Lost Subs - USS Grenadier (SS-210)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Compiled July 2, 2008, by David Barth.
USS Grenadier (SS-210), a Tambor-class submarine, was the first ship of the United States Navy to be named for the
grenadier fish, relatives of cod that are very common in bathyal and abyssal habitats.
Her keel was laid down by Portsmouth Navy Yard in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, in April 1940. She was launched on 29
November 1940 sponsored by Mrs. Walter S. Anderson, wife of the Director of Naval Intelligence and commissioned on 1
May 1941 with Lieutenant Commander Allen R. Joyce in command.
On 20 June Grenadier participated in the search for O-9 (SS-70), which had failed to surface after a deep test dive,
and was present two days later as memorial exercises were conducted over the spot where O-9 and her crew lay. After
shakedown in the Caribbean Sea, Grenadier returned to Portsmouth on 5 November for refit. Less than three weeks after
the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, she sailed for the Pacific to join the submarine fleet.
First Patrol
Grenadier's first war patrol from 4 February to 23 March 1942 took her near the Japanese home islands, off the coast of
Honshu, and brought her several targets but no sinkings. On 12 April Grenadier departed Pearl Harbor for her second war
patrol, along the Shanghai-Yokohama and Nagasaki-Formosa shipping lanes. On 8 May she torpedoed and sank one of her most
important kills of the war, transport Taiyo Maru. Post-war examination of Japanese records showed Taiyo Maru to be more
than just the ordinary transport; she was en route to the East Indies with a group of Japanese scientists, economists,
and industrial experts bent on expediting the exploitation of the conquered territory. Their loss was a notable blow to
the enemy war effort.
Second Patrol
On 25 May Grenadier was diverted from her patrol area to Midway Island, where she formed part of the submarine patrol
line as the American fleet in a bloody but brilliant battle handed the Imperial Navy its first defeat in some three
hundred years.
Third Patrol
Grenadier's third war patrol was in the Truk area, heavily patrolled by enemy ships and planes. Although
she sighted some 28 Japanese ships, enemy planes effectively hampered her, and she returned to her new base, Fremantle,
Australia, empty-handed.
Fourth Patrol
The Malay Barrier was the site of Grenadier's fourth war patrol from 13 October to 10 December. After laying a minefield
off Haiphong, Indochina, the submarine made an unsuccessful attack on a large freighter. During the severe depth charging
which followed, sea water seeped into the batteries; Grenadier's crew suffered headaches and nausea from chlorine gas
poisoning for the remainder of the patrol. To increase the misery, on 20 November Grenadier spotted a Ryujo class
aircraft carrier, escorted by a cruiser and a destroyer, heading through the Strait of Makassar too distant to shoot.
Grenadier surfaced to radio the aircraft carrier's location and course to Fremantle in hope that another submarine could
capitalize on it.
Fifth Patrol
Grenadier's fifth war patrol, under the command of Willis Lent, between 1 January and 20 February 1943, brought her
considerably better fortune than earlier patrols. A 75-ton schooner fell victim to her deck guns 10 January, and two
days later Grenadier sighted a small tanker with a barge in tow. Judging the target not worth a torpedo, she slipped
silently into the column behind the two Japanese ships. At dusk she battle surfaced. With binoculars lashed to the
deck guns as sights, she raked tanker and barge sinking them immediately. The remainder of her patrol, along the
Borneo coast through shallow and treacherous waters, was hampered by fathometer failures. She conducted an aggressive
attack on two cargo ships 22 January but did not sink them.
Sixth Patrol
The battle-tired submarine departed Australia on 20 March on her last war patrol and headed for the Strait of Malacca,
gateway between the Pacific and Indian Oceans. Patrolling along the Malay and Thai coasts, Grenadier claimed a small
freighter off the island of Phuket on 6 April. She remained in the area and late in the night of 20 April sighted two
merchantmen and closed in for the attack. Running on the surface at dawn 21 April, Grenadier spotted, and was
simultaneously spotted by, a Japanese plane. As the sub crash dived, her skipper, Commander John A. Fitzgerald
commented "we ought to be safe now, as we are between 120 and 130 feet (40 m)." Just then, bombs rocked Grenadier
and heeled her over 15 to 20 degrees. Power and lights failed completely and the fatally wounded ship settled to the
bottom at 267 feet (81 m). She tried to make repairs while a fierce fire blazed in the maneuvering room.
After 13 hours of sweating it out on the bottom Grenadier managed to surface after dark to clear the boat of smoke and
inspect damage. The damage to her propulsion system was irreparable. Attempting to bring his ship close to shore so
that the crew could scuttle her and escape into the jungle, Commander Fitzgerald even tried to jury-rig a sail. But
the long night's work proved futile. As dawn broke, 22 April, Grenadier's weary crew sighted two Japanese ships
heading for them. As the skipper "didn't think it advisable to make a stationary dive in 280 feet of water without
power," the crew began burning confidential documents prior to abandoning ship. A Japanese plane attacked the stricken
submarine; but Grenadier, though dead in the water and to all appearances helpless, blazed away with machine guns. She
hit the plane on its second pass. As the damaged plane veered off, its torpedo landed about 200 yards (200 m) from the
boat and exploded.
Opening all vents, Grenadier's crew abandoned ship and watched her sink to her final resting place. A Japanese
merchantman picked up eight officers and 68 enlisted men and took them to Penang, Malay States, where they were
questioned, beaten, and starved before being sent to other prison camps. They were then separated and transferred
from camp to camp along the Malay Peninsula and finally to Japan. Throughout the war they suffered brutal, inhuman
treatment, and their refusal to reveal military information both frustrated and angered their captors. First word
that any had survived Grenadier reached Australia on 27 November 1943. Despite the brutal and sadistic treatment,
all but four of Grenadier's crew survived their two years in Japanese hands.
Grenadier received four battle stars for World War II service.