Американская подводная лодка USS Barbero времён Второй мировой войны

Submarine of the United States

USS Barbero (SS/SSA/SSG 317) was a of the United States Navy, named for a family of fishes commonly called surgeon fish.

Barbero was laid down by the Electric Boat Company of Groton, Connecticut on 25 March 1943. She was launched on 12 December 1943, sponsored by Mrs. Katherine R. Keating, and commissioned on 29 April 1944.

Barberos war operations span the period from 9 August 1944– 2 January 1945, during which she completed two war patrols. She is credited with sinking three Japanese merchant ships totaling 9,126 tons while patrolling in the Java and South China Seas. Barbero embarked on her first war patrol from Pearl Harbor on 9 August 1944. She reached her patrol area, located east of the central Philippines off San Bernardino Strait, on 24 August. Though she had been stationed there to report and to interdict any attempt by the Japanese to use the strait to contest the Allied invasion of the Palau Islands, they tried no such move. Moreover, during the 31 days that she spent in the area, she encountered no large target. The high point of the patrol came when Barbero lobbed 25 rounds at a radar station on Batag Island with her deck gun. Though she obtained no definite results, her failure to detect radar activity the following night prompted her claim to have neutralized the station. The submarine cleared the area on 24 September 1944 and headed for western Australia, concluding a disappointing 56 day patrol at Fremantle on 4 October. After refit and a brief training period, Barbero departed Fremantle on her second war patrol on 26 October. On this patrol, Comdr. Hartman also assumed command of a coordinated attack group (nicknamed a wolfpack) consisting of Barbero, Haddo, and Redfin. The first phase of this two part patrol lasted from 26 October until 15 November. It was conducted in the Makassar Strait and in the area west of Mindoro. On 2 November, after a lively passage of Lombok Strait during which picket boats and shore batteries fired on her, Barbero sank her first ship, a 2,700 ton troop transport. On 8 November, she sent a 7,500 ton tanker to the bottom during a coordinated attack on a small convoy (consisting of submarine chasers Japanese submarine chaser CH 7 and CH 8 escorting oilers Shimotsu Maru and Nichinan Maru No. 2) carried out in cooperation with Redfin. Redfin received credit for sinking the other tanker in the convoy. Following a three day stop at Mios Woendi to rearm with torpedoes and perform minor upkeep, Barbero embarked on the second portion of the patrol. This longer phase lasted from 18 November 1944 to 2 January 1945 and was conducted in the South China Sea northeast of Borneo. On 24 December in an attack on an escorted four ship convoy, a 7,500 ton gasoline tanker was sunk and a second tanker grossing about 5,000 tons was damaged. On Christmas Day, the submarine claimed her gift from the Japanese in the form of a 4,000 ton cargo ship that she sank. On 27 December, while she attempted the perilous repassage of Lombok Strait, fragments from an aerial bomb that narrowly missed Barbero close aboard aft damaged her port reduction gear. The damage forced her to cover the distance remaining to Fremantle on a single screw, and put her out of action for the remainder of the war. In 68 days away from Fremantle, Barbero returned having sunk four ships totalling 21,700 tons and claiming damage to a fifth of 5,000 tons.

In September 1945, she was ordered to Mare Island Naval Shipyard – where she underwent pre inactivation overhaul – and was placed in commission in reserve on 25 April 1946. Following conversion to a cargo submarine at Mare Island, Barbero was recommissioned, redesignated SSA 317, and assigned to the Pacific Fleet on 31 March 1948. From October 1948 – March 1950, she took part in an experimental program to evaluate her capabilities as a cargo carrier. Experimentation ended in early 1950, and she was decommissioned into the reserve on 30 June 1950. On 1 February 1955, Barbero entered Mare Island Naval Shipyard for her a conversion under project SCB 118, equipping her to launch the Regulus I nuclear cruise missile. She was thus redesignated SSG 317 and recommissioned on 28 October 1955 under Lt. Cmdr. Samuel T. Bussey as the second submarine equipped with the Regulus missile, Tunny having been converted in 1953. In this role, Barbero was equipped with a hangar housing two missiles and a launcher on the after deck. One of the limitations of Regulus was that the firing submarine had to surface, the missile then being rolled out onto the launcher and fired. Regulus I also required guidance from submarines or other platforms after firing. She operated off the coast of California, firing her first test missile near San Clemente Island on 14 March 1956, until April 1956, when she transited the Panama Canal and joined the Atlantic Fleet, based at Norfolk, Virginia. From there, she served as an integral part in the nation's defense against nuclear war by carrying out early versions of the deterrent patrols that later became a regular feature of the submarine force after the introduction of the fleet ballistic missile submarine. She conducted patrols in the Atlantic for the next three years, under a policy of having one Regulus boat in each ocean. On 1 July 1959, Barbero was reassigned to the Pacific Fleet's Submarine Squadron 1, based at Pearl Harbor to conduct deterrent patrols in the Pacific due to a shift in policy placing all deployed Regulus assets there. She usually patrolled with Tunny to provide four missiles on station.

Regulus was superseded by the Polaris missile in 1964. Barbero ended her nuclear strategic deterrent patrols and was decommissioned on 30 June 1964. She was struck from the Naval Vessel Registry on 1 July 1964, prior to being used as a target and sunk by the submarine Swordfish off Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on 7 October 1964.