Wreckage of World War II Submarine Found Off Aleutian Islands

Fox News ^ | August 24, 2007

[deaconjim]

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — The mangled remains of a vessel found in the Bering Sea are likely those of a World War II submarine that disappeared with a crew of 70 off the Aleutian Island of Kiska.

The discovery of the USS Grunion on Wednesday night culminates a five-year search led by the sons of its commander, Mannert Abele, and may finally shine a light on the mysterious last moments of the doomed vessel.

"Obviously, this is a very big thing," the oldest son, Bruce Abele, said Thursday from his home in Newton, Mass. "I told my wife about it when she was still in bed and she practically went up to the ceiling."

[commish]

THat all fits together pretty much. If grunion was surfacing to engage with guns, her crew would have been opening hatches and hitting the deck as soon as she broke surface. A shot to the conning tower could have sent her reeling to the point where the open hatch(s) would have taken in a lot of water. She probably went down so fast the crew had no time to react and save her.

Not surprising that patrols found no sign of her considering how rough the seas are up there, any eveidence of a fight,etc were probably long gone by the time the patrol planes started looking for her.

[bmwcyle]

You are getting slow.

[Robe]

LOL, I’ve BEEN slow for sometime now, I’m just getting SLOWER..............

[bmwcyle]

LOL

[Larry Lucido]

I know you’re not a bubblehead, but Navy ping anyway.

[Dead Dog]

Wow, why would the hatch be open? Failed dogs?? Seems like the hull would fail before those?

[Larry Lucido]

Wonder if it popped under pressure while the hull imploded? I know it sounds a bit counterintuitive so I’ll defer to others with more knowledge of physics.

[Tallguy]

If she flooded that fast & from multiple open hatches, she probably wouldn’t have crushed. This sub was crushed. If the sinking occured in the manner described, I’m betting she was still buttoned up with decks awash. The shot tookout the periscope & flooding the control room below the sail. They probably failed to control the flooding or control the dive given where they were hit.

[El Gato]

One of the pictures shows at least on periscope intact. A hit on the conning tower could have had the same effect though. It might even explain why the tower did not implode. The rest of the boat would have been buttoned up, hatches between compartments closed, etc. Still the open hatch is the one leading to the ammunition stores for the deck gun. perhaps the boat did flood through that hatch, but it was the only one open, rather than a bunch of hatches being open. That early in the war, and against a Maru rather than a warship, I’d think they would have only been using the main deck gun, and perhaps a machine gun or automatic cannon (20 mm most likely) on the bridge, the latter to suppress the gun crews, if any, on the Maru.

[hornetguy]

Is it possible that the compartment or compartments where the hatch was open were flooded and the bouancy was lost because of that. Other compartments were still buttoned up and were crushed when crush depth was exceeded?

[Robert A Cook PE]

Hatch open - Certainly could have been fighting on the surface with the deck gun: a skipper (if there were no escorts or enemy air nearby) would rather use a deck gun and save torpedoes.

[Robe]

From what I have been able to put together , they were surfacing for surface attack, either with torpedoed or gun action. Since they had already fired two dud fish, more likely they were going for the gun.
The Japanese report states they “hit it before it full shown itself” Quite possible meaning that the conning tower was exposed.
Some have stated that a 8cm round could not have possibly penetrated the waters surface and still have the energy to pierce the hull.
However it has been discovered that the Japs had a “ SECRET WEPON” for use on subs, a blunt tipped round that could do just that

[hosepipe]

An open hatch indicates some may have got out.. unfortuately you can live only for a few minutes in that temp of water.. especially in winter.. And even if you reach shore what then, all wet and all.. Doubt any reached shore anyway..

[Tallguy]

Is it possible that the compartment or compartments where the hatch was open were flooded and the bouancy was lost because of that.

Yes, that is also possible. The sub was mostly buttoned up if it was that crushed.

[null and void]

Bad link.

[deaconjim]

Did subs of that era have escape hatches? If not, they would have had to have gotten out while it was on the surface; the water pressure would have been too great to open the hatch submerged.

[Dead Dog]

Wow, that is great stuff.

My grandfather was an NCO on USS Pennsylvania at both Attu and Kiska. They had a close call with torpedo's of Kiska.