German submarine U-552 was a Type VIIC U-boat built for Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine for service during World War II. She was laid down on 1 December 1939 at Blohm & Voss in Hamburg as yard number 528, launched on 14 September 1940, and went into service on 4 December 1940. U-552 was nicknamed the Roter Teufel after her mascot of a grinning devil, which was painted on the conning tower. She was one of the more successful of her class, operating for over three years of continual service and sinking or damaging 35 Allied ships with 164,276 GRT and 1,190 tons sunk and 26,910 GRT damaged. She was a member of 21 wolf packs.
USS Big Horn (AO-45/WAO-124/IX-207) was a Q-ship of the United States Navy named for the Bighorn River of Wyoming and Montana.
USS Bonefish (SS-223) was a Gato-class submarine, the first United States Navy ship to be named for the bonefish.
USS Tang (SS-306) was a Balao-class submarine of World War II, the first ship of the United States Navy to bear the name Tang. She was built and launched in 1943, serving until being sunk by her own torpedo off China in the Taiwan Strait on 24 October 1944.
USS Ray (SS/SSR-271), a Gato-class submarine, was the first ship of the United States Navy to be named for the ray, a fish characterized by a flat body, large pectoral fins, and a whiplike tail.
The first USS Spadefish (SS/AGSS-411), a Balao-class submarine, was the first ship of the United States Navy to be named for the spadefish. Although she was commissioned late in the war and spent only one year in the Pacific war zone, she was able to run up a record of 88,091 tons in 21 ships and numerous trawlers sunk.
USS Peterson (DE–152) was an Edsall class destroyer escort, the first United States Navy ship so named. This ship was named for Chief Water Tender Oscar V. Peterson (1899–1942), who was awarded the Medal of Honor posthumously for his actions during the Battle of the Coral Sea.
German submarine U-550 was a Type IXC/40 German Navy U-boat built during World War II. She was laid down on 2 October 1942 by Deutsche Werft in Hamburg as yard number 371, launched on 12 May 1943 and commissioned on 28 July under the command of Kapitänleutnant Klaus Hänert.
HMS Safari was a third batch S-class submarine built for the Royal Navy during World War II. Commissioned in 1942, she was assigned to operate in the Mediterranean Sea. During the course of the war, Safari sank twenty-five ships, most of which were Italian.
German submarine U-96 was a Type VIIC U-boat of the German Navy (Kriegsmarine) during World War II. It was made famous after the war in Lothar-Günther Buchheim's 1973 bestselling novel Das Boot and the 1981 Oscar-nominated film adaptation of the same name, both based on his experience on the submarine as a war correspondent in 1941.
The Battle of the Caribbean refers to a naval campaign waged during World War II that was part of the Battle of the Atlantic, from 1941 to 1945. German U-boats and Italian submarines attempted to disrupt the Allied supply of oil and other material. They sank shipping in the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico and attacked coastal targets in the Antilles. Improved Allied anti-submarine warfare eventually drove the Axis submarines out of the Caribbean region.
HMS Splendid was a third-batch S-class submarine built for the Royal Navy during World War II. She was laid down on 7 March 1941 and launched on 19 January 1942. After an initial patrol through the Bay of Biscay to Gibraltar, Splendid conducted two patrols in the Mediterranean Sea; one was abandoned after technical problems and on the other she sank two Italian ships. On her next patrol, the submarine attacked two Italian convoys, sinking an Italian destroyer in the second attack. Based in Algiers, the boat operated north of Sicily, sinking six Italian ships, including two tankers and two heavy merchant ships. Splendid was detected by a German destroyer on 21 April 1943 while patrolling off Naples, Italy; the submarine was attacked with depth charges by the destroyer and forced to surface, after which she was scuttled and her surviving crew members taken prisoner. She was the most successful British submarine by tonnage sunk between November 1942 and May 1943.
HMS Sickle was a third-batch S-class submarine built for the Royal Navy during World War II. Completed in 1942, she made her initial war patrol off the Norwegian coast. Sickle then sailed to Gibraltar, from where she conducted one patrol, then to Algiers, French North Africa. From 10 May to 10 October, the boat patrolled the Gulf of Genoa five times and sank a German submarine as well as three minesweepers and an escort ship. She then moved to Beirut, French Lebanon, and conducted two patrols in the Aegean Sea, sinking three caïques and a merchant ship, in addition to landing resistance operatives in Greece.
USS Gandy (DE-764) was a Cannon-class destroyer escort in service with the United States Navy from 1944 to 1946. In 1951, she was transferred to Italy, where she served as Altair until she was stricken and sunk as a target in 1971.
USS Joyce (DE-317) was originally commissioned as a US Coast Guard Edsall-class destroyer escort built for the U.S. Navy during World War II. She served in the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean and provided destroyer escort protection against submarine and air attack for Navy vessels and convoys. During its World War II service, on two different engagements with enemy submarines, the Joyce rescued survivors of the tanker SS Pan- Pennsylvania and its sister ship USS Leopold. Joyce received one battle star for its service during World War II.
USS Kirkpatrick (DE-318) was an Edsall-class destroyer escort built for the U.S. Navy during World War II. She served in the Atlantic Ocean the Pacific Ocean and provided destroyer escort protection against submarine and air attack for Navy vessels and convoys. Post-war, she was converted to a radar picket ship to support the DEW Line.
German submarine U-87 was a Type VIIB U-boat of Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine during World War II. The submarine was laid down on 18 April 1940 at the Flender Werke (yard) at Lübeck as yard number 283 and launched on 21 June 1941. She was commissioned on 21 June under the command of Kapitänleutnant Joachim Berger. U-87 trained with 6th U-boat Flotilla until 1 December 1941, when she was put on front-line service.
The T3 tanker, or T3, are a class of seaworthy large tanker ships produced in the United States and used to transport fuel oil, gasoline or diesel before and during World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War. The T3 tanker classification is still used today. The T3 tanker has a full load displacement of about 24,830 tons.
Convoy TM 1 was the code name for an Allied convoy during the Second World War. Nine tankers, escorted by Royal Navy warships, attempted to reach Gibraltar from Trinidad. The convoy was attacked by a U-boat wolf pack in the central Atlantic Ocean, and most of the merchant vessels were sunk. This was one of the most successful attacks on Allied supply convoys throughout the entire war. The convoy was defended by the destroyer HMS Havelock, and three Flower-class corvettes, HMS Godetia, HMS Pimpernel and HMS Saxifrage. Seven tankers were sunk during the attacks, two surviving to reach Gibraltar. Two U-boats were damaged during the attacks.
Welding Shipyards was founded by American shipping businessman, Daniel K. Ludwig (1897–1992) in 1940 at Norfolk, Virginia on the Sewell's Point peninsula. Welding Shipyards build T3 tanker ships for World War II under the Emergency Shipbuilding Program. Welding Shipyards had one construction berth with 600 workers. The shipyard built what Ludwig was known for Oil tankers. Welding Shipyards built five type T3-S-BF1 tankers, the largest at the time. Ludwig' Welding Shipyards used what is called block construction. To shorten keel to ship launching time due losses to German U-boats, block construction was used. Ships blocks were built as the keel was being laid and then the prefabricated parts were then put in place and welded. With this construction time was reduced dramatically. Welding Shipyards and Ludwig had an important role in this new type of construction. All of the tanker ships were operated by Ludwig's shipping company that he founded, the National Bulk Carriers in 1936 in New York. National Bulk Carriers owned and operated oil tanker ships and bulk carriers. Some of the ships were among the largest in the world at that time. In 1953 Ludwig moved the shipyard operated to the Kure shipyard in Japan. Ludwig leased the Japanese navy Kure yard for 10 years. The Welding Shipyards site today is part of the Naval Station Norfolk. In 1940 and early 1941, Welding Shipyards converted older World War I surplus cargo ships into oil tankers.
United States
