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War Patrols of the USS Bergall SS 320

On the thirteenth of May, 1943, the Electric Boat Company laid down the keel of the SS 320. The ship had been launched by Ms. James A. Elkins on February 16, 1944.  Thirteen months later almost to the day, of her keel laying, (12 June, 1944) Lieutenant Commander John Milton Hyde assumed command of his first submarine. Thirteens were to become the Bergall's big days as her story will disclose, and it was not long before the day became one of tension but this early in her history there was no thought of it.  On her way to the Panama Canal she rescued three Army aviators from the sea when their trainer aircraft crashed north of Mona Passage (Off the south east tip of the Dominican Republic.).   At every end of the month the aviators would make the run from Puerto Rico to Haiti to give the guys at the weather station their paychecks.   Coming back they had a bad compass and were running out of gas.   Looking for a place to set down was proving futile and then they spotted the USS Bergall preparing to submerge as it was on it’s way to Panama and the aviators radioed for rescue support.   In the ensuing splash down and recovery one of the aviators, then 35 year old, Herbert Liebman’s pants were destroyed in the ditching of their plane and (being a large man himself) found that Lieut.-Comdr. Thomas K. Kimmel was about the same size and Thomas loaned Herbert a pair. On March 14, 1999, Bill Thomas ( an editor for the Memphis Tn. Newspaper ‘The Commercial Appeal’) printed an article entitled ‘It’s as if submarine, WWII crew vaporize after rescue’ with the help of Herbert. Herbert, now 91 years young was trying to find Comdr. Kimmel to thank him for loaning the pants and rescuing him and his fellow aviators. Comdr Kimmel had passed away the year before, but his wife, Nancy, remembered Thomas telling the story! The article ended with Herbert’s quote, “All I want to know is what happened (to BERGALL) after I got off in Panama.”. The airmen got a free ride to the Panama Canal. The rest of her stay in  the Panama Canal was uneventful except for a dinner sponsored by Mr. Liebman and a beach party in Panama where the pilot, Mr. Smith brought some whiskey for the crew as thanks for the rescue.   Later Mr. Liebman sent a box of cigars to the boat, which had since arrived in Pearl.   The ship arrived at Pearl Harbor for assignment in the war zone on August 13, 1944.   On her way to Hawaii, a few days out of Panama, she almost sank in DEEP water when she went down for a test dive.

The 13's start counting up!

To the young crew of the Bergall the names of Saigon, Karimata and French Indo-China were no more a part of the real world than were Lilliput, Erehwan or Alice's Wonderland. Yet the increased acuity of observation brought on by the nautical life was to make the geography of all those exotic places more familiar to most of the crew than that of their own home states. John Van Fossen, motor machinist from Toledo, was to lose a bitter argument as to the distance of Ohio from the Atlantic Ocean, but will probably always remember just how far off the coast of Bali lies the island of Noedda Besar. Robert ('Bobby Sox') Faselt, quartermaster, whose home in the Jersey Palisades overlooks the New York City harbor, returned there with many misconceptions about the home port that he did not have about Soerabaya. The Bergall crew was young and inexperienced, as what new submarine crew isn't, but as all others, they learned!

(From personal accounts by shipmates)
On to War Patrol #1

Or pick a specific patrol:  War Patrol #1... War Patrol #2... War Patrol #3... War Patrol #4... War Patrol #5
A quick description of her Deck Guns
A quick description of her Torpedo Attack Procedures

Crew memories of some war stories and antics

 

(Known successes) (8)
Status	Date	Position	Country	Name	Displacement	Type	Info
Sunk	09.10.1944			?	700 BRT	AK	JANAC denied
Sunk	13.10.1944	11-52N, 109-20E		Shinshu Maru	4182 BRT	AK
Sunk	27.10.1944	07-09N, 116-40E		Nichiho Maru	10528 BRT	AO
Sunk	27.10.1944	07-09N, 116-40E		Itsukushima Maru
Damaged	13.12.1944	08-09N, 105-40E		Myoko
Sunk	27.01.1945	08-37S, 111-39E		W 102		minesweeper
Sunk	07.02.1945	12-04N, 109-22E		CD 53		escort
Damaged	07.02.1945	12-04N, 109-22E		Toho Maru		AO

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