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U.S.S. TRUTTA
(SS-421)IT ONLY COSTS A NICKEL MORE
TO GO FIRST CLASS.
Click to view crew list
USS TRUTTA (SS-421) - a Tench-class submarine
In Commission 1944 to 1947SS-421 Deployments - Major Events
Add a SS-421 Shellback Initiation | Add a SS-421 Deployment - Major Event | ||||
Month | Year | to | Month | Year | Deployment / Event |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
MAY | 1944 | - | Keel Date: 22 MAY 1944 at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard Kittery ME | ||
AUG | 1944 | - | Launch Date: 18 AUG 1944 | ||
NOV | 1944 | - | Commissioned: 16 NOV 1944 | ||
APR | 1959 | - | JUL | 1959 | Mediterranean-Lebanon |
APR | 1964 | - | OCT | 1964 | Mediterranean |
APR | 1964 | - | OCT | 1964 | Mediterranean |
JUL | 1972 | - | Decommissioned: 1 JUL 1972 |
SS-421 General Specifications
Class: Tench-class submarine
Complement: 10 Officers and 71 Enlisted
Displacement: 1570 tons
Length: 311 feet 8 inches
Beam: 27 feet 4 inches
Draft: 17 feet
Range: 11 000 Nautical Miles
Final Disposition: Transferred to Turkey 1 July 1972
USS TRUTTA (SS-421)
Originally assigned the
name Tomtate, SS-421 was renamed
Trutta on 24 September 1942; laid down on 22 May 1944 by the
Portsmouth (N.H.) Navy Yard; launched on 18
August 1944; sponsored by Mrs. Edward C. Magdeburger; and commissioned
on 16 November 1944, Comdr. Arthur C. Smith
in command.
Following outfitting and
shakedown, Trutta underwent 30 days of intensive training in the
Portsmouth-New London area and then
set a course southward and steamed via
the Canal Zone to arrive at Pearl Harbor on 25 February 1945. After a period of advanced training, Trutta got underway from Oahu with Parche
(SS-384) and Lionfish (SS-298)-members
of a coordinated attack group under Trutta's direction-and arrived at Saipan on 30 March. The following day,
as she was leaving Tanapag Harbor on
her first war patrol, the submarine
struck a cable connected to an oil
drum adrift in the charted channel and was forced to return to Saipan to repair
her damaged propeller blades. The submarine finally got underway on 3
April and proceeded as rapidly as possible toward her patrol area.
On 7 April, she changed
course in an attempt to intercept a
Japanese naval force which had sortied from Bungo Suido late the day before. It was feared that this task
force-headed by Yamato, the world's largest battleship-would interrupt the assault on Okinawa to the south. Despite her full-power running, Trutta
did not intercept the Japanese ships because they changed their course. Nevertheless, the Japanese force did
not reach Okinawa because on that day
fliers from the carriers of Vice
Admiral Mitscher's Task Force 58 sank Yamato, light cruiser Agano,
and destroyer Hamakaze, and
inflicted irremediable damage to three other destroyers which the Japanese scuttled. After receiving news of this
successful battle, Trutta headed southward on the 9th. Proceeding via the Nansei Shoto, she avoided the hostile notice of enemy aircraft and weathered gale force winds and force-five seas
before entering her patrol area in
the East China Sea on the afternoon of the llth. There, she patrolled along the
Shanghai-Quelpart Island traffic routes. On the 13th, while pursuing an antisubmarine force of three Japanese destroyers, she passed through an uncharted
minefield before the ships changed course and outdistanced her.
While patrolling near the
entrance to Daito Wan on the western
coast of Korea on 18 April, she sank one small freighter with gunfire and
damaged another. Off the China coast on the 22d, 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 Trutta patrolled west of Quelpart Island, lookouts on the
submarine's bridge were startled to
see a torpedo pass astern. As 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 sinister reminder that she was not alone in the Yellow Sea. Fortunately, Trutta observed no further sign of the Japanese submarine,
and she continued her patrols until
the 26th when she headed for Guam.
Late in the day, on the
27th, as she passed between Akuseki
Shima and Takara Shima in the northern Ryukyus,
she made contact with a Japanese plane-the
harbinger of a prolonged coordinated holddown attempt. The next morning, finding her adversary of the night before replaced by two
"Settles," the submarine,
low on air and battery power, sent a message indicating that she would have to surface and fight it out if the situation did not improve before noon.
A little more than an hour later, 10
American fighters from Okinawa
appeared and routed the Japanese planes. Friendly air cover remained with the submarine until she
recharged her batteries and filled her air flasks. She then proceeded
independently to the Marianas, arriving at Guam on 4 May.
Following refitting and
exercises with battleship South
Dakota (BB-57), Trutta got
underway on 2 June in company with Queenfish
(SS-393). She weathered a typhoon
before arriving on lifeguard station on the 7th. 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, the day before, had also weathered the typhoon.
As air raids against the cities of the Japanese homeland intensified, 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 21
June, 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 1 July, 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, 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 12 July when she departed the area and set her course for the Marianas.
She arrived at Guam on
the 18th, underwent refitting by Fulton
(AS-11), and then got underway on the 12th for her third patrol. Before Trutta arrived in her assigned area, she received official word that
peace negotiations had obviated
continuing her patrol; and the
submarine set a northeast course. She arrived at Midway on 24 August; and, two days later, she headed home via Pearl Harbor and the Panama Canal. After calls at New Orleans and other gulf and east-coast
ports, she arrived at New London early
in January 1946 and reported to the
16th Fleet for inactivation. By March
1946, she had been placed out of commission. She remained in the Reserve Fleet until 1951 when she was reactivated at New London. Recommissioned on March 1951, she operated out of that port until 4 May 1952 when she was again decommissioned, this
time at Charleston. Following
conversion to a "Guppy II A" submarine, she was recommissioned on 2
January 1953 and joined Submarine
Squadron 4 at Key West.
For the next 19 years,
she 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. She assisted in the
evaluation of new weapon systems,
including electronic counter-measure
equipment; served as an antisubmarine warfare
training target; trained naval reserves; and participated in fleet exercises.
Shortly after her transfer to
Squadron 12 on 1 August 1959, she rescued five Cuban refugees who had been adrift in a rubber boat for two days.
Still homeported at Key West, she continued her duties through the 1960's,
breaking routine with goodwill visits to
American and Mediterranean ports, and
earning a number of Battle Efficiency "E's." Moored at Key West in
November 1969, she celebrated the 25th anniversary of her first
commissioning.
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,
and the veteran submarine was
decommissioned on 1 July and turned over to the Navy of the Republic of
Turkey. Her name was struck from the Navy
list on that same day.
Trutta received two battle stars for World War II service.
[Note: The above USS TRUTTA (SS-421) history may, or may not, contain text provided by crew members of the USS TRUTTA (SS-421), or by other non-crew members, and text from the Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships]