Recognition Guide Warships of the Second World War
United States Navy — Submarine SS-260

USS Lapon (SS-260)

Gato-class submarine diesel-electric submarine

USS Lapon (SS-260)
Unknown author — Unknown source — Public domain — Wikimedia Commons Plate — SS-260 USS_Lapon; https://www.navsource.net/archives/08/08260.htm Lapon (SS-260) arriving home after another patrol, circa 1945. USN photo courtesy of http://ussubvetsofworldwarii.org .

Service

  1. United States Navy as USS Lapon23 January 1943 — 10 August 1957953 days of the war
  2. Hellenic Navy as Poseidon10 August 1957 — April 1976
Full service history About 868 words
Gato-class submarine diesel-electric submarine Particulars
Name
USS Lapon
Pennant / hull number
SS-260
Builder
Electric Boat Company, Groton, Connecticut
Laid down
21 February 1942
Launched
27 October 1942
Commissioned
23 January 1943
Decommissioned
25 July 1946
Recommissioned
13 April 1957
Struck
31 December 1975
Fate
Purchased outright in April 1976 and cannibalized for spare parts (1976)
Status
Unknown

Specifications

Displacement, surfaced
1,525 long tons (1,549 t)
Displacement, submerged
2,424 long tons (2,463 t)
Length
94.79 m (311 ft)
Beam
8.23 m (27 ft)
Draught
5.18 m (17 ft)
Speed
21 knots (38.9 km/h, 24.2 mph)
Range
11,000 nmi (20,372 km)
Complement
60
Main gun
76 mm (3 in)

The keel of Lapon (SS-260) was laid 21 February 1942 by Electric Boat Co, Groton, Conn.; launched 27 October 1942; sponsored by Mrs. J. B. Oldendorf, wife of Rear Admiral Oldendorf; and commissioned 23 January 1943; Comdr. O. G. Kirk in command.

Completing trials and training in Long Island Sound, Lapon departed New London for the Pacific 4 May 1943, arriving at Pearl Harbor 1 June. She departed 24 June for her first war patrol which was spent in the Sea of Okhotsk. Sea of Japan, and off the east coast of Hokkaido and Honshu. Lapon was the first U.S. submarine to slip through a mined strait into the Sea of Japan, the enemy's own backyard, on 3 July.

The submarine, Comdr. L. T. Stone in command, departed 26 September for a close inshore patrol off the south coast of Honshu. After sinking cargo ship Taichu Maru 18 October, Lapon returned to Pearl Harbor 4 November 1943 and departed for the west coast 7 November for an overhaul at Mare Island Navy Yard.

Continue to the full service history About 868 words

From the Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, compiled by the Naval History and Heritage Command (Lapon I (SS-260)). A work of the United States Government, in the public domain.

Armament and machinery

Armament and machinery
Propulsion
  • 4 × Hooven-Owens-Rentschler (H.O.R.) diesel engines driving electrical generators
  • 2 × 126-cell Sargo batteries
  • 4 × high-speed Allis-Chalmers electric motors with reduction gears
  • two propellers
  • 5,400 shp (4.0 MW) surfaced
  • 2,740 shp (2.0 MW) submerged
Armament
  • 10 × 21-inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes
  • 6 forward, 4 aft
  • 24 torpedoes
  • 1 × 3-inch (76 mm) / 50 caliber deck gun
  • Bofors 40 mm and Oerlikon 20 mm cannon

Sister ships

51 more in the class

Sources

  • Facts harvested from USS Lapon (SS-260) on Wikipedia. Figures only — no wording is taken from it.
  • Service history reproduced verbatim from Lapon I (SS-260) , Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships — public domain, a work of the United States Government.
  • Photograph: Unknown author — Unknown source — Public domain — Wikimedia Commons