PICTURE PERFECT FRIDAY ONE

ONE  -- noun

1)  The cardinal number, represented by the symbol "1", designating the first such unit in a series.

2) A single person, thing, or unit.

 

"We shall never forget that it was our submarines that held the lines against the enemy while our fleets replaced losses and repaired wounds."

Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz, USN.

 

One can be a noun, an adjective, or a pronoun, I chose the Noun.  I have been collecting Navy patches and Welcome Aboard booklets for years (along other military, police and fire depts.)  One of my best finds and one of my favorites is a patch from the SS 391 USS POMFREY,  a WWII Balao class attack submarine.  What makes this special to me is the history behind the boat.  Although a surface ship is given credit for first entering into the Inner Toyko Bay, SS POMFREY was the first one to enter the Outer Bay in August of 1945, to rescue downed US flyers, she did this under US air cover.

The following is from the Naval Historical Center:

USS Pomfret (SS-391), 1944-1971

USS Pomfret, a 1526-ton Balao class submarine built at the Portsmouth Navy Yard, Kittery, Maine, was commissioned in February 1944. She joined the Pacific fleet several months later and made her first war patrol, in the waters off Japan, in June-August 1944. Though the submarine attacked three Japanese ships, including a battleship, none were hit. A second patrol, which took her into the Luzon Strait during September and October, produced the sinking of a Japanese transport. Returning to the Luzon Strait for her third combat cruise, Pomfret sank three more ships. Between late January and the end of the Pacific War in mid-August 1945, she made three patrols, during which she rescued several downed U.S. aviators (one in outer Tokyo Bay), shelled shore facilities and sank a number of floating mines.

As part of the post-war active fleet, Pomfret deployed three times to the Western Pacific during 1946-1949 and again in 1951, during the Korean War. In 1952 and early 1953 Pomfret underwent a "Guppy IIA" modernization, greatly enhancing her underwater performance. Her Pacific Fleet service continued for nearly two more decades, with regular deployments to the Far East. Decommissioned in mid-1971, Pomfret was loaned to the Turkish Navy and renamed Oruc Reis. She was sold to Turkey two years later and remained a unit of that nation's navy until the later 1980s.

 

And this is from HYPER-WAR  Ships of the US Navy -- 1940-1945

SS-391 USS Pomfret

• Balao Class Submarine:
• Displacement: 1526 tons surfaced, 2424 tons submerged
• Length: 311'
• Beam: 27'3"
• Draft: 16'10"
• Speed: 20 knots surfaced, 9 knots submerged
• Armament: 1 3"/50 or 1 4"/50 or 1 5"/50, 6 bow and 4 stern torpedo tubes, (#?) 21" torpedoes
• Complement: 80
• Diesel engines, surfaced/electric motors, submerged
• Built at Portsmouth Navy Yard and commissioned 1944

 

Please note, the background picture is on the  SS 391 POMFREY, but I am not sure of the date.

Victory At Sea -- Main Theme,  Thank you for finding it LindaO!!