USS Bergall (SS-320), a Balao-class submarine in commission from 1944 to 1958, was the first ship of the United States Navy to be named for the bergall, a small fish of the New England coast. During World War II she made five war patrols between 8 September 1944 and 17 June 1945, operating in the South China Sea, Java Sea, and Lombok Strait and north of the Malay Barrier. During these patrols she sank two Japanese merchant ships totaling 14,710 gross register tons and one 740-displacement ton Imperial Japanese Navy frigate. She also damaged the Japanese heavy cruiser , which was never repaired.
After World War II, Bergall served in the United States Pacific Fleet until 1950 and made a cruise in Alaskan waters and a deployment to the Far East. She transferred to the United States Atlantic Fleet in 1950 and made cruises along the east coast of North America and to the West Indies, as well as two deployments to the Mediterranean Sea for service in the United States Sixth Fleet.
When Bergall′s U.S. Navy career ended, she was transferred to Turkey in 1958 and was commissioned in the Turkish Naval Forces as TCG Turgutreis (S 342). She took part in the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974. She was decommissioned in 1983 and sold for scrap in April 2000.
Construction and commissioning Bergall′s keel was laid down on 13 May 1943 by the Electric Boat Company in Groton, Connecticut. She was launched on 16 February 1944, sponsored by Mrs. Isabel M. Elkins, and commissioned on 12 June 1944 with Lieutenant Commander John M. Hyde in command.
Operational history United States Navy World War II June–September 1944 Bergall carried out shakedown operations in the waters off New London, Connecticut, and attack training at the torpedo range near Newport, Rhode Island, until 3 July 1944. After returning to Naval Submarine Base New London at Groton, Bergall departed for the war in the Pacific on 16 July 1944. During her voyage to the Panama Canal Zone, she was near Puerto Rico when a United States Army Air Forces training plane crashed into the sea about away. She rescued the plane's crewmen, who were uninjured, and took them to the Panama Canal Zone. After transiting the Panama Canal on 24 July 1944, she departed Balboa, Panama Canal Zone, on 28 July 1944 and arrived at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on 13 August 1944.
After arriving at Pearl Harbor, Bergall engaged in two weeks of crew training, firing nine torpedoes and taking part in a convoy exercise. She also entered drydock to replace a squeaky load-bearing strut before preparing for her first war patrol.
First war patrol Departing Pearl Harbor on 8 September 1944 to begin her first war patrol, Bergall proceeded to the Mariana Islands, mooring alongside the submarine tender in Tanapag Harbor at Saipan on 19 September. On 20 September 1944, she headed west into the Philippine Sea.
On 22 September 1944, Bergall′s bridge crew sighted another submarine, which dived shortly thereafter. After clearing the area, Bergall radioed a contact report. While endeavoring to send a follow-up message on 23 September, Bergall had to submerge quickly when a Japanese Yokosuka P1Y (Allied reporting name "Frances") twin-engined bomber approached and dropped a depth charge on her wake. As Bergall worked toward her assigned patrol station in the South China Sea off Japanese-occupied French Indochina, four more Japanese planes harassed her progress, delaying her arrival off Cap Varella until 29 September 1944.
After allowing five small ships to pass by, Bergall battle-surfaced on 3 October 1944 in an attempt to sink a 150-gross register ton Japanese cargo ship with gunfire. She surfaced at long range, about away, and her gunners opened fire with and 40-millimeter guns. The cargo ship took at least one hit and immediately turned for the coast. Bergall′s attack was cut short when a Mitsubishi F1M2 (Allied reporting name "Pete") observation floatplane arrived on the scene and forced Bergall to submerge.
For the next five days, Bergall unsuccessfully patrolled the offshore shipping lanes before closing Phan Rang Bay on 8 October 1944. On 9 October, she sighted a 700-gross register ton Japanese cargo ship and fired three torpedoes, the first of which hit and completely demolished the ship. A postwar records review did not indicate any Japanese losses in the area, however, and Bergall did not receive credit for the sinking.
While operating close inshore on the morning of 13 October 1944, Bergall sighted what she identified as two Japanese cargo ships (one she estimated at 2,000 gross register tons and the other at about 1,000 gross register tons) farther offshore and accompanied by two small escorts. After maneuvering to seaward, she fired four torpedoes at the larger ship from a range of about . At that point, one of the escorts began to close Bergall rapidly. Bergall turned sharply, dived, and headed out to sea. Her crew heard two loud explosions and breaking-up noises, signifying the end of what turned out to be Shinshu Maru, a 4,182-gross register ton tanker. Over the next five hours, Japanese forces tried to retaliate, dropping 30 depth charges and four aircraft bombs in an unsuccessful attempt to sink Bergall. The patrol vessel No. 7 Taiwan Maru picked up ten of Shinshu Maru′s survivors
Bergall then moved farther south, cruising along a patrol line near Saigon until 24 October 1944. She then received orders to patrol the Balabac Strait near Palawan in the Philippine Islands. On 27 October 1944, while conducting a night patrol on the surface, Bergall picked up four ships on her radar. She closed rapidly and at a range of fired six torpedoes at a very large tanker, the 10,528-gross register ton Nippo Maru. Shortly thereafter, multiple explosions accompanied by a large sheet of flame indicated four hits. A cargo ship in Nippo Maru′s convoy fled into shoal water to avoid attack, and Bergall withdrew into Balabac Strait. Twenty minutes later, Nippo Maru disappeared from Bergall′s radar screen, marking her demise.
On 28 October 1944, Bergall cruised south along the coast of Sarawak, and she passed through the Karimata Strait on 1 November 1944. On 2 November, off the southern coast of Borneo, she came across a small sailboat loaded with cargo. After Bergall stopped to investigate, the sailboat's native crew leapt into the water on the opposite side of the sailboat. Bergall opened fire on the sailboat with her 20-millimeter and 40-millimeter guns, destroying it. She then continued south, passed through the Lombok Strait. and concluded her patrol with her arrival at Fremantle, Australia, on 8 November 1944.
Second war patrol After a refit and drydocking in the auxiliary repair dock , Bergall got underway from Fremantle to begin her second war patrol on 5 December 1944. She passed through Lombok Strait late on 8 December and cleared Karimata Strait on 11 December.
On the evening of 13 December 1944, while patrolling in darkness off the southern tip of French Indochina, Bergall sighted two Japanese warships — the heavy cruiser and destroyer — moving away from her at . She pursued them on the surface and, after slowly gaining ground for three hours, closed the range to . Very shallow water forced her to make an attack on the surface. At 20:37 she fired six torpedoes at Myōkō and turned away. Three minutes later, a terrific explosion rocked Myōkō, producing an immense sheet of flame that reached at least into the air. As Ushio stopped to assist Myōkō, Bergall lurked nearby on the surface, planning to fire a salvo of torpedoes at her if given the opportunity. At 21:00, however, as Bergall maneuvered closer, Myōkō fired two shells at her. One landed in her wake close astern and the other, an round, pierced Bergall′s forward loading hatch, tearing a large hole in her pressure hull but failing to explode. Evading two more salvoes, Bergall cleared the area with alacrity.
Bergall′s crew, believing they had sunk Myōkō, spent the rest of 13 December 1944 extinguishing electrical fires, cleaning up the debris caused by the shell hit, and stuffing the ruined hatch with mattresses to keep out sea spray. With Bergall unable to dive, her crew mounted all available guns and stood by to repel air attack on the morning of 14 December. After reporting her predicament, she received orders to rendezvous with the submarine , after which her crew was to transfer to Angler and Angler was to scuttle Bergall with torpedoes. After rendezvousing with Angler on 15 December 1944, however, Bergall′s commanding officer, Commander John Hyde and Executive Lieutenant Commander, Robert L. Ison, noting an absence of Japanese aircraft and a heavily overcast sky, decided to bring Bergall back to port on the surface and set course for Australia. The two submarines traveled nearly without incident, arriving at Exmouth Gulf on the coast of Western Australia safely on 20 December 1944.
Myōkō, meanwhile, battled the damage Bergall′s torpedoes had inflicted on her. Her crew managed to extinguish persistent fires on 15 December 1944 and rig a towline that same day. Over the next 10 days, Myōkō and the eight ships sent to help her fought stormy weather in the South China Sea in a desperate attempt to reach port. On 25 December 1944, despite severe weather that tore her damaged stern away, Myōkō limped into Singapore, denying Bergall a complete kill. However, Myōkō was never repaired, and remained at Singapore until she surrendered to Allied forces at the end of the war. Bergall received a Navy Unit Commendation for the night action of 13 December 1944.
Third war patrol
Repairs to Bergall′s pressure hull were completed in early January 1945, after which her crew conducted four days of training with new Mark 27 acoustic homing torpedoes. She got underway for her third war patrol on 19 January 1945 and commenced lifeguard duty in support of Allied airstrikes off Lombok Strait on 26 January. At 03:05 on 27 January, she picked up what she identified as an approaching Japanese patrol boat on her radar and took up a submerged attack position at a depth of . She flooded a forward torpedo tube and, when sound bearings indicated the range had closed to , fired one of her Mark 27 torpedoes at the patrol boat. A few minutes later, the crew heard one explosion, and the patrol boat slowly disappeared from Bergall′s radar screen. At daybreak, Bergall came across wreckage and a drifting lifeboat. Her crew picked up two prisoners and from them learned that Bergall had sunk a 174-displacement ton coastal minesweeper.
Bergall continued lifeguard duty in Lombok Strait, dodging ship and aircraft contacts over the next several days. On 29 January 1945 she fired another acoustic homing torpedo at a patrol boat, but this one missed. After several more days of fruitless patrolling, she rendezvoused with the submarine off Borneo, transferred the prisoners-of-war to Bluegill, and then continued west to the coast of French Indochina.