The formal legal steps leading to the acquisition of United States naval vessels are confusing to many people but are very important to an understanding of the United States Navy's submarine programs. Generally speaking, the Navy cannot acquire a ship until Congress has both authorized the size of the fleet and appropriated funds for the procurement of new vessels. This requires two separate acts of Congress, as a result of which ships have frequently been authorized several years before funds were actually appropriated for their construction, and some authorized ships have never been built at all. Authorization and procurement procedures are usually quite formal in peacetime but more expedient methods are usually followed during wars or national emergencies. In the past, Congress was often very specific in defining the characteristics of particular ships, their cost, and sometimes even their names and where they were to be built.

USS Trutta (SS-421), named for a variety of trout, distinguished from the typical trout by its small, black spots and its smaller and fewer scales, was authorized to be built by the United States Congressional Act of 9 July 1942...which stated in part:

"...The authorized composition of the United States Navy in under-age vessels, as established by the Act of March 27, 1934...as amended by the Acts of May 17, 1938...June 14, 1940...July 19, 1940... December 23, 1941...and May 13, 1942...is hereby further increased by one million nine hundred thousand tons of combatant ships, "...Provided, that the foregoing increases in tonnages for each of the three classes of aircraft carriers, cruisers, and destroyers and destroyer escort vessels may be varied downward in the amount of 30 per centum of the total increased tonnage authorized herein, and if so varied downward, the tonnage so decreased may be used to increase the tonnage of any other class of vessel authorized above, or to increase the tonnage of submarines heretofore authorized, so long as the sum of the total increases in tonnages of these classes, including submarines as authorized herein, is not exceeded:...."

Originally assigned the name "Tomatate," Submarine Hull Number 421 was renamed "Trutta" on 24 September 1942. The keel of the submarine was laid down on 22 May 1944 at the Portsmouth Navy Yard in Kittery, Maine. The submersible was christened by Mrs. Edward C. Magdeburger and launched on 18 August 1944. Commissioning took place on 14 November 1944 with Commander Arthur C. Smith in command.

USS Trutta (SS-421) is a unit of the Tench Class...the follow-on class to the Gato and Balao Classes. The design development of the Balao and Tench Classes was accomplished at the Portsmouth Navy Yard, and USS Trutta was built by the Portsmouth Navy Yard. Thus, USS Trutta is a "Portsmouth Boat."

One of the best-kept secrets of World War II was the increase in the operating depth of our submarines, from 300 feet in the Gato Class to 400 feet in the Balao Class. This was accomplished by shifting from mild steel to high-tensile steel and increasing the thickness of the pressure-hull plating, using the weight saved in previous classes by meticulous attention to design details in every area. Naturally, the Balao Class boats became known as the "thick skins"...while the Gato Class and earlier classes were dubbed "thin skins." In outward appearance and internal layout, the heavy-hull boats were practically identical to the earlier type, and many people -- including the Japanese--were unaware that there had been any change. Most of the other new features in the Balao design had already been incorporated in the later Gato Class boats as alterations or contract changes, so the Bureau of Ships skipped the usual step of preparing a preliminary design and simply issued a so-called Circular of Requirements setting forth the changes and new test specifications.

Orders were placed for 256 units of the Balao Class, but only 119 were completed to the original design, the rest being either cancelled or reordered later in the war. World War II losses totaled nine, the low toll being due to the completion of many units too late in the war to encounter much opposition from the battered Japanese antisubmarine forces. Most of the Balao Class underwent conversion to new configurations after World War II, and made up the bulk of the Navy's active submarine force until nuclear-powered attack boats replaced most of them during the 1960s.

The Tench Class design was a refinement of the Balao-type hull in which the fuel and ballast tanks were completely rearranged. The objective was to eliminate the risers from the main ballast tanks in the single-hull sections, which passed through the forward and after torpedo rooms and were considered to be a point of potential vulnerability to flooding. The problem was solved by shifting Number 1 Main Ballast Tank to the location formally occupied by the Forward Trim Tank and changing Number 7 Main Ballast Tank to a variable fuel tank. An additional variable fuel tank had to be incorporated forward to provide compensation for weight changes as stores, weapons, and fuel were used up during a patrol. Other changes included the latest models of machinery and equipment, the most important of which was probably the new slow-speed, direct-drive main propulsion motors. The successful development of these large motors enabled the elimination of the noisy and easily damaged reduction gears, and, incidentally, permitted the hull designers to streamline the pressure hull, eliminating a bulge at the motor room which had previously been needed to accommodate the reduction gears and motors. Stowage space for four more spare torpedoes was created by careful rearrangement of the torpedo rooms. Externally, the boats were practically indistinguishable from Balao Class submarines except for a sharper knuckle at the base of the stem.

Many of the Balao Class submarines ordered in the 1943-45 programs were cancelled and reordered to the Tench Class design, but only twenty-five were completed...most of them too late to see Second World War service. All except USS Corsair (SS-435) were built to Portsmouth plans and most were converted to GUPPY or snorkel types after the Second World War. Their performance was so nearly equal to that of the Balao Class that neither design can be said to have been superior to the other in basic characteristics.

When commissioned, USS Trutta was 311 feet 8 inches in length overall and had a maximum beam of 27 feet 3 inches. Her standard displacement on the surface was 1,570 tons, her normal displacement on the surface was between 1,980 and 2,000 tons, and her submerged displacement was 2,415 tons. USS Trutta (SS-421) was designed to dive safely to 400 feet...her operating depth. She has eight watertight compartments plus a conning tower. The pressure hull plating was 35 to 35.7 pound high tensile steel (approximately 7/8ths of an inch thick).

The designed compliment was for ten officers and seventy-one men.

Armament consisted of 6 bow and 4 stern 21-inch torpedo tubes. The maximum torpedo load was twenty-eight Mark 14 Mod. 3A torpedoes. In place of torpedoes, a maximum of 40 mines could be carried. One 5-inch/25-caliber dual-purpose deck gun was fitted. Antiaircraft guns consisted of one 40-mm, one 20-mm, and two .50-caliber machine guns.

Fuel capacity was 113,510 gallons (rated) of diesel oil, which fueled 4 main Fairbanks-Morse opposed piston 1,600 horsepower diesel engines, and one auxiliary Fairbanks- Morse opposed piston diesel engine...which turned generators...which made electricity...which turned two General Electric propulsion motors of 2,740 shaft horsepower, which could drive the boat at 20.25 knots on the surface...and gave her a cruising range on the surface of 11,000 miles at ten knots (rated).

The generators were also utilized to charge 2 Exide 126-cell main storage batteries...which could power the main propulsion motors...which could drive the boat at 8.75 knots when submerged. Her submerged endurance, at 2 knots, was two days. Her patrol endurance was rated at 75 days. USS Trutta had a mean draft of 15 feet 3 inches when on the surface in diving trim.

Following outfitting and shakedown, USS Trutta (SS-421) underwent thirty days of intensive training in the Portsmouth, New Hampshire - New London/Groton, Connecticut, areas...and then set a course southward and transited, via the Panama Canal, to the Hawaiian Islands. The submarine arrived at Pearl Harbor on 25 February 1945.

After a period of advanced training, USS Trutta got underway from Oahu with USS Parche (SS-384) and USS Lionfish (SS 298)--members of a coordinated attack group under USS Trutta's direction--and arrived at Saipan on 30 March. The following day, as she was leaving Tanapag Harbor on her first war patrol, the submarine struck a cable connected to an oil drum adrift in the charted channel and was forced to return to Saipan to repair her damaged propeller blades. The Submarine finally got underway on 3 April and proceeded as rapidly as possible toward her patrol area.

On 7 April, she changed course in an attempt to intercept a Japanese naval force which had sortied from Bungo Suido late the day before. It was feared that this task force--headed by IJN Yamato, the world's largest battleship--would interrupt the assault on Okinawa to the south. Despite her full-power running, USS Trutta did not intercept the Japanese ships because they changed their course.

Nevertheless, the Japanese force did not reach Okinawa because on that day aviators from the aircraft carriers of Vice Admiral Mitscher's Task Force 58 sank IJN Yamato, light cruiser IJN Agano, and destroyer IJN Hamakaze...and inflicted irremediable damage to three other destroyers which the Japanese scuttled. After receiving news of this successful battle, USS Trutta headed southward on the 9th. Proceeding via the Nansei Shoto, she avoided the hostile notice of enemy aircraft and weathered gale force winds and force-five seas before entering her patrol area in the East China Sea on the afternoon of the 11th. There, she patrolled along the Shanghai-Quelpart Island traffic routes. On the 13th, while pursuing an antisubmarine force of three Japanese destroyers, she passed through an uncharted minefield before the ships changed course and outdistanced her.

While patrolling near the entrance to Daito Wan on the western coast of Korea on 18 April, she sank one small freighter with gunfire and damaged another. Off the China coast on the 22nd, USS Trutta narrowly escaped damage when an enemy float plane dropped two bombs which exploded over the diving submarine. Shortly after midnight three days later, as USS Trutta patrolled west of Quelpart Island, lookouts on the submarine's bridge were startled to see a torpedo pass astern.

As USS Trutta put on speed and turned parallel to the torpedo's wake, another torpedo passed by her port side moving from stern to bow, a sinister reminder that she was not alone in the Yellow Sea.

Fortunately, USS Trutta observed no further sign of the Japanese submarine, and she continued her patrols until the 26th, when she headed for Guam.

Late in the day, on the 27th, as she passed between Akuseki Shima and Takara Shima in the northern Ryukyus, she made contact with a Japanese plane--the harbinger of a prolonged coordinated holddown attempt. The next morning, finding her adversary of the night before replaced by two "Betties," the submarine, low on air and battery power, sent a message indicating that she would have to surface and fight it out if the situation did not improve before noon. A little more than an hour later, ten American fighters from Okinawa appeared and routed the Japanese planes. Friendly air cover remained with the submarine until she recharged her batteries and filled her air flasks.

She then proceeded independently to the Marianas, arriving at Guam on 4 May.

Following refitting and exercises with battleship USS South Dakota (BB-57)...the famous "Battleship X"...USS Trutta got underway on 2 June in company with USS Queenfish (SS- 393). She weathered a typhoon before arriving on lifeguard station on the 7th. That day, while standing lifeguard duty for air strikes on Kobe, the submarine rescued a downed Army aviator who had been adrift in a small rubber boat for nearly a week, and who, the day before, had also weathered the typhoon.

As air raids against the cities of the Japanese homeland intensified, USS Trutta manned a lifeguard station south of Kyushu, made patrols just off Bungo Suido, and conducted visual and photo reconnaissance of Tori Shima, approaching to within about one mile of the Island. On 21 June, she departed Bungo Suido to join sister "Street's Sweepers" patrolling the Yellow and East China Seas. She conducted patrols west of Tsushima Strait and then fired a few diversionary rounds of 5-inch fire on Hirado Shima before moving west to take up patrol along the southwest coast of Korea. On 1 July, her persistence paid off when, after pursuing a sailing vessel, she discovered a fleet of schooners. Working quickly to take advantage of surprise and to prevent the ships from fleeing to nearby shallow water, USS Trutta sank seven of the three- and four-masted schooners in a four-hour action. Crew members boarded and searched two of the vessels and put the schooner crews in lifeboats before destroying the ships.

On the 6th, while patrolling the southern approaches to Daito Wan, she came upon a tug towing three schooners, quickly dispatched the tug and two of its tows with 5-inch fire, and left the third in flames. She continued patrolling along the Korean coast until the afternoon of 12 July...when she departed the area and set her course for the Marianas.

USS Trutta arrived at Guam on the 18th, underwent refitting by submarine tender USS Fulton (AS-11), and then got underway on the 12^th for her third war patrol. Before the submarine arrived in her assigned area, she received official word that peace negotiations had obviated continuing her patrol; and the submarine set a northeast course. She arrived at Midway Island on 24 August; and, two days later, she headed for the United States via Pearl Harbor and the Panama Canal.

On 2 September 1945, the Second World War officially ended with the signing of the instruments of surrender by the Japanese on the deck of battleship USS Missouri...which was anchored in Tokyo Bay, Japan.

USS Trutta (SS-421) received two battle stars for her service during the Second World War.

After calls at New Orleans, Louisiana, and other Gulf of Mexico, and east coast ports, she arrived at the United States Naval Submarine Base at New London/Groton, Connecticut, early in January of 1946...and reported to the 16th Fleet for inactivation. By March of 1946, the submarine had been placed out of commission and moored with other units of the Reserve Fleet in the Thames River within the northern portion of the Submarine Base.

The submarine remained in the Reserve Fleet until 1951 ... when she was reactivated at the Connecticut submarine base.

Recommissioned on 1 March 1951, USS Trutta (SS-421) operated out of that submarine base until 4 May 1952...when she was again decommissioned, this time at the Charleston Naval Shipyard at Charleston, South Carolina.

USS Trutta was one of sixteen submarines in the Fiscal Year 1952 Program that provided for conversion of Fleet-Type submarines to GUPPY submarines. GUPPY means Greater Underwater Propulsion Power. The "Y" has no significance. This program was known as the Guppy IIA Program.

The modifications included streamlining the superstructure deck and conning tower fairwater and installing a snorkel system. One main propulsion engine and the auxiliary diesel engine (the "dinky") were removed. A sonar room was built into space created by the removal of the diesel engines. USS Trutta received Sargo II batteries with electrolyte agitation, battery cooling, and open tank ventilation. The electrical system was beefed up by doubling the capacity of the AC motor-generators to handle lighting as well as the previous load, and 120-volt direct current for other purposes was provided through rectifiers instead of rheostats. Two 400-cycle motor-generator sets were also added to meet the needs of new electronic equipment. The propellers were of the five-bladed fleet type.

Following her GUPPY IIA conversion at the Charleston Naval Shipyard at Charleston, South Carolina, the submarine was recommissioned on 2 January 1953 and joined Submarine Squadron 4 at the United States Naval Station at Key West, Florida.

When recommissioned, the Guppy IIA submarine was 306 feet in length overall; had a maximum beam of 27 feet 4 inches; had a normal displacement of 1,840 tons when on the surface and 2,445 tons when submerged; had accommodations for 8 officers, 5 chief petty officers, and approximately 70 enlisted men; was armed only with 6 bow and 4 stern 21-inch torpedo tubes (all topside guns were gone); could make 18 knots on the surface and 15 knots submerged; and had only three 1,600 horsepower main diesel engines for propulsion...instead of the original four and the dinky.

For the next nineteen years, USS Trutta (SS-421) operated out of Key West, plying the Atlantic, the Caribbean, and the Gulf of Mexico.

During this period, she also made six deployments to the Mediterranean. The submarine assisted in the evaluation of new weapon systems, including electronic counter-measures equipment; served as an antisubmarine warfare (ASW) training target; trained naval reserves; and participated in fleet exercises.

Shortly after her transfer to Submarine Squadron 12 on 1 August 1959, she rescued five Cuban refugees who had been adrift in a rubber boat for two days.

Still homeported at Key West, the submarine continued her duties through the 1960s, breaking routine with goodwill visits to American and Mediterranean ports...and earning a number of Battle Efficiency "Es."

While moored at Key West during November of 1969, USS Trutta celebrated the 25th anniversary of her first commissioning.

Her long career with the United States Navy drew to its close in 1972. In June of that year, she trained a turnover crew of the Turkish Navy. The veteran submarine was decommissioned, struck from the Navy List, and transferred to the Navy of the Republic of Turkey as a SALE at Key West, Florida...all on 1 July 1972. The Turks renamed the submarine "Cerbe" and assigned her Pennant Number "S-340". This was the second use of both this name and number in the Turkish Navy.

Today (1998), Turkish Submarine CERBE (S-340), ex-USS Trutta (SS-421), still serves as an active unit in the Navy of the Republic of Turkey.

In the years following the Second World War, many United States Naval Vessels no longer needed for the active fleet were transferred to friendly foreign navies. These transactions were of four general types: grants-in-aid, direct sales, loans, and leases. Title to ships sold was transferred outright to the recipient country, and in the case of both sales and grants-in-aid, the ships were stricken from the United States Register of Naval Vessels. Ships loaned or leased, on the other hand, remained on the Register and were subject to recall by the United States. Formally, such transfers were for a specified number of years, but in practice all were extended when requested by the receiving country. The particular method of transfer used in each case was determined by the provisions of various acts of Congress authorizing the disposition of United States naval vessels. By 1972, the Navy had no conceivable use for any of the old submarines in foreign hands, so gave the recipients the opportunity to terminate the loans and buy the boats at their scrap value. Most countries took advantage of this offer, and, by 1978, only a few submarines remained on loan.

Between 1948 and 1974, fourteen countries received a total of seventy-two United States Fleet-Type submarines. Many were converted and/or "modernized" prior to transfer to the foreign country.

The Turkish Navy, which was the first to receive former United States submarines after the Second World War, also received the greatest number, with a total of twenty-three. The first four were standard heavy-hull boats of the Balao Class taken out of the active fleet and delivered by United States crews to Izmir, Turkey...where they were decommissioned and transferred as grants-in-aid. All four were fitted with snorkels during their first regular overhaul at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard, but their modifications differed somewhat from the standard United States fleet snorkel conversion by including only a partially enclosed streamlined sail, by retaining the auxiliary diesel engine, and by incorporating less advanced electronics. Two sister ships completed a similar conversion before being transferred in 1950. These six submarines replaced old German-built units of the Turkish Navy and formed a homogeneous squadron supported by the submarine rescue vessel "Kurturan" (ex-USS Bluebird (ASR-19)). Two Manitowoc-built Gato Class submarines, the only "thin skins" given to Turkey, were taken out of reserve for conversion preparatory to transfer in 1954--but before they could be delivered, tragedy struck.

"Dumlupinar" (ex-USS Blower (SS-325)) was transiting the Dardanelles from Canakkale to Istanbul after completing maneuvers, when she was rammed by Swedish freighter "Naboland" at 0200 on 4 April 1953. The freighter struck the submarine on the starboard bow and cut into the forward torpedo room, which flooded almost immediately. As the bow plunged under, only five men on the submarine's bridge were able to get off, one of whom died in the water. The other four, including the executive officer, were picked up by a launch and proceeded to locate a marker buoy by which they were able to establish telephone communications with the submarine on the bottom in 228 feet of water. The survivors reported that there were twenty-two of them in the after torpedo room, and that they had been able to talk to others in the after battery compartment by sound-powered telephone. Since the intervening engine and maneuvering rooms were flooded and there was no escape hatch in the after battery compartment, the position of these others was hopeless. But those in the after torpedo room might either escape via the deck hatch or be rescued by a diving bell. Unfortunately, the men were inexperienced in escape procedure and lacked strong leadership, so the rescue vessel was their only real hope.

Submarine Rescue Vessel "Kurturan" was summoned to the scene along with those senior officers of the submarine force who could be reached in time, but as the rescue vessel maneuvered to moor over the sunken submarine, it overrode the marker buoy and cut the cable. The submarine had already been down six hours, and the last communication before the cable was broken indicated that the survivors had lost hope and were unable to talk coherently. With time running out fast, divers were sent down, but strong currents in the Strait made it difficult for their handlers on the rescue vessel to guide them to the wreck.

The first one to reach the submarine became nauseated by the depth and had to be returned to the surface without accomplishing anything. All later attempts to make connection with the submarine were also unsuccessful, and the rescue attempt finally had to be abandond. In all, eighty-one men died in the disaster. Possibly a more experienced crew might have been able to make a lung escape, or more highly trained personnel might have carried out a rescue attempt before it was too late, but this is pure speculation. Experience with escape and rescue methods in the United States Navy and other navies has demonstrated that such procedures, even when rehearsed in training exercises, seldom go smoothly in an actual emergency.

To replace the lost "Dumlupinar," the fleet snorkel submarine USS Bergall (SS-320) was taken out of active service and lent to Turkey in 1958. Two more submarines were activated from the Reserve Fleet, given the fleet snorkel conversion, and turned over to the Turks in 1960.

Ten years later, as the fleet snorkel types neared the end of their useful service lives, they were replaced by a mixed lot of more modern submarines--seven GUPPY IIAs, one GUPPY IA, and two GUPPY IIIs--retired from the United States Submarine Force between 1970 and 1973.

USS Trutta (SS-421) was one of those GUPPY IIA submarines.