Turkish Submarine CERBE (S-340)  ex-USS Trutta  (SS-421)

MEMORIAL TO TURK SUBS

 

The CREBE (S-340)

ex-USS TRUTTA (SS-421)

as she stands today.

History

USS TRUTTA  (SS-421), is named for a variety of trout, distinguished from the typical trout by its small, black spots and its smaller and fewer scales. Originally assigned the name “TOMATATE,”  Submarine Hull Number 421 was renamed “TRUTTA” on September 24 1942. She was christened by Mrs. Edward C. Magdeburger  and launched on August 18, 1944 from the Portsmouth Navy Yard in Kittery, Maine.

USS TRUTTA (SS-421) is a Tench Class submarine, built in Portsmouth Navy Yard. Thus, is a “Portsmouth Boat.”   One of the best-kept secrets of World War II was the increase in the operating depth of our submarines, from 300 feet to 400 feet. This was accomplished by shifting from mild steel to high-tensile steel and increasing the thickness of the pressure-hull plating, using the weight saved in previous classes by meticulous attention to design details in every area. Naturally, the Balao Class boats became known as the “thick skins”...while the Gato Class and earlier classes were dubbed “thin skins.”  In outward appearance and internal layout, the heavy-hull boats were practically identical to the earlier type, and many people, including the Japanese were unaware that there had been any change.

World War II losses totaled just nine, the low toll being due to the completion of many units too late in the war to encounter much opposition from the battered Japanese antisubmarine forces. Most of the Balao Class underwent conversion to new configurations after World War II, and made up the bulk of the Navy’s active submarine force until nuclear-powered attack boats replaced most of them during the 1960s.

The Tench Class design was a refinement of the Balao type hull in which the fuel and ballast tanks were completely rearranged. The objective was to eliminate the risers from the main ballast tanks in the single-hull sections, which passed through the forward and after torpedo rooms and were considered to be a point of potential vulnerability to flooding. The problem was solved by shifting Number 1 Main Ballast Tank to the location formally occupied by the Forward Trim Tank and changing Number 7 Main Ballast Tank to a variable fuel tank. An additional variable fuel tank had to be incorporated forward to provide compensation for weight changes as stores, weapons, and fuel were used up during a patrol. Other changes included the latest models of machinery and equipment, the most important of which was probably the new slow-speed, direct-drive main propulsion motors. The successful development of these large motors enabled the elimination of the noisy and easily damaged reduction gears, and, incidentally, permitted the hull designers to streamline the pressure hull, eliminating a reduction gears and motors. Stowage space for four more spare torpedoes was created by careful rearrangement of the torpedo rooms. Externally, the boats were practically indistinguishable for Balao Class submarines except for a sharper knuckle at the ball of the stem.

Many of the Balao Class submarines ordered in the 1943—1945 programs were cancelled and reordered to the Tench Class design, but only twenty-five were completed, most of them too late to see Second World War service. All except USS Consair (SS-435) were built to Portsmouth plans and most were converted to Guppy or snorkel types after the Second World War.

The USS Trutta (SS-421) was designed to dive safely to 400 feet, her operating depth. She has eight watertight compartments plus a conning tower. The pressure hull plating was 35 to 35.7 pound high tensile steel (approximately 7/8th of an inch thick).

Armament consisted of 6 bow and 4 stern 21-inch torpedo tubes. The maximum torpedo load was twenty-eight Mark 14 Mod, 3A torpedoes. In place of torpedoes, a maximum of 40 mines could be carried. One 5-inch / 25-caliber dual-purpose deck gun was fitted. Anti-aircraft guns consisted of one 40-mm, one 20-mm, and two .50-caliber machine guns.

Fuel capacity was 113,510 gallons of diesel oil, which fueled 4 main Fairbanks-Morse opposed piston 1,600 horsepower diesel engines, and one auxiliary Fairbanks-Morse opposed piston diesel engine, which turned generators, which made electricity, which turned two General Electric propulsion motors of 2,710 shaft horsepower, which could drive the boat at 20.25 knots on the surface, This gave her a cruising range on the surface of 11,000 miles at ten knots (rated).

The generators were also utilized to charge 2 Exide 126-cell main storage batteries which could power the main propulsion motors and could dive the boat at 8.75 knots when submerged, Her submerged endurance, at 2 knots, was two days. Her patrol endurance was rated at 75 days. USS Trutta had a mean draft of 15 feet 3 inches when on the surface in diving trim.

While patrolling near the entrance to Daito Wan on the western coast of Korea on April 18th, she sank one small freighter with gunfire and damaged another. Off the China coast on the 22nd, USS Trutta narrowly escaped damage when an enemy float plane dropped two bombs which exploded over the diving submarine, Shortly after midnight three days later, as USS Trutta patrolled west of Quelpart Island, lookouts on the submarine’s bridge were startled to see a torpedo pass astern.

As USS Trutta put on speed and turned parallel to the torpedo’s wake, another torpedo passed by her port side moving from stern to bow, a reminder that she was not alone in the Yellow Sea.

Following refitting and exercises in Guam on June 2nd, USS Trutta got underway in the company with USS Queenfish (SS-393). She weathered a typhoon before arriving on lifeguard station. That day while standing lifeguard duty for air strikes on Kobe, the submarine rescued a downed Army aviator who had been adrift in a small rubber boat for nearly a week, and who, the day before, had also weathered the typhoon.

As air raids against the cities of the Japanese homeland intensified, USS Trutta manned a lifeguard station south of Kyushu, made patrols just off Bungo Suido, and conducted visual and photo reconnaissance of Tori Shima, approaching to within about one mile of the island, On June 21st, she departed Bungo Suido to join sister “Street’s Sweepers”  patrolling the Yellow and East China Seas. She conducted patrols west of Tsushima Strait and then fired a few diversionary rounds of 5-inch fire on Hirado Shima before moving west to take up patrol along the southwest coast of Korea. On July 1st, her persistence paid off when, after pursuing a sailing vessel, she discovered a fleet of schooners. Working quickly to take advantage of surprise and to prevent the ships from fleeing to nearby shallow water, USS Trutta sank seven of the three and four masted schooners in a four-hour action. Crew members boarded and searched two of the vessels and put the schooner crews in lifeboats before destroying the ships.

On the 6th, while patrolling the southern approaches to Daito Wan, she came upon a tug towing three schooners, quickly dispatched the tug and two of its tows with 5-inch fire, and left the third in flames, She continued patrolling along the Korean coast until the afternoon of July 12th when she departed the area and set her course for the Marianas.

USS Trutta arrived at Guam on the 18th and underwent refitting. After getting underway on the 12th for her third war patrol, she received official word that peace negotiations had obviated continuing her patrol; and, two days later she headed for the United States via Pearl Harbor and the Panama Canal.

On September 2 1945 the Second World War officially ended with the signing of the instruments of surrender by the Japanese on the deck of battleship USS Missouri anchored in Tokyo Bay, Japan.

USS Trutta (SS-421) received two battle stars for her service during the Second World War.

January 1946 she reported to the 16th Fleet for inactivation. She remained in the Reserve Fleet until 1951 when she was reactivated at the Connecticut submarine base.

Re-commissioned on March 1, 1951 USS Trutta (SS-421) operated out of that submarine base until May 4, 1952 when she was again decommissioned, this time at the Charleston Naval Shipyard at Charleston, South Carolina.

USS Trutta was one of sixteen submarines in the Fiscal Year 1952 Program that provided for conversion of Fleet type submarines to GUPPY submarines. GUPPY stands for Greater Underwater Propulsion Power. The “Y” has no significance. This program was known as the Guppy IIA Program.

The modifications included streamlining the superstructure deck and conning tower fairwater and installing a snorkel system. One main propulsion engine and the auxiliary diesel engine were removed, A sonar room was built into space created by the removal of the diesel engine. USS Trutta received Sargo II batteries with electrolyte agitation, battery cooling, and open tank ventilation, The electrical system was beefed up by doubling the capacity of the AC motor-generators to handle lighting as well as the previous load, and 120 volt direct current for other purposes was provided through rectifiers instead of rheostats. Tow 400 cycle motor-generator sets were also added to meet the needs of new electronic equipment. the propellers were of the five-bladed fleet type.

Following her GUPPY IIA conversion at the Charleston Naval Shipyard at Charleston, South Carolina, the submarine was re-commissioned on January 2, 1953 and joined Submarine Squadron 4 at the United States Naval Station at Key West, Florida.

When re-commissioned, the Guppy IIA submarine was 306 feet in length overall; had a maximum beam of 27 feet 4 inched; had a normal displacement of 1,840 tons when on the surface and 2,445 tons when submerged; had accommodations for 8 officers, 5 chief petty officers, and approximately 70 enlisted men; was armed only with 6 bow and 4 stern 21 inch torpedo tubes (all topside guns were removed); could make 18 knots on the surface and 15 knots submerged; and had only three 1,66 horsepower main diesel engines for propulsion.

For the next nineteen years, USS Trutta (SS-421) operated out of Key West, plying the Atlantic, The Caribbean, and the Gulf of Mexico.

During this period, she also made six deployments to the Mediterranean. The submarine assisted in the evaluation of new weapon systems, including electronic counter-measures equipment; served as an anti-submarine warfare (ASW) training target; trained naval reserves; and participated in fleet exercised.

Shortly after her transfer to Submarine Squadron 12 on August 1, 1959, she rescued five Cuban refugees who had been adrift in a rubber boat for two days.

Still home ported at Key West, the submarine continued her duties through the 1960s, breaking routine with goodwill visits to American and Mediterranean ports, and earning a number of Battle Efficiency “Es”.

Her long career with the United States Navy drew to its close in 1972. In June of that year, she trained a turnover crew of the Turkish Navy. The veteran submarine was decommissioned, struck from the Navy List, and transferred to the Navy of the Republic submarine “Cerbe” and assigned her pennant Number “S-340”. This was the second use of both this name and number in the Turkish Navy.

Photo Courtesy of:  Enver Bayram