesday, Apr 17, 2007), p. 2.
Links
- Wikimedia Commons has media related to Balao Submarines