U.S.S. Alabama (BB-60)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Career (United States)

Ordered: 1 April 1939
Builder: Norfolk Naval Shipyard
Laid down: 1 February 1940
Launched: 16 February 1942
Commissioned: 16 August 1942
Decommissioned: 9 January 1947
Struck: 1 June 1962
Nickname: ''Lucky A''
Honors and Awards: Nine Battle Stars
Fate: Museum ship since 11 June 1964

General characteristics

Class and type: South Dakota class (1939) battleship
Displacement: 35,000 tons (32,000 tonnes) standard
Length: 680 ft. (210 m)
Beam: 108.2 ft. (33.0 m)
Draft: 36.2 ft. (11.0 m)
Propulsion: oil fired steam turbines, 4 shafts
Speed: 27.5 kn (31.6 mph; 50.9 km/h)
Range: 15,000 nmi (17,000 mi; 28,000 km) at 15 kn (17 mph; 28 km/h)
Complement: 1,793 officers and enlisted men
Sensors and processing systems: radar
Armament: 9 - 16 inch (410 mm)/45 cal guns, 20 - 5 inch (130 mm)/38 cal guns, 24 - Bofors 40 mm guns, 22 Oerlikon 20 mm cannons (ever increasing)
Aircraft carried: OS2U Kingfisher scout planes

U.S.S. Alabama (BB-60), a South Dakota class battleship, was the sixth completed ship named Alabama of the United States Navy, however she was only the third commissioned ship with that name. Alabama was commissioned in 1942 and served in World War II in the Atlantic and Pacific theaters. She was decommissioned in 1947 and assigned to the reserve duty. She retired in 1962. In 1964, Alabama was taken to Mobile Bay and opened as a museum ship the following year. The ship was added to the National Historic Landmark registry in 1986.

Construction and Commissioning

Alabama was laid down on 1 February 1940 by the Norfolk Navy Yard, launched on 16 February 1942, and sponsored by Henrietta McCormick Hill, wife of J. Lister Hill, the senior Senator from Alabama. Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox, spoke at the launching ceremony: ''As Alabama slides down the ways today, she carries with her a great name and a great tradition. We cannot doubt that before many months have passed she will have had her first taste of battle. The Navy welcomes her as a new queen among her peers. In the future, as in the past, may the name Alabama ever stand for fighting spirit and devotion to a cause.'' Alabama was commissioned on 16 August 1942, Captain George B. Wilson in command.

Service history

World War II (1943)

After fitting out, Alabama commenced her shakedown cruise in Chesapeake Bay on 11 November 1942. As the year 1943 began, the new battleship headed north to conduct operational training out of Casco Bay, Maine. She returned to Chesapeake Bay on 11 January to carry out the last week of shakedown training. Following a period of availability and logistics support at Norfolk, Alabama was assigned to Task Group 22.2 (TG 22.2), and returned to Casco Bay for tactical maneuvers on 13 February 1943.

With the movement of substantial British strength toward the Mediterranean theater to prepare for the invasion of Sicily, the Royal Navy lacked the heavy ships necessary to cover the northern convoy routes. The British appeal for help on those lines soon led to the temporary assignment of Alabama and South Dakota to the Home Fleet. On 2 April 1943, Alabama, as part of Task Force 22 (TF 22), sailed for the Orkney Islands with her sister ship and a screen of five destroyers. Proceeding via Little Placentia Sound and Naval Station Argentia, Newfoundland, the battleship reached Scapa Flow on 19 May, reporting for duty with Task Force 61 and becoming a unit of the British Home Fleet. She soon embarked on a period of intensive operational training to coordinate joint operations.

Early in June, Alabama and her sister ship, along with British Home Fleet units, covered the reinforcement of the garrison on the island of Spitsbergen, which lay on the northern flank of the convoy route to Russia, in an operation that took the ship across the Arctic Circle. Soon after her return to Scapa Flow, she was inspected by Admiral Harold R. Stark, Commander, United States Naval Forces, Europe. Shortly thereafter, in July, Alabama participated in Operation Governor, a diversion aimed toward southern Norway, to draw German attention away from the real Allied thrust, toward Sicily. It had also been devised to attempt to lure out Tirpitz, but the Germans did not rise to the challenge, and the enemy battleship remained in Norway.

Alabama was detached from the British Home Fleet on 1 August, and, in company with the South Dakota and screening destroyers, steamed for Norfolk, arriving there on 9 August. For the next 10 days, Alabama underwent a period of overhaul and repairs. This work completed, the battleship departed from Norfolk on 20 August for the Pacific Ocean. Transiting the Panama Canal five days later, she dropped anchor in Havannah Harbor, at Efate, in the New Hebrides on 14 September. Following a month and a half of exercises and training with fast carrier task groups, the battleship moved to Fiji on 7 November. Alabama steamed on 11 November to take part in Operation Galvanic, the assault on the Japanese held Gilbert Islands. She screened the fast carriers as they launched attacks on Jaluit and Mille Atolls, Marshall Islands, to neutralize Japanese airfields located there. Alabama supported landings on Tarawa on 20 November, and later took part in the securing of Betio and Makin. On the night of 26 November, Alabama twice opened fire to drive off enemy aircraft that approached her formation.

On 8 December, Alabama, along with five other fast battleships, carried out the first Pacific gunfire strike conducted by that type of warship. Alabama's guns hurled 535 rounds into enemy strong points, as she and her sister ships bombarded Nauru Island, an enemy phosphate producing center, causing severe damage to shore installations there. She also took the destroyer Boyd, alongside after that ship had received a direct hit from a Japanese shore battery on Nauru, and brought three injured men on board for treatment. She then escorted Bunker Hill and Monterey back to Efate, arriving on 12 December. Alabama departed the New Hebrides for Pearl Harbor on 5 January 1944, arrived on the 12th, and underwent a brief drydocking at the Pearl Harbor Navy Yard. After replacement of her port outboard propeller, and routine maintenance, Alabama was again underway to return to action in the Pacific.

1944

Alabama reached Funafuti, Ellice Islands, on 21 January 1944, and there rejoined the fleet. Assigned to TG 58.2, which was formed around the carrier U.S.S. Essex, Alabama left the Ellice Islands on 25 January to help carry out Operation Flintlock, the invasion of the Marshall Islands. Alabama, South Dakota and North Carolina bombarded Roi on 29 January and Namur on 30 January; she hurled 330 rounds of 16 inch (410 mm) and 1,562 of 5 inch (130 mm) toward Japanese targets, destroying planes, airfield facilities, blockhouses, buildings, and gun emplacements. Over the following days of the campaign, Alabama patrolled the area north of Kwajalein Atoll. On 12 February, Alabama sortied with the Bunker Hill task group to launch attacks on Japanese installations, aircraft and shipping at Truk. Those raids, launched on 16 - 17 February, caused heavy damage to enemy shipping concentrated at that island base.

Leaving Truk, Alabama began steaming toward the Mariana Islands to assist in strikes on Tinian, Saipan, and Guam. During this action, while repelling enemy air attacks on 21 February, 5 inch (130 mm) mount No. 9 accidentally fired into gun mount No. 5. Five men died, and 11 were wounded in the mishap. After the strikes were completed on 22 February, Alabama conducted a sweep looking for crippled enemy ships southeast of Saipan, and eventually returned to Majuro on 26 February. There she served temporarily as flagship for Vice Admiral Marc Mitscher, Commander, TF 58, from 3 - 8 March.

Alabama's next mission was to screen the fast carriers as they hurled air strikes against Japanese positions on Palau, Yap, Ulithi, and Woleai, Caroline Islands. She steamed from Majuro on 22 March with TF 58 in the screen of Yorktown. On the night of 29 March, about six enemy planes approached TG 58.3, in which Alabama was operating, and four broke off to attack ships in the vicinity of the battleship. Alabama downed one unassisted, and helped in the destruction of another.

On 30 March, planes from TF 58 began bombing Japanese airfields, shipping, fleet servicing facilities, and other installations on the islands of Palau, Yap, Ulithi and Woleai. During that day, Alabama again provided antiaircraft fire whenever enemy planes appeared. At 20:44 on the 30th, a single plane approached TG 58.3, but Alabama and other ships drove it off before it could cause any damage. The battleship returned briefly to Majuro, before she sailed on 13 April with TF 58, this time in the screen of Enterprise. In the next three weeks, TF 58 hit enemy targets on Hollandia (currently known as Jayapura), Wakde, Sawar, and Sarmi along the New Guinea coast; covered Army landings at Aitape, Tanahmerah Bay, and Humboldt Bay; and conducted further strikes on Truk.

As part of the preliminaries to the invasion of the Marianas, Alabama, in company with five other fast battleships, shelled the large island of Ponape, in the Carolines, the site of a Japanese airfield and seaplane base. As Alabama's Captain Fred T. Kirtland subsequently noted, the bombardment, of 70 minutes duration, was conducted in a ''leisurely manner''. Alabama then returned to Majuro on 4 May 1944 to prepare for the invasion of the Marianas.

After a month spent in exercises and refitting, Alabama again got under way with TF 58 to participate in Operation Forager. On 12 June, Alabama screened the carriers striking Saipan. On 13 June, the Alabama took part in a six hour preinvasion bombardment of the west coast of Saipan, to soften the defenses and cover the initial minesweeping operations. Her spotting planes reported that her salvoes had caused great destruction and fires in Garapan town. Though the shelling appeared successful, it proved a failure due to the lack of specialized training and experience required for successful shore bombardment. Strikes continued as troops invaded Saipan on 15 June.

On 19 June, during the Battle of the Philippine Sea, Alabama operated with TG 58.7, and provided the first warning to TF 58 of the incoming Japanese air strike when she reported having detected a large bogie ''bearing 268¼ true, distance 141 mile (227 km), angels 24 or greater, closing...'' on her air search radar at 10:06. In response to Vice Admiral Mitscher's immediate request for confirmation: Iowa substantiated Alabama's report. Beginning at 10:46 and continuing over the course of the next five hours, the Japanese hurled repeated strikes against Vice Admiral Mitscher's fast carrier force, seven raids in all. Three of those involved TG 58.7, and two of which saw Alabama opening fire. In the first instance, only two planes managed to penetrate the formation to attack South Dakota, but she suffered one bomb hit that killed one officer and 20 enlisted men and wounded an additional 23. An hour later a second wave, composed largely of torpedo bombers, bore in, but Alabama's barrage discouraged two planes from attacking the already bloodied South Dakota. The intense concentration paid to the incoming torpedo planes left one dive bomber nearly undetected, and it managed to drop its load near Alabama; the two small bombs were near misses, and caused no damage.

What U.S. Navy pilots came to call the ''Marianas Turkey Shoot'' severely depleted Japanese naval air power, and Alabama had had a hand in it, as Commander TG 58.7 (Vice Admiral Willis A. Lee) recognized in his TBS (low frequency voice radio) message at 12:47: ''In the matter of reporting initial bogies, to IOWA well done, to ALABAMA very well done.'' Alabama's ''early warning'' had allowed the carriers to scramble their fighters and intercept the in bound enemy ''at a considerable distance'' from TF 58 than would otherwise have been possible.

Alabama continued patrolling areas around the Marianas to protect the American landing forces on Saipan, screening the east carriers as they struck enemy shipping, aircraft, and shore installations on Guam, Tinian, Rota, and Saipan. She then retired to the Marshalls for upkeep.

Alabama, as flagship for Rear Admiral E. W. Hanson, Commander, Battleship Division 9 (BatDiv 9), left Eniwetok on 14 July, sailing with the task group formed around Bunker Hill. She screened the fast carriers as they conducted preinvasion attacks and support of the landings on the island of Guam on 21 July. She returned briefly to Eniwetok on 11 August. On 30 August, she got underway in the screen of Essex to carry out Operation Stalemate II the seizure of Palau, Ulithi, and Yap. From 6 - 8 September, the forces launched strikes on the Carolinas.

Alabama departed the Carolines to sail to the Philippines and provided cover for the carriers striking the islands of Cebu Island, Leyte, Bohol and Negros from 12 - 14 September. The carriers launched strikes on shipping and installations in the Manila Bay area on 21 - 22 September, and in the central Philippines area on 24 September. Alabama retired briefly to Saipan on 28 September, then proceeded to Ulithi on 1 October. On 6 October, Alabama sailed with TF 38 to support the liberation of the Philippines. Again operating as part of a fast carrier task group, Alabama protected the flattops while they launched strikes on Japanese facilities at Okinawa, in the Penghu archipelago and Taiwan.

Detached from the Formosa area on 14 October to sail toward Luzon, the fast battleship again used her antiaircraft batteries in support of the carriers as enemy aircraft attempted to attack the formation. Alabama's gunners claimed three enemy aircraft shot down and a fourth damaged. By 15 October, Alabama was supporting landing operations on Leyte. She then screened the carriers as they conducted air strikes on Cebu, Negros, Panay, northern Mindanao, and Leyte on 21 October.

Alabama, as part of the Enterprise screen, supported air operations against the Japanese Southern Force in the area off Surigao Strait then moved north to strike the powerful Japanese Central Force heading for San Bernardino Strait. After receiving reports of a third Japanese force, the battleship served in the screen of the fast carrier task force as it sped to Cape Enga–o. On 24 October, although American air strikes destroyed four Japanese carriers in the Battle off Cape Enga–o, the Japanese Central Force under Vice Admiral Takeo Kurita had transited San Bernardino Strait and emerged off the coast of Samar, where it fell upon a task group of American escort carriers and their destroyer and destroyer escort screen. Alabama reversed her course and headed for Samar to assist the greatly outnumbered American forces, but the Japanese had retreated by the time she reached the scene. She then joined the protective screen for Essex task group to hit enemy forces in the central Philippines before retiring to Ulithi on 30 October for replenishment. Underway again on 3 November, Alabama screened the fast carriers as they carried out sustained strikes against Japanese airfields, and installations on Luzon to prepare for a landing on Mindoro Island. She spent the next few weeks engaged in operations against the Visayas and Luzon before retiring to Ulithi on 24 November.

The first half of December found Alabama engaged in various training exercises and maintenance routines. She left Ulithi on 10 December, and reached the launching point for air strikes on Luzon on 14 December, as the fast carrier task forces launched aircraft to carry out preliminary strikes on airfields on Luzon that could threaten the landings slated to take place on Mindoro. From 14 - 16 December, a veritable umbrella of carrier aircraft covered the Luzon fields, preventing any enemy planes from getting airborne to challenge the Mindoro bound convoys. Having completed her mission, she left the area to refuel on 17 December, but as she reached the fueling rendezvous, began encountering heavy weather. By daybreak on the 18th, rough seas and harrowing conditions rendered a fueling at sea impossible; 50 kn (58 mph; 93 km/h) winds caused ships to roll heavily. Alabama experienced rolls of 30¡, had both her OS2U Kingfisher floatplanes so badly damaged that they were of no further value, and received minor damage to her structure. At one point in the typhoon, Alabama recorded wind gusts up to 83 kn (96 mph; 154 km/h). Three destroyers, Hull, Monaghan, and Spence, were lost to the typhoon. By 19 December, the storm had run its course, and Alabama arrived back at Ulithi on 24 December. After pausing there briefly, Alabama continued on to Puget Sound Naval Shipyard for overhaul.

1945

The battleship entered drydock on 18 January 1945, and remained there until 25 February. Shipyard work continued until 17 March, when Alabama got underway for standardization trials and refresher training along the southern California coast. She got underway for Pearl Harbor on 4 April, arrived there on 10 April, and held a week of training exercises. She then continued on to Ulithi and moored there on 28 April.

Alabama departed from Ulithi with TF 58 on 9 May, bound for the Ryukyu Islands, to support forces which had landed on Okinawa on 1 April, and to protect the fast carriers as they launched air strikes on installations in the Ryukyus and on Kyosh. On 14 May, several Japanese planes penetrated the combat air patrol to get at the carriers; one crashed into Admiral Mitscher's flagship. Alabama's guns splashed two, and assisted in splashing two more. Subsequently, Alabama rode out a typhoon on 4 - 5 June, suffering only superficial damage, while Pittsburgh lost her bow. Alabama subsequently bombarded the Japanese island of Minami Daito Shima, with other fast battleships on 10 June and then headed for Leyte Gulf later in June to prepare to strike at the heart of Japan with the 3rd Fleet.

On 1 July, Alabama and other 3rd Fleet units got underway for the Japanese home islands. Throughout the month of July, Alabama carried out strikes on targets in industrial areas of Tokyo and other points on Honsh, Hokkaid, and Kyosh; on the night of 17 July and 18 July, Alabama, and other fast battleships in the task group, carried out the first night bombardment of six major industrial plants in the Hitachi-Mito area of Honsh, about 8 miles (13 km) northeast of Tokyo. Onboard Alabama to observe the operation was retired Rear Admiral Richard Byrd, the famed polar explorer. On 9 August, Alabama transferred a medical party to Ault, for further transfer to Borie. The latter had been struck by a kamikaze on that date and required prompt medical aid on her distant warning radar picket station.

According to data found at the U.S.S. Alabama Monument in Mobile, Alabama, the ship fired over 1,250 16 inch (410 mm) shells on the enemy during supporting bombardments, shot down 22 enemy aircraft and never incurred any damage due to enemy action. The ship suffered only five casualties during the war, the result of one of the ship's guns accidentally firing on one of the ship's other guns; it did not lose a single man due to enemy action, thus earning it the nickname ''Lucky A''.

Post War

The end of the war found Alabama still at sea, operating off the southern coast of Honsh. On 15 August 1945, she received word of the Japanese capitulation. During the initial occupation of the Yokosuka-Tokyo area, Alabama transferred detachments of marines and bluejackets for temporary duty ashore; her bluejackets were among the first from the fleet to land. She also served in the screen of the carriers as they conducted reconnaissance flights to locate prisoner of war camps.

Alabama entered Tokyo Bay on 5 September to receive men who had served with the occupation forces, and then departed Japanese waters on 20 September. At Okinawa, she embarked 700 sailors, principally members of Navy construction battalions (or ''Seabees''), for her part in Operation Magic Carpet. She reached San Francisco at mid-day on 15 October, and on 27 October hosted 9,000 visitors. She then shifted to San Pedro, California on 29 October. Alabama remained at San Pedro through 27 February 1946, when she left for the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard for inactivation overhaul. Alabama received nine battle stars for her World War II service. Alabama was decommissioned on 9 January 1947, at the Naval Station, Seattle, and was assigned to the Bremerton Group, United States Pacific Reserve Fleet. She remained there until struck from the Naval Vessel Register on 1 June 1962.

Museum ship
Battleship Memorial Park
U.S.S. ALABAMA (battleship)
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. National Historic Landmark

Built/Founded: 1964 for museum
Added to NRHP: 14 January 1986
Designated NHL: 14 January 1986
NRHPÊReference Number: 86000083

Citizens of the state of Alabama had formed the ''U.S.S. Alabama Battleship Commission'' to raise funds for the preservation of Alabama as a memorial to the men and women who served in World War II. (Nearly $100,000 was raised by Alabama schoolchildren, mostly in the form of small change and a corporate fundraising effort completed the nearly $1 million donation.) The ship was awarded to that state on 16 June 1964, and was formally turned over on 7 July 1964 in ceremonies at Seattle. Alabama was then towed to her permanent berth at Battleship Memorial Park, Mobile, Alabama, arriving in Mobile Bay on 14 September 1964 and opening as a museum ship on 9 January 1965. She was joined in 1969 by the Gato class submarine U.S.S. Drum which was moored behind Alabama until it was damaged in Hurricane Georges, resulting in its move to an onshore display. The ship was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1986.

Visitors are allowed to view the inside of the main gun turrets and anti-aircraft guns. The powder magazine was opened to the public through some holes that were cut, and stairs put in. The bunk of Major League Baseball Hall of Famer Bob Feller is marked for those touring. Feller served on Alabama for several years during World War II.

In recent years, Alabama has been occasionally used as a hurricane shelter. During Hurricane Katrina, Alabama suffered damage which resulted in an eight degree list to port, and shifting at her permanent anchorage. (The families of 18 museum employees were aboard during Katrina.) In addition, the Aircraft Pavilion was severely damaged, with three of the exhibited aircraft destroyed. At the end of 2005, damage estimates were in excess of four million dollars. The park reopened 9 January 2006, with the ship having a three degree list (which was still being corrected). The battleship, submarine, and Aircraft Pavilion are all open.

Film appearance

Although the action was putatively occurring aboard Missouri, and that ship was shown in some of the footage, Alabama was actually utilized for most of the battleship scenes in the 1992 film Under Siege.

U.S.S. Drum (SS-228)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Career (United States)

Ordered: 12 June 1940
Builder: Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, Kittery, Maine
Laid down: 11 September 1940
Launched: 12 May 1941
Commissioned: 1 November 1941
Decommissioned: 16 February 1946
Struck: 30 June 1968
Fate: Museum ship at Mobile, Alabama as of 14 April 1969

General characteristics

Class and type: Gato-class diesel electric submarine
Displacement: 1,490 long tons (1,510 t) surfaced 2,060 long tons (2,090 t) submerged
Length: 311 ft. 9 in. (95.0 m)
Beam: 27 ft. 3 in. (8.3 m)
Draft: 17 ft. (5.2 m) maximum
Propulsion: 4 Fairbanks Morse Model 38D8 9 cylinder opposed piston diesel engines driving electrical generators, 2 126 cell Sargo batteries, 4 high speed Elliott electric motors with reduction gears, two propellers, 5,400 shp (4.0 MW) surfaced, 2,740 shp (2.0 MW) submerged
Speed: 21 kn (39 km/h) surfaced, 9 kn (17 km/h) submerged
Range: 11,000 nmi (20,000 km) surfaced at 10 kn (19 km/h)
Endurance: 48 hours at 2 kn (3.7 km/h) submerged, 75 days on patrol
Test depth: 300 ft. (91 m)
Complement: 6 officers, 54 enlisted
Armament: 10 - 21 inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes (six forward, four aft), 24 torpedoes, 1 - 3 inch (76 mm) / 50 caliber deck gun, four machine guns

U.S.S. Drum (SS-228) is a Gato class submarine of the United States Navy, the first Navy ship named after the drum, any of various types of fish capable of making a drumming sound. Drum is presently on display as a museum ship in Mobile, Alabama. Drum was laid down on 11 September 1940 at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, Kittery, Maine. She was launched on 12 May 1941 (sponsored by Mrs. Thomas Holcomb), and commissioned on 1 November 1941, Commander Robert H. Rice in command. According to materials obtained at the submarine, Drum was the twelfth of the Gato class but was the first completed and the first to enter combat in World War II. She is the oldest still in existence.

Service History

World War II

The U.S.S. Drum arrived at Pearl Harbor from the East Coast on 1 April 1942, and after a voyage to Midway Atoll, cleared Pearl Harbor on 14 April on her first war patrol. Cruising off the coast of Japan, she sank Mizuho on 2 May and afterwards endured a 16 hour depth charge attack consisting of 31 depth charges. Later that month she sank three cargo ships before returning to Pearl Harbor on 12 June to refit. Drum's second war patrol, which she made in the waters between Truk and Kavieng from 10 July - 2 September, found her efforts frustrated by poor torpedo performance, but she damaged one freighter before returning to Midway to refit.

The submarine sailed from Midway on 23 September on her third war patrol, bound for the eastern coast of Kyosh. On 8 October, she contacted a convoy of four freighters, and defying the air cover guarding the ships, sank one of the cargo ships before bombs forced her deep. The next day, Drum underwent a severe depth charging from several escorts after she attacked a cargo ship. Later in the patrol, she sank one of three air escorted cargo ships, and damaged at least two more ships before completing her patrol at Pearl Harbor on 8 November.

On her fourth patrol - 29 November 1942 - 24 January 1943, Drum carried out the demanding task of planting mines in heavily traveled Bungo Suido. On 12 December, she spotted Ry?h?, which had a full deck load of planes. Although taking water forward due to faulty valves, Drum launched torpedoes at this choice target, scoring two hits, and causing the carrier to list so far that her flight deck became completely visible. Also visible was a destroyer bearing down, and splashes that indicated Drum's periscope was under fire. As the submarine dove she lost depth control and her port shaft stopped turning. As she made emergency repairs, she underwent two waves of depth charging. When she surfaced several hours later to see what had become of her prey, an airplane forced her down. Also during this patrol, Drum damaged a large tanker, another choice target.

After a thorough overhaul at Pearl Harbor, Drum made her fifth war patrol from 24 March - 13 May, searching waters south of Truk after she had made a photographic reconnaissance of Nauru. She sank two freighters in April, then refitted at Brisbane, Australia. Her sixth war patrol from 7 June - 26 July, found her north of the Bismarck Archipelago, sinking a cargo passenger ship on 17 June. Again she put into Brisbane to replenish, and on 16 August sailed on her seventh war patrol. Adding to her already impressive list of sinkings, she sent a cargo ship to the bottom on 31 August, as well as patrolling off New Georgia during the landings there. She put into Tulagi from 29 September - 2 October to repair her gyrocompass, then sailed on to Brisbane.

Drum sailed on 2 November for her eighth war patrol, coordinated with the landings at Cape Torokina. Patrolling between the Carolines and New Ireland, she sank a cargo ship on 17 November, and on 22 November attacked a convoy of four freighters. The convoy's escorts delivered three depth charge attacks, and Drum was heavily damaged and was ordered to Pearl Harbor. She returned there on 5 December, and after inspection showed the conning tower needed to be replaced, she sailed to the West Coast.

Returning to Pearl Harbor on 29 March 1944, Drum sailed 11 days later on her ninth war patrol, during which she patrolled the waters around Iwo Jima and other islands in the Bonin Islands. No worthy targets were contacted, but a reconnaissance of Chichi Jima gained valuable intelligence for bombardment of the island later by surface ships.

The submarine refitted at Majuro from 31 May-24 June, then sailed on her 10th war patrol to give lifeguard service for raids on Yap and Palau. She sank a 125 ton sampan on 29 July, capturing two prisoners with whom she arrived at Pearl Harbor on 14 August. She sailed for Surigao Strait on 9 September on her 11th war patrol, and after two weeks in the Strait with no contact, was ordered north to the South China Sea. Here she patrolled during the Leyte landings and the decisive Battle for Leyte Gulf, sinking three cargo ships bound for the Philippines with Japanese reinforcements. While bound for Majuro for refit, Drum searched east of Luzon Strait for downed aviators.

Drum replenished and made repairs at Majuro from 8 November - 7 December, then sailed for the Nansei Shoto on her 12th war patrol. Only one contact was made during this patrol, and she returned to Guam on 17 January 1945. During her 13th war patrol from 11 February - 2 April, Drum played a part in the assaults on both Iwo Jima and Okinawa, providing lifeguard service for air strikes on the Nansei Shoto and the Japanese home islands as bases were neutralized before both invasions. Returning to Pearl Harbor, Drum sailed to the West Coast for another overhaul, and after training at Pearl Harbor, cleared Midway on 9 August on what would have been her 14th war patrol; this trip was cut short by the Japanese surrender on 15 August. She proceeded to Saipan at the end of hostilities, and from there sailed for Pearl Harbor, the Panama Canal Zone, and Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

Post War

Drum was decommissioned on 16 February 1946 and on 18 March 1947, began service at Washington, D.C., to members of the Naval Reserve in the Potomac River Naval Command, which continued through 1967. She was in the inactive Fleet at Norfolk, Virginia from 1967 to 1969.

Awards

Drum received of 12 battle stars for her World War II service. She is credited with sinking 15 ships, a total of 80,580 tons of enemy shipping, eighth highest of all U.S. submarines in total Japanese tonnage sunk.

Museum Ship and Landmark
U.S.S. DRUM (submarine)
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. National Historic Landmark

Location: Mobile, Alabama
Built/Founded: 1941
Architect: Portsmouth Naval Shipyard
Architectural style(s): Other
Governing body: Local
Added to NRHP: 14 January 1986
Designated NHL: 14 January 1986
NRHPÊReference Number: 86000086

U.S.S. Drum in Mobile, Alabama

Drum was donated to the U.S.S. Alabama Battleship Commission on 14 April 1969. She was towed to Battleship Memorial Park in Mobile, Alabama arriving on 18 May 1969. Drum was dedicated and opened to the public on 4 July 1969. The submarine was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1986. Drum originally was moored in the waters behind Alabama, until the submarine was damaged in the storm surge of Hurricane Georges in 1998. As a result, the submarine is now on display on shore, as seen in the photo at the top of this page. Alabama and Drum also sustained damage when Hurricane Katrina came ashore on 29 August 2005. Tours on board Drum resumed 9 January 2006.