fleetboatspg3

The American Armada:
The Fleet Boats of World War Two

The War in korea

    222 Fleet Type submarines were built during the war. Some were mothballed with the rest of the fleet and held in reserve for future conflicts. A few served in the active fleet to maintain the navy's fighting readiness. Too many of them now reside at the bottom if the sea, as casualties of war. Some wound up in scrap yards or served one last official task as targets for gunnery practice.
      It was only five years after VJ Day when the Navy went to war again. The United States was called on to carry the vast majority of the burden against North Korea and China. The Soviet Union was bank roling an enormous effort to close the vice around Japan and make Asia totally communist. The fleet boats were back in action.
       Serving recon and patrol missions, fleet boats opened the war as the eyes and ears of the navy. In WW II the submarine had often been the only method of delivering commando teams to hostile shores. In Korea, the fleet boats role as amphibous support vessel was about to come of age.
       Modified BALAO class subs like the USS PERCH were redesignated as Transport Submarines. The Newly classifies USS PERCH ASSP-313 delivered South Korean partisans, CIA Teams, Marine Special Operatal Operations Groups (SOGS), and US and British commandos on deep insertion missions, hundreds of miles behind the lines.

PERCH

USS PERCH, ASSP-313, Sea of Japan during the winter of 1951

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