US SUBMARINE & JAPANESE CHASER

Gato is the name of a class of American diesel-electric fighter submarines (SS) of the Second World War. The first unit of this type was launched in 1940. In total, 77 units of this type were created. The Gato-class ship was 95 m long, 8.3 m wide, and had a displacement of about 2,400 tons. The maximum underwater speed is approx. 9 knots. The ships of this type had ten 533 mm torpedo tubes - including six bow and four stern. The ship's armament also included single 76 mm, 40 mm and 20 mm cannons. The Gato-class ships were developed and put into production as a far-reaching extension of the Tambor-class structure. Compared to their predecessors, they had a much longer swimming range and significantly improved combat capabilities. They also had new, highly reliable and proven diesel engines, which increased the possible patrol time of a single ship. Units of this type also offered - as for the submarines of that time - a good working comfort for the crew. They also had radio and electronic equipment as rich as those times. The Gato-class ships played a gigantic role in World War II, inflicting huge losses on the Japanese merchant navy in 1942-1945. It is worth adding that it was a ship of this class (USS Archerfish) that sank the Japanese carrier Shinano in November 1944. Some ships of this type, after modernization, remained in service with the US Navy until the end of the 1960s.Class No. 13 (jap. Dai 13 Gō-gata Kusentei) is a term for a class of Japanese submarine chasers (ZOP chasers) from World War II. Units of this class were launched in 1939-1944. The length of the ship of this class was 51 m, width 6.7 m, and displacement - approx. 450 tons. The maximum speed was up to 16 knots. The main armament at the beginning of World War II was 1 76.2 mm gun, 2 13.2 mm machine guns and 36 depth charges. Construction of ZOP speeders, class no. 13 was initiated as a result of the expansion of the USSR's submarine fleet in the Far East. And it was the Soviet submarines that were perceived as the main threat to be dealt with by the designed new ZOP speeders. For this reason, they were initially designed as units with a relatively limited autonomy and range of operation, but these parameters were improved during the war in the Pacific. It is worth adding that within one class, a total of 3 subclasses of these units were created, marked as No. 13, No. 28 and No. 60. The units of individual subclasses differed from each other mainly in terms of draft, power units used, the number of the crew and weapons. In fact, of the planned 77 ships, 49 units of all three subclasses were built, of which 35 were lost in the course of combat operations.