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USS Bang (SS-385)
Encyclopedia
USS Bang (SS-385) was a United States Navy
, named after the bang, a dark blue or black fish of the Atlantic herring
family found in the coastal waters of the United States north of North Carolina
.
Bang was laid down on 30 April 1943 at Kittery, Maine
, by the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard
; launched on 30 August 1943, sponsored by Mrs. Robert W. Neblett; and commissioned
on 4 December 1943, Lieutenant Commander
Antone R. Gallaher in command.
, the submarine departed New London, Conn.
on 8 February 1944 and headed for the Pacific. After transiting the Panama Canal
, she proceeded to Pearl Harbor
for intensified training in torpedo
approaches, evasive maneuvers, and simulated warfare. As March came to an end, Bang was fully provisioned and ready for battle.
On the 29th, she departed Pearl Harbor in company with and for her first war patrol. After a one day fueling stop at Midway Atoll
, the trio continued to their patrol area in Luzon Strait
and waters southwest of Formosa
.
The three submarines exchanged contact information and coordinated attack plans throughout the patrol. On 29 April, Bang sighted a 12-ship, southbound convoy
. After maneuvering into a favorable position, she fired her torpedoes into the convoy, sinking Takegawa Maru. The submarine continued to hound the convoy during the night and, the following morning, sank Nittatsu Maru. The enemy rained down depth charge
s on Bang, but training in evasive maneuvers and a bit of good luck enabled her to escape damage.
Tinosa sighted a northbound Japanese convoy on 3 May, and Bang moved in to pursue its 10 ships. Her first attempt to attack during daylight was foiled by enemy plane and surface escorts which forced her to dive. After dark, she and her colleagues coordinated a surface attack in which Bang sank Kinrei Maru, and claimed the destruction of a destroyer
, which was not confirmed by postwar study of Japanese records. Since all of her torpedoes had been expended, Bang departed the area on 6 May and arrived at Midway on the 14th for refit alongside .
On 6 June, Bang put to sea on her second war patrol, the timing of which coincided with the preliminaries to the Mariana Islands invasion. Consequently, she was assigned to waters to the west of that island group so that she would be in position to intercept any Japanese
warships or transports steaming eastward to parry the American offensive thrust. While en route to her station, the submarine encountered a lone northbound tanker
on 14 June. Although hampered by heavy rain squalls and turbulent seas, Bang launched a spread of three torpedoes, one of which hit and damaged the target, but did not sink her. The submarine could not finish off this enemy ship because her orders required her to take station as soon as possible.
Marines
landed on Saipan
on the 15th, and that event goaded the Japanese Mobile Fleet to make a desperate attempt to turn back this Allied threat to the Emperor's inner defense line, in which the Marianas acted as a major link, if not the keystone. Bang reached her station that same day but spent an uneventful week while Admiral
Raymond Spruance's 5th Fleet was trouncing the Japanese task force in the Battle of the Philippine Sea
, virtually wiping out the enemy's naval air capability for the remainder of the war.
On 22 June, the day after that epic engagement ended, she rendezvoused with and off Formosa to form a coordinated attack group. Growler was detached just one day before the unit's run in with a southbound convoy of more than 15 ships. Bang made a submerged attack and fired 10 torpedoes at three overlapping targets, all of which the submarine claims to have sunk, although the postwar records do not confirm the claim. The enemy escorts turned and pursued Bang, dropping 125 depth charges over her as she went deep to avoid destruction. When Bang finally surfaced, the convoy was disappearing over the horizon.
On 4 July, Bang sighted a small Hong Kong
-bound convoy consisting of one cargo ship and four destroyer escorts. She approached the convoy on the surface, but before she could maneuver into a good attack position, an alert escort began to search for the attacker. Bang launched three torpedoes without making adequate attack solutions, and all three missed their targets. The submarine was forced to dive and maneuver to avoid the depth charges dropped by the escort and was unable to mount another attack.
On 17 July, the ship headed back to Pearl Harbor for refit, which continued into the last week of August. She left Pearl Harbor again on the 27th, refueled at Midway on 31 August, and continued to waters northeast of Formosa off the Nansei Shoto. While passing northwest of the Bonin Islands to take up her station, Bang encountered an enemy convoy on 9 September. Diving to make a periscope attack, she fired a salvo at two loaded freighters, both of which - Tokiwasan Maru and Shoryu Maru - disintegrated due to internal explosions triggered by the hits. The escorts evidently sighted Bangs periscope
and torpedo wakes, because as she dove deep, the depth charges accurately drove her down beyond her test depth to 580 ft (176.8 m), where depth control almost disappeared. A pattern of 16 charges exploded directly over the boat, but Bang waited out her enemies. The escorts departed apparently satified that they had scored a kill, but Bang suffered only minor damage which her crew easily repaired. Three days later, she arrived on station.
Early on 19 September, Bang made radar contact on another enemy convoy, submerged, and fired on two of the ships. Tosei Maru No. 2 sank, while the other ship suffered substantial damage. Working as a team, three enemy escorts systematically depth bombed the submarine, but she again successfully out maneuvered her pursuers and surfaced after dark.
While submerged on the afternoon of 20 September, she encountered an eastbound convoy and shadowed it until darkness fell to cover her attack. She surfaced, fired her remaining 10 torpedoes, and claimed to have sunk a large tanker and a medium freighter as well as damaging another ship. The next day, she headed for Midway and refit.
Repaired, refueled, and replenished, Bang got underway again on 25 October and, with and , returned to the same area. Typhoon weather precluded effective operations during the early part of the fourth war patrol. Finally, on 22 November, improved weather enabled Bang to attack a convoy initially reported by Redfish. Between midnight and 0300 on the 23d, all three submarines conducted coordinated attacks on the convoy. Bang fired all 24 of her torpedoes in a series of seven surface attacks, sinking two cargo ships - Sakae Maru and Amakusa Maru. She reported also destroying a minelayer
escort and another freighter, but Japanese records did not corroborate these kills. Between the three submarines, the convoy was totally destroyed.
Later that day, Bang headed for Hawaii
and arrived at Pearl Harbor on 5 December for refit. Following a restful holiday period, the submarine departed Oahu
on 2 January 1945 and set a course for Saipan. There, on 15 January, she joined with , , and and sailed for a patrol area in the East China
and Yellow Sea
s. Bad weather and a scarcity of targets denied Bang opportunities to attack any enemy shipping before she departed the area on 19 February, without any kills. She arrived at Guam
on the 24th for refit alongside Proteus.
Bangs sixth and last patrol began on 25 March when she got underway for Luzon Strait
. After 10 days of patrol, she was ordered to take lifeguard station northeast of Formosa during strikes on northern Formosa and the southern Ryukyu Islands
in support of the Allied struggle for Okinawa
. On 21 April, Bang rescued a Navy pilot who had ditched his plane after it had been damaged by flak during a strafing run.
On 3 May, the submarine received orders to return to Hawaii. She refueled at Saipan and continued on to Pearl Harbor where she arrived on 18 May. After 10 days of recreation and inspection of the boat, additional orders sent her back to the United States for overhaul at the Portsmouth Navy Yard. She stopped at San Francisco Naval Shipyard
, then continued on through the Panama Canal and up the Atlantic coast to Portsmouth where she arrived on 22 June. The submarine was still undergoing overhaul when hostilities ended. Following completion of the overhaul, Bang operated out of New London in the early postwar period. She was placed out of commission on 12 February 1947 and entered the Atlantic Reserve Fleet.
On 1 February 1951, Bang was recommissioned at the U.S. Naval Submarine Base, New London
, Lieutenant Commander Eugene A. Hemley in command, but spent only 15 months on active duty with the Atlantic Fleet before being decommissioned again on 15 May 1952 for conversion and modernization. Following work at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, Bang was recommissioned as a GUPPY IIA submarine, the first of her type to serve the U.S. Navy, on 4 October 1952, Lieutenant Commander Perry Hall in command. Although her outward appearance remained the same, Bangs internal arrangements were improved and incorporated impressive advances in ordnance and electronic gear. Her hull was streamlined and additional power added to the engineering plant to provide increased submerged speed.
After operating with the fleet in the Atlantic Ocean
and Mediterranean Sea
for two years, Bang entered the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard
for a routine overhaul in August 1954. Upon completion of the overhaul in December, she rejoined the fleet with still more modern equipment. The submarine carried out normal operations along the eastern seaboard primarily engaged in training missions with other submarines and with surface antisubmarine units. She left her home port
of New London in July 1957 to begin another overhaul in Portsmouth. When she came out in January 1958, she resumed peacetime operations, including a midshipmen training cruise during the summer of 1958 to Spain
and Denmark
, a four-month deployment to the Mediterranean and northern Europe in 1962, and participation in Operation "Springboard" in the Caribbean
in 1966. Between these cruises and major yard work in 1961, 1962, 1966, 1967, and 1970, Bang provided training services to Basic Submarine School in New London as well as to units of the Atlantic Fleet.
on a five-year loan. Following upkeep to lengthen her safe submerged operations limit, Bang returned to New London to train Spanish sailors in preparation for the transfer. On 1 October 1972, Bang was decommissioned
and transferred to the Spanish
government. She was recommissioned as SPS Cosme Garcia (S34). On 1 November 1974, her name was struck from the Naval Vessel Register
and the transfer to Spain was made permanent by sale.
service. She is officially credited with sinking eight Japan
ese merchant ships totaling 20,177 tons.
United States Navy
The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...
, named after the bang, a dark blue or black fish of the Atlantic herring
Atlantic herring
Atlantic herring is a fish in the family Clupeidae. It is one of the most abundant fish species on earth. Herring can be found on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean, congregating in large schools. They can grow up to in length and weigh more than...
family found in the coastal waters of the United States north of North Carolina
North Carolina
North Carolina is a state located in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties. Its capital is Raleigh, and its largest city is Charlotte...
.
Bang was laid down on 30 April 1943 at Kittery, Maine
Kittery, Maine
Kittery is a town in York County, Maine, United States. The population was 9,543 at the 2000 census. Home to the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard on Seavey's Island, Kittery includes Badger's Island, the seaside district of Kittery Point, and part of the Isles of Shoals...
, by the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard
Portsmouth Naval Shipyard
The Portsmouth Naval Shipyard , often called the Portsmouth Navy Yard, is a United States Navy shipyard located in Kittery on the southern boundary of Maine near the city of Portsmouth, New Hampshire. It is used for remodeling and repairing the Navy's ships...
; launched on 30 August 1943, sponsored by Mrs. Robert W. Neblett; and commissioned
Ship commissioning
Ship commissioning is the act or ceremony of placing a ship in active service, and may be regarded as a particular application of the general concepts and practices of project commissioning. The term is most commonly applied to the placing of a warship in active duty with its country's military...
on 4 December 1943, Lieutenant Commander
Lieutenant Commander
Lieutenant Commander is a commissioned officer rank in many navies. The rank is superior to a lieutenant and subordinate to a commander...
Antone R. Gallaher in command.
World War II
Following four weeks of shakedown training off New EnglandNew England
New England is a region in the northeastern corner of the United States consisting of the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut...
, the submarine departed New London, Conn.
Naval Submarine Base New London
Naval Submarine Base New London is the United States Navy's primary submarine base, the "Home of the Submarine Force", and "the Submarine Capital of the World".-History:...
on 8 February 1944 and headed for the Pacific. After transiting the Panama Canal
Panama Canal
The Panama Canal is a ship canal in Panama that joins the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean and is a key conduit for international maritime trade. Built from 1904 to 1914, the canal has seen annual traffic rise from about 1,000 ships early on to 14,702 vessels measuring a total of 309.6...
, she proceeded to Pearl Harbor
Pearl Harbor
Pearl Harbor, known to Hawaiians as Puuloa, is a lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. Much of the harbor and surrounding lands is a United States Navy deep-water naval base. It is also the headquarters of the U.S. Pacific Fleet...
for intensified training in torpedo
Torpedo
The modern torpedo is a self-propelled missile weapon with an explosive warhead, launched above or below the water surface, propelled underwater towards a target, and designed to detonate either on contact with it or in proximity to it.The term torpedo was originally employed for...
approaches, evasive maneuvers, and simulated warfare. As March came to an end, Bang was fully provisioned and ready for battle.
On the 29th, she departed Pearl Harbor in company with and for her first war patrol. After a one day fueling stop at Midway Atoll
Midway Atoll
Midway Atoll is a atoll in the North Pacific Ocean, near the northwestern end of the Hawaiian archipelago, about one-third of the way between Honolulu, Hawaii, and Tokyo, Japan. Unique among the Hawaiian islands, Midway observes UTC-11 , eleven hours behind Coordinated Universal Time and one hour...
, the trio continued to their patrol area in Luzon Strait
Luzon Strait
The Luzon Strait is the strait between the island country of Taiwan and Luzon island of the Philippines. The strait thereby connects the Philippine Sea to the South China Sea in the western Pacific Ocean....
and waters southwest of Formosa
Taiwan
Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...
.
The three submarines exchanged contact information and coordinated attack plans throughout the patrol. On 29 April, Bang sighted a 12-ship, southbound convoy
Convoy
A convoy is a group of vehicles, typically motor vehicles or ships, traveling together for mutual support and protection. Often, a convoy is organized with armed defensive support, though it may also be used in a non-military sense, for example when driving through remote areas.-Age of Sail:Naval...
. After maneuvering into a favorable position, she fired her torpedoes into the convoy, sinking Takegawa Maru. The submarine continued to hound the convoy during the night and, the following morning, sank Nittatsu Maru. The enemy rained down depth charge
Depth charge
A depth charge is an anti-submarine warfare weapon intended to destroy or cripple a target submarine by the shock of exploding near it. Most use explosives and a fuze set to go off at a preselected depth in the ocean. Depth charges can be dropped by either surface ships, patrol aircraft, or from...
s on Bang, but training in evasive maneuvers and a bit of good luck enabled her to escape damage.
Tinosa sighted a northbound Japanese convoy on 3 May, and Bang moved in to pursue its 10 ships. Her first attempt to attack during daylight was foiled by enemy plane and surface escorts which forced her to dive. After dark, she and her colleagues coordinated a surface attack in which Bang sank Kinrei Maru, and claimed the destruction of a destroyer
Destroyer
In naval terminology, a destroyer is a fast and maneuverable yet long-endurance warship intended to escort larger vessels in a fleet, convoy or battle group and defend them against smaller, powerful, short-range attackers. Destroyers, originally called torpedo-boat destroyers in 1892, evolved from...
, which was not confirmed by postwar study of Japanese records. Since all of her torpedoes had been expended, Bang departed the area on 6 May and arrived at Midway on the 14th for refit alongside .
On 6 June, Bang put to sea on her second war patrol, the timing of which coincided with the preliminaries to the Mariana Islands invasion. Consequently, she was assigned to waters to the west of that island group so that she would be in position to intercept any Japanese
Imperial Japanese Navy
The Imperial Japanese Navy was the navy of the Empire of Japan from 1869 until 1947, when it was dissolved following Japan's constitutional renunciation of the use of force as a means of settling international disputes...
warships or transports steaming eastward to parry the American offensive thrust. While en route to her station, the submarine encountered a lone northbound tanker
Tanker (ship)
A tanker is a ship designed to transport liquids in bulk. Major types of tankship include the oil tanker, the chemical tanker, and the liquefied natural gas carrier.-Background:...
on 14 June. Although hampered by heavy rain squalls and turbulent seas, Bang launched a spread of three torpedoes, one of which hit and damaged the target, but did not sink her. The submarine could not finish off this enemy ship because her orders required her to take station as soon as possible.
Marines
United States Marine Corps
The United States Marine Corps is a branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for providing power projection from the sea, using the mobility of the United States Navy to deliver combined-arms task forces rapidly. It is one of seven uniformed services of the United States...
landed on Saipan
Battle of Saipan
The Battle of Saipan was a battle of the Pacific campaign of World War II, fought on the island of Saipan in the Mariana Islands from 15 June-9 July 1944. The Allied invasion fleet embarking the expeditionary forces left Pearl Harbor on 5 June 1944, the day before Operation Overlord in Europe was...
on the 15th, and that event goaded the Japanese Mobile Fleet to make a desperate attempt to turn back this Allied threat to the Emperor's inner defense line, in which the Marianas acted as a major link, if not the keystone. Bang reached her station that same day but spent an uneventful week while Admiral
Admiral
Admiral is the rank, or part of the name of the ranks, of the highest naval officers. It is usually considered a full admiral and above vice admiral and below admiral of the fleet . It is usually abbreviated to "Adm" or "ADM"...
Raymond Spruance's 5th Fleet was trouncing the Japanese task force in the Battle of the Philippine Sea
Battle of the Philippine Sea
The Battle of the Philippine Sea was a decisive naval battle of World War II which effectively eliminated the Imperial Japanese Navy's ability to conduct large-scale carrier actions. It took place during the United States' amphibious invasion of the Mariana Islands during the Pacific War...
, virtually wiping out the enemy's naval air capability for the remainder of the war.
On 22 June, the day after that epic engagement ended, she rendezvoused with and off Formosa to form a coordinated attack group. Growler was detached just one day before the unit's run in with a southbound convoy of more than 15 ships. Bang made a submerged attack and fired 10 torpedoes at three overlapping targets, all of which the submarine claims to have sunk, although the postwar records do not confirm the claim. The enemy escorts turned and pursued Bang, dropping 125 depth charges over her as she went deep to avoid destruction. When Bang finally surfaced, the convoy was disappearing over the horizon.
On 4 July, Bang sighted a small Hong Kong
Hong Kong
Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
-bound convoy consisting of one cargo ship and four destroyer escorts. She approached the convoy on the surface, but before she could maneuver into a good attack position, an alert escort began to search for the attacker. Bang launched three torpedoes without making adequate attack solutions, and all three missed their targets. The submarine was forced to dive and maneuver to avoid the depth charges dropped by the escort and was unable to mount another attack.
On 17 July, the ship headed back to Pearl Harbor for refit, which continued into the last week of August. She left Pearl Harbor again on the 27th, refueled at Midway on 31 August, and continued to waters northeast of Formosa off the Nansei Shoto. While passing northwest of the Bonin Islands to take up her station, Bang encountered an enemy convoy on 9 September. Diving to make a periscope attack, she fired a salvo at two loaded freighters, both of which - Tokiwasan Maru and Shoryu Maru - disintegrated due to internal explosions triggered by the hits. The escorts evidently sighted Bangs periscope
Periscope
A periscope is an instrument for observation from a concealed position. In its simplest form it consists of a tube with mirrors at each end set parallel to each other at a 45-degree angle....
and torpedo wakes, because as she dove deep, the depth charges accurately drove her down beyond her test depth to 580 ft (176.8 m), where depth control almost disappeared. A pattern of 16 charges exploded directly over the boat, but Bang waited out her enemies. The escorts departed apparently satified that they had scored a kill, but Bang suffered only minor damage which her crew easily repaired. Three days later, she arrived on station.
Early on 19 September, Bang made radar contact on another enemy convoy, submerged, and fired on two of the ships. Tosei Maru No. 2 sank, while the other ship suffered substantial damage. Working as a team, three enemy escorts systematically depth bombed the submarine, but she again successfully out maneuvered her pursuers and surfaced after dark.
While submerged on the afternoon of 20 September, she encountered an eastbound convoy and shadowed it until darkness fell to cover her attack. She surfaced, fired her remaining 10 torpedoes, and claimed to have sunk a large tanker and a medium freighter as well as damaging another ship. The next day, she headed for Midway and refit.
Repaired, refueled, and replenished, Bang got underway again on 25 October and, with and , returned to the same area. Typhoon weather precluded effective operations during the early part of the fourth war patrol. Finally, on 22 November, improved weather enabled Bang to attack a convoy initially reported by Redfish. Between midnight and 0300 on the 23d, all three submarines conducted coordinated attacks on the convoy. Bang fired all 24 of her torpedoes in a series of seven surface attacks, sinking two cargo ships - Sakae Maru and Amakusa Maru. She reported also destroying a minelayer
Minelayer
Minelaying is the act of deploying explosive mines. Historically this has been carried out by ships, submarines and aircraft. Additionally, since World War I the term minelayer refers specifically to a naval ship used for deploying naval mines...
escort and another freighter, but Japanese records did not corroborate these kills. Between the three submarines, the convoy was totally destroyed.
Later that day, Bang headed for Hawaii
Hawaii
Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...
and arrived at Pearl Harbor on 5 December for refit. Following a restful holiday period, the submarine departed Oahu
Oahu
Oahu or Oahu , known as "The Gathering Place", is the third largest of the Hawaiian Islands and most populous of the islands in the U.S. state of Hawaii. The state capital Honolulu is located on the southeast coast...
on 2 January 1945 and set a course for Saipan. There, on 15 January, she joined with , , and and sailed for a patrol area in the East China
East China Sea
The East China Sea is a marginal sea east of China. It is a part of the Pacific Ocean and covers an area of 1,249,000 km² or 750,000 square miles.-Geography:...
and Yellow Sea
Yellow Sea
The Yellow Sea is the name given to the northern part of the East China Sea, which is a marginal sea of the Pacific Ocean. It is located between mainland China and the Korean Peninsula. Its name comes from the sand particles from Gobi Desert sand storms that turn the surface of the water golden...
s. Bad weather and a scarcity of targets denied Bang opportunities to attack any enemy shipping before she departed the area on 19 February, without any kills. She arrived at Guam
Guam
Guam is an organized, unincorporated territory of the United States located in the western Pacific Ocean. It is one of five U.S. territories with an established civilian government. Guam is listed as one of 16 Non-Self-Governing Territories by the Special Committee on Decolonization of the United...
on the 24th for refit alongside Proteus.
Bangs sixth and last patrol began on 25 March when she got underway for Luzon Strait
Luzon Strait
The Luzon Strait is the strait between the island country of Taiwan and Luzon island of the Philippines. The strait thereby connects the Philippine Sea to the South China Sea in the western Pacific Ocean....
. After 10 days of patrol, she was ordered to take lifeguard station northeast of Formosa during strikes on northern Formosa and the southern Ryukyu Islands
Ryukyu Islands
The , also known as the , is a chain of islands in the western Pacific, on the eastern limit of the East China Sea and to the southwest of the island of Kyushu in Japan. From about 1829 until the mid 20th century, they were alternately called Luchu, Loochoo, or Lewchew, akin to the Mandarin...
in support of the Allied struggle for Okinawa
Battle of Okinawa
The Battle of Okinawa, codenamed Operation Iceberg, was fought on the Ryukyu Islands of Okinawa and was the largest amphibious assault in the Pacific War of World War II. The 82-day-long battle lasted from early April until mid-June 1945...
. On 21 April, Bang rescued a Navy pilot who had ditched his plane after it had been damaged by flak during a strafing run.
On 3 May, the submarine received orders to return to Hawaii. She refueled at Saipan and continued on to Pearl Harbor where she arrived on 18 May. After 10 days of recreation and inspection of the boat, additional orders sent her back to the United States for overhaul at the Portsmouth Navy Yard. She stopped at San Francisco Naval Shipyard
San Francisco Naval Shipyard
The San Francisco Naval Shipyard was a United States Navy shipyard in San Francisco, California, located on of waterfront at Hunters Point in the southeast corner of the city...
, then continued on through the Panama Canal and up the Atlantic coast to Portsmouth where she arrived on 22 June. The submarine was still undergoing overhaul when hostilities ended. Following completion of the overhaul, Bang operated out of New London in the early postwar period. She was placed out of commission on 12 February 1947 and entered the Atlantic Reserve Fleet.
Post-War
Naval Submarine Base New London
Naval Submarine Base New London is the United States Navy's primary submarine base, the "Home of the Submarine Force", and "the Submarine Capital of the World".-History:...
, Lieutenant Commander Eugene A. Hemley in command, but spent only 15 months on active duty with the Atlantic Fleet before being decommissioned again on 15 May 1952 for conversion and modernization. Following work at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, Bang was recommissioned as a GUPPY IIA submarine, the first of her type to serve the U.S. Navy, on 4 October 1952, Lieutenant Commander Perry Hall in command. Although her outward appearance remained the same, Bangs internal arrangements were improved and incorporated impressive advances in ordnance and electronic gear. Her hull was streamlined and additional power added to the engineering plant to provide increased submerged speed.
After operating with the fleet in the Atlantic Ocean
Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about , it covers approximately 20% of the Earth's surface and about 26% of its water surface area...
and Mediterranean Sea
Mediterranean Sea
The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean surrounded by the Mediterranean region and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Anatolia and Europe, on the south by North Africa, and on the east by the Levant...
for two years, Bang entered the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard
Philadelphia Naval Shipyard
The Philadelphia Naval Business Center, formerly known as the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard and Philadelphia Navy Yard, was the first naval shipyard of the United States. The U.S. Navy reduced its activities there in the 1990s, and ended most of them on September 30, 1995...
for a routine overhaul in August 1954. Upon completion of the overhaul in December, she rejoined the fleet with still more modern equipment. The submarine carried out normal operations along the eastern seaboard primarily engaged in training missions with other submarines and with surface antisubmarine units. She left her home port
Home port
A vessel's home port is the port at which it is based, which may not be the same as its port of registry shown on its registration documents and lettered on the stern of the ship's hull...
of New London in July 1957 to begin another overhaul in Portsmouth. When she came out in January 1958, she resumed peacetime operations, including a midshipmen training cruise during the summer of 1958 to Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
and Denmark
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
, a four-month deployment to the Mediterranean and northern Europe in 1962, and participation in Operation "Springboard" in the Caribbean
Caribbean
The Caribbean is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north...
in 1966. Between these cruises and major yard work in 1961, 1962, 1966, 1967, and 1970, Bang provided training services to Basic Submarine School in New London as well as to units of the Atlantic Fleet.
Spanish Navy
Early in 1972, Bang was designated for transfer to the Spanish NavySpanish Navy
The Spanish Navy is the maritime branch of the Spanish Armed Forces, one of the oldest active naval forces in the world. The Armada is responsible for notable achievements in world history such as the discovery of Americas, the first world circumnavigation, and the discovery of a maritime path...
on a five-year loan. Following upkeep to lengthen her safe submerged operations limit, Bang returned to New London to train Spanish sailors in preparation for the transfer. On 1 October 1972, Bang was decommissioned
Ship decommissioning
To decommission a ship is to terminate her career in service in the armed forces of her nation. A somber occasion, it has little of the elaborate ceremony of ship commissioning, but carries significant tradition....
and transferred to the Spanish
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
government. She was recommissioned as SPS Cosme Garcia (S34). On 1 November 1974, her name was struck from the Naval Vessel Register
Naval Vessel Register
The Naval Vessel Register is the official inventory of ships and service craft in custody of or titled by the United States Navy. It contains information on ships and service craft that make up the official inventory of the Navy from the time a vessel is authorized through its life cycle and...
and the transfer to Spain was made permanent by sale.
Awards
Bang received six battle stars for her World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
service. She is officially credited with sinking eight Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
ese merchant ships totaling 20,177 tons.