The introduction of improved torpedoes caused a sharp upswing in the number of kills made by American subs.īowfin herself was a representative of the submarine fleet's rapid modernization: as a Balao-class sub, she was designed as an upgrade to the older Gato-class, which had been introduced in 1941. Griffith, after the sub's fourth patrol were instrumental in dismantling the last resistance to replacing the defective torpedo models. Furthermore, reports on the defects of the Mark 14 Torpedo were being investigated by early 1943, and Bowfin would only be forced to use them for her first year of service-indeed, firsthand reports in March 1944 from Bowfin's skipper, Commander Walter T. High-ranking naval commanders began to see the true potential of the submarine as a weapon in its own right, unshackled from general fleet scouting duties and able to operate deep within enemy territory to disrupt the movement of troops and supplies. ![]() Moreover, prevalent but obsolete strategic thought viewed the submarine as merely a support echelon to the traditional surface battle fleets of wars past.īowfin began service as the winds of change took effect. ![]() American submarines were armed with defective torpedoes that had undergone inadequate prewar testing and failed to make a significant dent in Japanese shipping during the first year of the war. Having to deal with much vaster distances in the Pacific, American submarines possessed important features that the German U-boats (which had revolutionized naval warfare during World War One) did not, such as air conditioning and water distilleries, but new approaches had not been aggressively implemented to keep up with rapidly advancing weapons and detection technology. For though the United States possessed the largest submarine force in the Pacific in December 1941, like many of the Allied navies its technology and tactics were relics of World War One-the first conflict to have applied submarines in warfare on a wide scale. Navy's submarine fleet, which came into its own in the difficult proving grounds of the Pacific War. The story of the Bowfin in many ways parallels the wartime development of the U.S. The Bowfin and her crew operated throughout the Pacific, primarily near the Philippines and the islands of Japan, and by the time the Empire of Japan capitulated, she had sunk 44 enemy vessels for an approximate combined 176,000 tons (though the official postwar estimates are significantly lower-a common discrepancy much contested by submarine veterans). The ship's auspicious birthday caused her to be nicknamed the "Pearl Harbor Avenger," a prophecy she would amply fulfill during her nine war patrols from mid-1943 until the war's end in 1945. USS Bowfin launched from the Portsmouth Navy Yard in Kittery, Maine on 7 December 1942, exactly one year after the Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor led to the declaration of war in the Pacific. In 1989, the Pacific Submarine Museum closed and transferred its collection to the USS Bowfin Museum. The museum opened in 1981 after years of planning and restoration of the Bowfin. Thousands pay their respects at the Park's Waterfront Memorial, which is in tribute to the 52 American submarines lost during the war. The museum's collection includes recruiting posters, battle flags, a one-of-a-kind cutaway of a Poseidon ballistic missile, an authentic Japanese Kaiten (a suicide sub similar in concept to the Kamikaze aircraft), and the intact conning tower and periscope of the USS Parche, a contemporary of the Bowfin's and one of the most decorated World War II-era subs in the Pacific Fleet. Similar to other submarines during the war, the Bowfin's crew unknowingly sunk a freighter that was carrying 1,500 civilians evacuating from Okinawa, and more than half of these people were schoolchildren. Included in the exhibits are the decisions that led to unrestricted submarine warfare and the consequences which included the sinking of civilian vessels. ![]() Visitors can tour the USS Bowfin and learn the history of this and other submarines in WWII. Located next to Makalapa Park and within walking distance of the USS Arizona Memorial, this floating museum shares the history of a ship commissioned exactly one year after Pearl Harbor.
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