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Museum Pieces: Submarine USS Drum [1]
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Date: 2023-12-19
The submarine USS Drum, on display at Mobile AL, was one of the first of the World War Two Gato class.
"Museum Pieces" is a diary series that explores the history behind some of the most interesting museum exhibits and historical places.
USS Drum
Although the concept of the submarine had been around since before the American Civil War, it was not until the First World War that it came into its own as a new and frightening weapon of war. German U-boats crippled the British merchant fleet that brought food, supplies and weapons, and came close to forcing the Entente into capitulating.
The US Navy deployed its first modern submarine, the USS Holland, in 1910, but the United States was slow to realize its potential. During the Great War, the Navy had a number of K-type diesel-powered submarines, but they had only a minor role in combat.
But the Navy had seen what the Germans could do with their U-boats, and by the 1930s the US had built up a submarine force of its own. The most modern of these were the Tambor and Gar class, twelve of which were built in the pre-war years. By this time, however, the Navy recognized that it could soon be facing a war with Japan in the Pacific, and plans were made for an improved version of the Tambor subs. This would be dubbed the Gato class, and it became the primary American submarine of the Second World War.
Like the Tambor subs before it, the Gato class was designed as a “fleet submarine”, intended to scout ahead of the main battleship fleet, locate and report the position of the enemy, then attack the opponent’s battleships to cause as much damage as possible before the American battleships arrived for the main contest. To carry out this task, the Gato subs were heavily armed, with 24 torpedoes in ten tubes, a 3-inch deck gun (later upgraded to two 5-inch guns), and 20mm and 30mm anti-aircraft guns. They had a speed of 21 knots on the surface and 9 knots submerged, and could dive to a depth of around 300 feet. They could remain submerged for up to 48 hours.
In order to carry out long-range patrols in the Pacific, 75 days at a time, the hull of the Gato class was lengthened by about five feet for more fuel storage. The bigger boats also allowed more space for crew accommodations, and these amenities, along with the provision of air conditioning to protect the sensitive instruments in warm tropical waters, made the subs popular with their crews. Six Gato-class subs were ordered in 1940.
Things turned out differently than planned, however. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor destroyed the American battleship fleet, leaving only the carriers and the submarine force intact. The Navy's war strategy against Japan, therefore, was forced to rely on those assets—which turned out to be exactly what was needed. While the US carriers proceeded to crush the Japanese Imperial Navy, the American submarine force systematically destroyed Japanese commerce and sea transportation.
By 1942 there were over 30 new subs under construction. At one point, six Gato-class were sent to Scotland to intercept German shipping, but this turned out to be negligible and the subs were reassigned to the Pacific. Another six subs were modified with extra radar and radio equipment to serve as radar pickets, protecting American carriers from kamikaze attacks.
In the end, the original 6 planned Gato-class subs had turned into over 75 produced during the war. The Gatos were finally superseded by the Balao and Tench classes in 1944.
One of the first of the Gatos to be produced was the USS Drum. Construction began in September 1940 at New Hampshire and she was commissioned in November 1941. At the time of the Pearl Harbor attack she was undergoing shakedowns and training at Key West and the Caribbean, and immediately departed for Hawaii and then Midway. She would spend the rest of the war patrolling for Japanese ships near the harbor at Truk and off the coast of Japan. In thirteen war patrols she was credited with sinking 15 ships measuring 80,000 tons, and with damaging the Japanese light carrier Ryuho. At one point Drum was herself damaged during a depth-charge attack.
As she departed Midway on August 9, 1945, for her fourteenth patrol, Drum received word of the Japanese surrender. She was placed in reserve and decommissioned in 1947 and was docked at the US Naval Gun Factory in Washington DC as a training vessel.
The Gato class continued in service after the war. Surplus subs were given to six different allied navies as part of their Cold War re-armament programs. The USSR had captured a number of Germany's Type 21 submarines and began churning out copies, and the US Navy responded by converting seven Gato-class subs into “hunter-killers”, specially designed and equipped to hunt down Soviet submarines. The Tunny was modified to carry and fire the Navy's Regulus nuclear-armed submarine-launched missile. Gato-class subs remained in service with various navies until 1969.
The Drum meanwhile continued to be used as a training ship in the DC Navy Yard until April 1969, when she was donated to the USS Alabama Battleship Commission as a permanent public display. She was taken to Battleship Memorial Park in Mobile and went on exhibit on July 4. Originally displayed in the waters of Mobile Bay, Drum was damaged by Hurricane Georges in 1998 and was moved onto land. She is now the oldest American submarine on display.
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