American World War II Submarine Operations

USS Grunion (SS-216) Possibly Found

Posted Wednesday October 18th, 2006

The Gato class submarine USS Grunion (SS-216) was launched by the Electric Boat Company on December 22, 1941 and was commissioned on April 11, 1942. After shakedown out of New London, Grunion sailed for the Pacific, arriving at Pearl Harbor on June 20, 1942. After 10 days of training, Grunion left for her first patrol June 30, 1945.

Grunion reached Midway and then headed toward the Aleutians. In her first report, made on July 15, 1942, stated she had been attacked by a Japanese destroyer and had fired three torpedoes at it, and missed with all. She later reported that she sank three destroyer-type vessels on July 15, 1942. (Postwar Japanese reports indicate she sank two patrol craft and damaged a third.) On July 19, 1942, Grunion, USS S-32 (SS-137), USS Triton (SS-201), and USS Tuna (SS-203) were ordered to sail to positions in the approaches to Kiska by daylight on July 22, 1945, so as to be able to attack departing IJN vessels, since U.S. surface forces planned to bombard Kiska that afternoon. The planned bombardment did not occur until July 30, 1942, and Grunion was ordered to guard the exits from Kiska during darkness on that date. Grunion reported an attack on unidentified IJN ships six miles southeast of Sirius Point, Kiska. She had fired two torpedoes, made no hits, and been depth charged, but sustained no damage.

Grunion's last transmission was received July 30, 1942. She reported heavy antisubmarine activity at the entrance to Kiska, and that she had ten torpedoes remaining. On the same day, Grunion was directed to return to Dutch Harbor.

Grunion was never heard from again. Air searches off Kiska were fruitless. On October 5, 1942, she was reported overdue and assumed lost with all hands. Postwar Japanese records show no antisubmarine attacks in the Kiska area, and the fate of Grunion remained a mystery. Her name was struck from the Navy List on November 2, 1942.

The Grunion's commander was Mannert Abele. About four years ago, his son, Bruce Abele, received information about a Japanese Web site that might contain clues about the fate of the Grunion. Abele's youngest brother, John, contacted the the person who had posted the information, Utaka Iwasaki.  Iwasaki translated and sent him a report written in the 1960s by a Japanese military officer who served in the Aleutians on the Japanese freighter Kano Maru.  The report describes a July 31, 1942 confrontation between the Grunion and the Kano Maru.

According to this information, the Japanese vessel Kano Maru came under attack by Grunion. The submarine fired four torpedoes. One hit the Kano Maru crippling the main engine and generator. A second passed under the vessel, and the last two were duds. The Grunion began to surface to sink the Kano Maru with gunfire. As she surfaced, the Kano Maru opened fire with its deck gun hitting Grunion's conning tower. The information provided by Iwasaki indicates this was a fatal blow for Grunion.

Armed with this information the Abele brothers hired a marine survey firm, Seattle-based Williamson and Associates, for an expedition to Kiska. Aboard a Bering Sea crab boat, more than a dozen crew members and sonar surveyors set out on August 2, 2006. In mid-August, the sonar picked up a 290-foot-long object wedged into a terrace on the steep underwater slope of a volcano. The sonar surveyors are 95 percent sure the shadowy images are those of the USS Grunion. It is the only known sunken vessel in the area, and the sonar captured the distinct outline of a submarine conning tower. A second expedition will be sent next summer with a remote-controlled underwater camera to identify the vessel and try to reconstruct its sinking. Perhaps then we will know her fate and that of her 70 crew members.

See: Search for the USS Grunion (SS-216)