USS Croaker (SS-246)

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Career

Ordered:
Laid down:	1 April 1943
Launched:	19 December 1943
Commissioned:	21 April 1944
Decommissioned (last):	2 April 1968
Fate:	serving as a museum ship at Buffalo, NY
Struck:	20 December 1971
General Characteristics
Displacement, Surfaced: Submerged:	1,526 tons (1550 t), 2,424 tons (2460 t)
Length:	311.8 feet (95.0 m)
Beam:	27.3 feet (8.3 m)
Draft:	15.3 feet (4.6 m)
Depth Limit:	300 feet (90 m)
Speed, Surfaced: Submerged:	20.25 knots (37 km/h) 8.75 knots (16 km/h)
Propulsion:	four 6500-hp Diesel engines, four 2740-hp (2.0 MW) electric motors, two propellers
Submerged Endurance:	48 hours at 2 knots
Patrol Endurance:	75 days
Range:	11,000 nmi. (20,000 km) surfaced at 10 knots
Complement:	6 Officers, 54 Enlisted
Armament:	ten 21" torpedo tubes, (six forward, four aft), 24 torpedoes, one 3"/50 deck gun, four machine guns
Motto:

USS Croaker (SS/SSK/AGSS/IXSS-246), a Gato-class submarine, was the first ship of the United States Navy to be named for the croaker, any of various fishes which make croaking noises.

Croaker (SS-246) was launched 19 December 1942 by Electric Boat Co., Groton, Conn.; sponsored by Mrs. W. H. P. Blandy; and commissioned 21 April 1944, Commander J. E. Lee in command.

Croaker arrived at Pearl Harbor from New London 26 June 1944, and on 19 July put to sea on her first war patrol, sailing to the East China and Yellow Seas. In a series of brilliantly successful attacks which won her the Navy Unit Commendation, she sank the cruiser Nagara on 7 August, and two freighters, one on 14 August and one on 17 August. During this patrol, she served as lifeguard during air strikes on the Bonin Islands. She refitted at Midway Atoll between 31 August and 23 September, when she sailed in a wolfpack for the same area on her second war patrol. Again successful, she sank a freighter on 9 October, and another on 23 October. She shadowed a convoy on 24 October, and sank one freighter and damaged another with her last torpedo. Tubes empty, she returned to Midway to fuel, and pushed on to Pearl Harbor, arriving for refit 10 November.

Croaker's third war patrol, in the Luzon Straits and South China Sea from 13 December 1944 to 12 February 1945, found her making no contacts with enemy shipping, but providing essential lifeguard service during strikes on Luzon preparatory to the invasion landings in Lingayen Gulf. She refitted at Fremantle, Australia, and on 12 March sailed for a patrol off the coast of Indo-China twice interrupted by the need to return to Australia for repairs. She refitted at Subic Bay, P.I., between 22 April and 15 May, then sailed for her fifth war patrol, in the Java Sea. On 30 May she attacked a convoy of three small oilers guarded by an escort, with unconfirmed results, and 5 June returned to Fremantle. Her sixth and final war patrol, between 1 July and 13 August, found her assigned to lifeguard duties in the South China Sea and off Hong Kong as the final series of air attacks on Japan were carried out.

Returning to Subic Bay, Croaker sailed for Saipan and continued on to Galveston, Tex., and New London, where she was decommissioned and placed in reserve 15 May 1946 in the Atlantic Reserve Fleet.

Croaker (SSK-246), underway, circa mid '50s.

Recommissioned 7 May 1951, she served as schoolship out of New London until 18 March 1953, when she was again decommissioned at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard for conversion to a hunter-killer submarine. She was reclassified SSK-246 on 9 April 1953, and was recommissioned 11 December 1953. Returning to active duty in February 1954, she operated along the East Coast and in the Caribbean, visiting ports in England while taking part in NATO exercises in 1957 and 1958.

Croaker was reclassified SS-246 again in August 1959. Special submarine exercises took her to England once more in February 1960, after which she resumed local operations out of New London. In September 1960, Croaker departed on a cruise which saw her sailing through the Mediterranean and Suez Canal to call at various Near Eastern ports and Karachi, Pakistan. She returned to New London in mid-December, retracing her outward track.

She was reclassified Auxiliary Submarine AGSS-246 in May 1967. Decommissioned for the last time on 2 April 1968, Croaker was struck from the Naval Vessel Register, 20 December 1971 and reclassified Miscellaneous Unclassified Submarine IXSS-246 in December 1971, serving since then as a museum ship at Buffalo, New York.

Along with the Navy United Commendation, Croaker received three battle stars for those of her war patrols designated as "successful", the first, second, and fifth of her six. She is credited with having sunk 19,710 tons of shipping.

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References

This article includes text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships.

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External links

history.navy.mil: USS Croaker (http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/c15/croaker.htm)
hazegray.org: USS Croaker (http://hazegray.org/danfs/submar/ss246.htm)
navsource.org: USS Croaker (http://www.navsource.org/archives/08/08246.htm)
Buffalo and Erie County Naval & Military Park (http://www.buffalonavalpark.org/USSCroaker.html)
Sinkings by boat: USS Croaker (http://www.rddesigns.com/ww2/ww2sinkings.html)