Allied Warships

Grunion (SS-216)

Submarine of the Gato class

USS Grunion as completed

Navy	The US Navy
Type	Submarine
Class	Gato
Pennant	216
Built by	Electric Boat Co. (Groton, Connecticut, U.S.A.)
Ordered	1 Jul 1940
Laid down	1 Mar 1941
Launched	22 Dec 1941
Commissioned	11 Apr 1942
Lost	31 Jul 1942
History	USS Grunion (Lt.Cdr. Mannert Lincoln Abele) was possibly sunk by the Kano maru on 31 July 1942 during operations off Kiska Island. She sent her last message on 30 July and was ordered back to Dutch Harbour.

Commands listed for USS Grunion (216)

Please note that we're still working on this section
and that we only list Commanding Officers for the duration of the Second World War.

	Commander	From	To
1	Lt.Cdr. Mannert Lincoln Abele, USN	11 Apr 1942	31 Jul 1942 (+)

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Notable events involving Grunion include:

27 Apr 1942
USS Grunion (Lt.Cdr. M.L. Abele, USN) departed New London, Connecticut and arrived at Newport, Rhode Island for her torpedo trials.

30 Apr 1942
With her torpedo trials completed, USS Grunion (Lt.Cdr. M.L. Abele, USN), returned to New London, Connecticut from Newport, Rhode Island.

25 May 1942
USS Grunion (Lt.Cdr. M.L. Abele, USN) departed New London, Connecticut for the Panama Canal Zone.

31 May 1942
USS Grunion (Lt.Cdr. M.L. Abele) picks up 16 survivors from the American merchant Jack that was torpedoed and sunk on 27 May 1942 by German U-boat U-558 about 100 nautical miles south-west of Port Salut, Haiti in position 17°36'N, 74°42'W.

3 Jun 1942
USS Grunion (Lt.Cdr. M.L. Abele) arrived at Coco Solo, Panama.

20 Jun 1942
USS Grunion (Lt.Cdr. M.L. Abele) arrived at Pearl Harbor.

30 Jun 1942
USS Grunion (Lt.Cdr. M.L. Abele) departed from Pearl Harbor for her 1st war patrol. She was ordered to patrol off Kiska, Aleutians.

15 Jul 1942
USS Grunion (Lt.Cdr. M.L. Abele) reports that she had attacked an enemy destroyer but that all three torpedoes fired missed the target.

Shortly after this report Grunion torpedoed and sank the Japanese submarine chasers Ch-25 and Ch-27 (both 460 tons, offsite links) west of Sredni Point, Kiska, Aleutians in position 52°02'N, 177°42'E. She reports these result immediately.

28 Jul 1942
USS Grunion (Lt.Cdr. M.L. Abele) reports an attack on unidentified enemy ships six miles southeast of Sirius Point, Kiska. She was depth charged after this attack but sustained no damage.

30 Jul 1942
USS Grunion (Lt.Cdr. M.L. Abele) reported heavy antisubmarine activity at the entrance to Kiska, and that she had ten torpedoed remaining. She was ordered to return to base at Dutch Harbour.

31 Jul 1942
USS Grunion (Lt.Cdr. M.L. Abele) possibly torpedoed and damaged the Japanese transport ship Kano Maru (8572 GRT) off Kiska, Aleutians. Grunion might be sunk by gunfire from her quarry some 10 nautical miles north of Segula Island.

The Kano Maru was finally sunk on 8 August 1942 north-east of Kiska by US Bombers and gunfire from US warships.

16 Aug 1942
USS Grunion (Lt.Cdr. M.L. Abele) was reported overdue.

Aug 2006
During the summer of 2006 a side scan sonar search is undertaken to try and find the wreck of the Grunion.

Go check out this site (offsite link).