Tench-class and Balao-class
Of relatively all-new design with good endurance and solid firepower, the Tench-class was a force to be reckoned with. Externally they strongly mimicked the lines of the Balao-class and, indeed, the close relationship between the two types was driven home as some of the changes instituted in the Tench design were also brought along in some of the Balao-class boats.
Construction and Activation for Service
USS Tench (SS-417), serving as the lead ship of the group, saw her keel laid down on April 1st, 1944 at the Portsmouth Navy Yard and was launched to sea for evaluation on July 7th of that year. She was commissioned as soon as October 6th, also that same year. Trials were held outside of New London (Connecticut) and Tench took the usual route (by way of the Panama Canal) to the Pacific - heading for the USN base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii - during December.
Wartime Service
Tench would go on to complete three total war patrols due to her late entry into the war. The lateness of the class meant that barely a dozen or so of the boats were actually available for wartime service - many were still in the process of construction, being fitted out or in trials when the war came to a close. However, none would be lost to accident or enemy action as a result.
Her first patrol took her to the East China Sea and the Yellow Sea and ended in April of1945. A refit followed before the second patrol began in May where the boat was active in Japanese homeland waters. Mikamisan Maru was torpedoed and sunk in June and Ryujin Maru followed days later. On June 9th, the freighter Kamishika Maru - Tench's biggest war prize - was sent under. One of her own torpedoes, having entered an uncontrolled circle, threatened the boat but Tench was able to evade before finding peace at Midway.
The third war patrol proved to be her last when she went into action once more - this in late-July. The Empire of Japan surrendered on August 15th, 1945 to officially end World War 2. In March of 1946, Tench was placed in reserve, having journeyed back to the American East Coast (New London). For her relatively short combat service in the Grand Conflict, USS Tench was the recipient of three Battle Stars.
GUPPY Conversion Program
Tench was then modernized through the GUPPY program which made good use of captured German U-boat technology and design philosophy as it related to the ground-breaking Type XXI series (detailed elsewhere on this site). The work made for a more effective attack platform surrounding her performance, particularly when submerged. She was recommissioned for USN service in January of 1950.
Post-War Career
In this new guise, Tench operated for twenty more years while undertaking various patrolling actions in Atlantic waters and, later, the Mediterranean Sea - the primary threat of the day was now the Soviet Union. In late-1968, she participated in Operation Silvertower in Atlantic waters as part of a NATO exercise. In October of 1969, she was reclassified with the hull designator of AGSS-417 to mark her as a "General Auxiliary Submarine" amidst the rise of newer and more powerful Navy attack types.
In May of 1970, she was once again placed in reserve status and remained as such until August of 1973 to which point her name was struck from the Naval Register and her hull stripped of its military value. She was then sold for scrap.
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