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Drum
(SS-228) was launched 12 May 1941 by Portsmouth Navy Yard;
sponsored by Mrs. Thomas Holcomb; and commissioned 1
November 1941, Lieutenant Commander R. H. Rice in command.
Drum arrived
at Pearl Harbor from the east coast 1 April 1942, and after
a voyage to Midway, cleared Pearl Harbor 14 April 1942,
action bound on her first war patrol. Cruising off the coast
of Japan, she sank the seaplane tender Mizuho and
three cargo ships in the month of May, and returned to Pearl
Harbor 12 June to refit. Drum's second war patrol,
which she made in the waters between Truk and Kavieng from
10 July to 2 September, found her efforts frustrated by poor
torpedo performance, but she damaged one freighter before
returning to Midway to refit.
The submarine
sailed from Midway 23 September 1942 on her third war patrol,
bound for the eastern coast of Kyushu. On 8 October, she
contacted a convoy of four freighters, and defied the air
cover guarding the ships to sink one of the cargo ships
before bombs forced her deep. The next day she sank another
freighter, and on the 13th underwent a severe depth charging
from several escorts after she had attacked a cargo ship.
Later in the patrol, she sank one of three air-escorted
cargo ships, and damaged at least two more ships before
completing her patrol at Pearl Harbor 8 November.
On her fourth war
patrol, between 29 November 1942 and 24 January 1943, Drum
carried out the demanding task of planting mines in heavily
traveled Bungo Suido. On 12 December, she contacted a
carrier, Ryuho, with a full deckload of planes.
Although taking water forward because of faulty valves, Drum
launched torpedoes at this choice target, scoring two hits,
and causing the carrier to list so far that her flight deck
became completely visible. Also visible was a destroyer
bearing down, and splashes that indicated Drum's
periscope was under fire. As the submarine dove, she lost
depth control and her port shaft stopped turning. As she
made emergency repairs, she underwent two waves of depth
charging . When she surfaced several hours later to see what
had become of her prey, an airplane forced her down. Later
during this patrol, Drum damaged a large tanker,
another choice target.
After a thorough
overhaul at Pearl Harbor, Drum made her fifth war
patrol between 24 March and 13 May 1943, searching the
waters south of Truk after she had made a photographic
reconnaissance of Nauru. She sank two freighters in April,
then refitted at Brisbane, Australia. Her sixth war patrol,
between 7 June and 26 July, found her north of the Bismarck
Archipelago, sinking a cargo-passenger ship on 17 June.
Again she put into Brisbane to replenish, and on 16 August
sailed on her seventh war patrol. Adding to her already
impressive list of sinkings, she sent a cargo ship to the
bottom on 31 August, as well as patrolling off New Georgia
during landings there. She put in to Tulagi from 29
September to 2 October to repair her gyrocompass, then
sailed on to Brisbane.
Drum
replenished and made repairs at Majuro between 8 November
1944 and 7 December, then sailed on her 12th war patrol for
the Nansei Shoto. Only one contact was made during this
patrol, from which she returned to Guam 17 January 1945.
During her 13th war patrol, from 11 February to 2 April, Drum
played a part in the assaults on both Iwo Jima and Okinawa,
providing lifeguard service for air strikes on the Nansei
Shoto and the Japanese home islands as bases were
neutralized before both invasions. Returning to Pearl Harbor,
Drum sailed on to a west coast overhaul, and after
training at Pearl Harbor, cleared Midway 9 August on what
would have been her 14th war patrol. She proceeded to Saipan
at the end of hostilities, and from there sailed for Pearl
Harbor, the Canal Zone, and Portsmouth, N.H.
Drum was
decommissioned 16 February 1946, and on 18 March 1947 began
service at Washington, D.C., to members of the Naval Reserve
in the Potomac River Naval Command which continued through
1962.
Of Drum's 13
war patrols, all save the second, ninth, and last two were
designated "successful." She received a total of
12 battle stars for World War II service. She is credited
with sinking 15 ships. a total of 80,580 tons of enemy
shipping. |
