USS CISCO SS 290

USS CISCO SS 290 Balao Class

September 28, 1943, 1944. Sunk by surface craft and aerial bombs. 76 men lost.

From: Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships

Cisco
A whitefish of the Great Lakes.

Class and type: Balao-class diesel-electric submarine
Displacement: 1,526 tons (1550 t) surfaced
2,414 tons (2453 t) submerged
Length: 311 ft 9 in (95.0 m)
Beam: 27 ft 3 in (8.3 m)
Draft: 16 ft 10 in (5.1 m) maximum
Propulsion: 4 x General Motors Model 16-248 V16 diesel engines driving electrical generators

2 x 126 cell Sargo batteries
4 x high-speed General Electric electric motors with reduction gears
Two propellers
5,400 shp (4.0 MW) surfaced

2,740 shp (2.0 MW) submerged
Speed: 20.25 knots (37 km/h) surfaced
8.75 knots (16 km/h) submerged
Range: 11,000 nm (20,000 km) surfaced at 10 knots (19 km/h)
Endurance: 48 hours at 2 knots (4 km/h) submerged
75 days on patrol
Test depth: 400 ft (120 m)
Complement: 10 officers, 70-71 enlisted
Armament: 10 x 21 in (533 mm) torpedo tubes
(six forward, four aft)
24 torpedoes
1 x 4 in (102 mm) / 50 caliber deck gun
Four machine guns

Cisco left Port Darwin, Australia on September 18, 1943, on her first and final war patrol. That evening she returned to Darwin due to a malfunction of the main hydraulic system which had occurred during the day's operations. The hydraulic system having been repaired to the satisfaction of the Commanding Officer, Cisco departed again on September 19.

Cisco's patrol area was a large rectangular one in the South China Sea between Luzon and the coast of French Indo-China. In order to reach it, she was to pass through the Arafoera Sea area, the Banda Sea, Manipa Strait, Molukka Passage, the Celebes Sea, Sibutu Passage, the Sulu Sea and Mindoro Strait. On September 28, Cisco should have been due west of Mindanao in the center of the Sulu Sea. On that day a Japanese antisubmarine attack was made slightly north and east of Cisco's expected position. In reporting the attack the Japanese state "Found a sub tailing oil. Bombing. Ships cooperated with us. The oil continued to gush out even on tenth of October." The attack would seem to have been made by planes in cooperation with ships. No submarine that returned from patrol reported having been attacked at this time and position.

Nothing had been seen of or heard from Cisco since her departure from Darwin, and on November 4 and 5, 1943, Headquarters Task Force Seventy-One was unable to make radio contact with her. At the time of her loss it was considered very unlikely that a recurrence of trouble with her main hydraulic system could explain her sinking, and the only other possible clue was the fact that a Japanese plane was reported over Darwin at twenty thousand feet on the morning of her second departure. The attack listed above is thought to probably explain this loss. No enemy minefields are known to have been in her area, or en route to it.