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Gato class submarine1/2/2024 Fortunately, the very same capabilities that would have enabled these submarines to operate with the fleet made them superbly qualified for their new mission of commerce raiding against the Japanese Empire The successful Pearl Harbor attack overturned 20 years of submarine strategic concept development and left the fleet submarine without a mission. The attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941 destroyed the Pacific Fleet battle line and along with it the concept of the battleship-led gun battle. Timing, however, conspired against the actual use of these boats in their assigned role. Finally, the USN had hit the right combination of factors and now had the long-desired fleet submarine. By 1940, a much better developed industrial base and experience gained from the Porpoise-, Salmon-, & Sargo-class boats resulted in the Tambor- & Gar-classes. īy 1931, the experimental phase of fleet submarine development was over and the Navy began to make solid progress towards what would eventually be the Gato-class. The USN constantly experimented with this concept in the post-World War I years, producing a series of submarines with less than stellar qualities and reliability, the T class and the so-called V boats. State-of-the-art submarine design and construction in the 1920s and 1930s made this combination of qualities very difficult to achieve. In order to operate effectively in this role, a submarine had to have high surface speed, long range and endurance, and a heavy armament. This was an operational concept borne out of experience from World War I. They were to scout out ahead of the fleet and report on the enemy fleet's composition, speed, and course, then they were to attack and whittle down the enemy in preparation for the main fleet action, a titanic gun battle between cruisers and battleships. The original rationale behind their design was that they were intended to operate as adjuncts to the main battle fleet. The Gato-class boats were considered to be "Fleet Submarines". Navy submarines of the period, the Gato-class were given the names of marine creatures. Gato 's name comes from a species of small catshark. Named after the first vessel of this design, USS Gato, the Gato-class and its successors, the Balao and Tench classes, formed the core of the submarine service that was largely responsible for the destruction of the Japanese merchant marine and a large portion of the Imperial Japanese Navy in World War II. The United States Navy Gato-class submarine formed the majority of the United States Navy's World War II submarine fleet.
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