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Archerfish was a Balao class
submarine built for the United States
Navy during World War Two. Just over 200
US submarines were deployed during the
war, of which, 122 were the Balao class.
These submarines could dive to a depth of
400 feet, had a range of 11,000 miles,
could stay submerged up to 48 hours and
had a 66-man crew. Archerfish set
out on her first deployment in January
1944. This 53-day patrol saw her credited
with sinking one Japanese ship and
damaging two others. Her 5th deployment
departed Pearl Harbor October 30th 1944.
At that time, the Japanese had just
completed converting their third Yamato
class battleship Shinano into an
aircraft carrier. They took an
unnecessary risk with their 59,000-ton
ship by transferring her from the
builders at Yokosuka to the navy yard at
Kure for fitting out.
On November 28th 1944,
Archerfish detected Shinano
being escorted by four ships. With all
six torpedoes fired hitting
Shinano, the largest carrier built
during that war blew up and sank within
minutes. The end of the war saw
Archerfish credited with sinking
one passenger freighter, one costal
defense ship, one aircraft carrier,
damaging three ships and rescuing one US
aviator. In all, US submarines sunk 1,113
Japanese cargo ships and 214 naval
vessels that totaled about six million
tons. Archerfish was
decommissioned June 12th 1946 and laid up
with the US Navy reserve fleet at Mare
Island. After being taken out of reserve
twice for short periods in the1950s and
early 1960s, she was finally struck from
the navy register May 1st 1968. Her end
came October 19th 1968 after being used
as a target ship by the US submarine
Snook.
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