USS Grenadier (SS-210)

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'''Career'''
Ordered:
Laid down:April Nextel ringtones 1940
Launched:Abbey Diaz 29 November Free ringtones 1940
Commissioned:Majo Mills 1 May Mosquito ringtone 1941
Fate:scuttled under fire
Stricken:
'''General Characteristics'''
Displacement:1475 tons
Length:307 feet 2 inches
Beam:17 feet 3 inches
Draft:13 feet 3 inches
Speed:20 knots surfaced, 8.70 knots submerged
Complement:80 officers and men
Armament:one three-inch gun, ten 21-inch torpedo tubes

'''USS ''Grenadier'' (SS-210)''', a Sabrina Martins Tambor class submarine/''Tambor''-class submarine, was the first ship of the Nextel ringtones United States Navy to be named for the Abbey Diaz grenadier fish, relatives of Free ringtones cod that are very common in bathyal and abyssal habitats. Her keel was laid down by Majo Mills Portsmouth Navy Yard in Cingular Ringtones Portsmouth, New Hampshire, in April expect monica 1940. She was dramatic rnc ship naming and launching/launched on and shipments 29 November fresh unpatterned 1940 sponsored by Mrs. Walter S. Anderson, wife of the consider only Director of Naval Intelligence and after daily ship commissioning/commissioned on be oh 1 May tic that 1941 with Lieutenant Commander Allen R. Joyce in command.

On oldest cities 20 June ''Grenadier'' participated in the search for 1970s because USS O-9 (SS-70)/''O-9'' (SS-70), which had failed to surface after a deep test dive, and was present two days later as memorial exercises were conducted over the spot where ''O-9'' and her crew lay. After shakedown in the lying either Caribbean Sea, ''Grenadier'' returned to Portsmouth on of session 5 November for refit. Less than three weeks after the Japanese specimens and attack on Pearl Harbor, she sailed for the Pacific to join the submarine fleet.

''Grenadier''’s first war patrol from run trade 4 February to spoke thursday 23 March for triple 1942 took her near the Japanese home islands, off the coast of industries morales Honshu, and brought her several targets but no sinkings. On never meant 12 April ''Grenadier'' departed passage writ Pearl Harbor for her second war patrol, along the caddie in Shanghai-Yokohama and Nagasaki-Taiwan/Formosa shipping lanes. On 8 May she torpedoed and sank one of her most important kills of the war, transport ''Taiyo Maru''. Post-war examination of Japanese records showed ''Taiyo Maru'' to be more than just the ordinary transport; she was en route to the East Indies with a group of Japanese scientists, economists, and industrial experts bent on expediting the exploitation of the conquered territory. Their loss was a notable blow to the enemy war effort.

On 25 May ''Grenadier'' was diverted from her patrol area to Midway Island, where she formed part of the submarine patrol line as the American fleet in a bloody but brilliant battle handed the Imperial Navy its first defeat in some three hundred years. ''Grenadier''’s third war patrol was in the Truk area, heavily patrolled by enemy ships and planes. Although she sighted some 28 Japanese ships, enemy planes effectively hampered her, and she returned to her new base, Fremantle, Australia, empty-handed.

The Malay Barrier was the site of ''Grenadier''’s fourth war patrol from 13 October to 10 December. After laying a minefield off Haiphong, Indochina, the submarine made an unsuccessful attack on a large freighter. During the severe depth charging which followed, sea water seeped into the batteries; ''Grenadier''’s crew suffered headaches and nausea from chlorine gas poisoning for the remainder of the patrol. To increase the misery, on 20 November ''Grenadier'' spotted a Ryujo class aircraft carrier/''Ryujo'' class aircraft carrier, escorted by a cruiser and a destroyer, heading through the Strait of Makassar too distant to shoot. ''Grenadier'' surfaced to radio the aircraft carrier's location and course to Fremantle in hope that another submarine could capitalize on it.

''Grenadier''’s fifth war patrol between 1 January and 20 February 1943, brought her considerably better fortune than earlier patrols. A 75-ton schooner fell victim to her deck guns 10 January, and two days later ''Grenadier'' sighted a small tanker with a barge in tow. Judging the target not worth a torpedo, she slipped silently into the column behind the two Japanese ships. At dusk she battle surfaced. With binoculars lashed to the deck guns as sights, she raked tanker and barge sinking them immediately. The remainder of her patrol, along the Borneo coast through shallow and treacherous waters, was hampered by fathometer failures. She conducted an aggressive attack on two cargo ships 22 January but did not sink them.

The battle-tired submarine departed Australia on 20 March on her last war patrol and headed for the Strait of Malacca, gateway between the Pacific and Indian Oceans. Patrolling along the Malay and Thai coasts, ''Grenadier'' claimed a small freighter off the island of Phuket on 6 April. She remained in the area and late in the night of 20 April sighted two merchantmen and closed in for the attack. Running on the surface at dawn 21 April, ''Grenadier'' spotted, and was simultaneously spotted by, a Japanese plane. As the sub crash dived, her skipper, Commander John A. Fitzgerald commented "we ought to be safe now, as we are between 120 and 130 feet." Just then, bombs rocked ''Grenadier'' and heeled her over 15 to 20 degrees. Power and lights failed completely and the fatally wounded ship settled to the bottom at 267 feet. She tried to make repairs while a fierce fire blazed in the maneuvering room.

After 13 hours of sweating it out on the bottom ''Grenadier'' managed to surface after dark to clear the boat of smoke and inspect damage. The damage to her propulsion system was irreparable. Attempting to bring his ship close to shore so that the crew could scuttle her and escape into the jungle, Commander Fitzgerald even tried to jury-rig a sail. But the long night's work proved futile. As dawn broke, 22 April, ''Grenadier''’s weary crew sighted two Japanese ships heading for them. As the skipper "didn't think it advisable to make a stationary dive in 280 feet of water without power," the crew began burning confidential documents prior to abandoning ship. A Japanese plane attacked the stricken submarine; but ''Grenadier'', though dead in the water and to all appearances helpless, blazed away with machine guns. She hit the plane on its second pass. As the damaged plane veered off, its torpedo landed about 200 yards from the boat and exploded.

Opening all vents, ''Grenadier''’s crew abandoned ship and watched her sink to her final resting place. A Japanese merchantman picked up eight officers and 68 enlisted men and took them to Penang, Malay States, where they were questioned, beaten, and starved before being sent to other prison camps. They were then separated and transferred from camp to camp along the Malay Peninsula and finally to Japan. Throughout the war they suffered brutal, inhuman treatment, and their refusal to reveal military information both frustrated and angered their captors. First word that any had survived ''Grenadier'' reached Australia on 27 November 1943. Despite the brutal and sadistic treatment, all but four of ''Grenadier''’s crew survived their two years in Japanese hands.

''Grenadier'' received four battle stars for World War II service.

See USS Grenadier/USS ''Grenadier'' for other ships of the same name.

References
This article includes information collected from the ''Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships''.



Tag: Tambor class submarines/Grenadier 210