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miamieagle
October 3rd, 2008, 11:26
Agence France-Presse
Published: Friday, October 03, 2008

WASHINGTON - The sunken wreckage of a U.S. submarine lost with all hands during the Second World War has been located off an island in the Aleutian chain, the U.S. Navy said Friday.

The USS Grunion disappeared July 30, 1942 with 70 crew members after conducting operations against Japanese forces who had seized the Aleutian island of Kiska.

Acting on a tip, sons of the submarine's commander, Lt.-Cmdr. Mannert Abele, mounted two expeditions to find the missing submarine and located it at a depth of 3,200 feet off Kiska.

"It's like we won the lottery 10 times in a row," Bruce Abele, eldest son of Grunion's commanding officer, was quoted as saying. "It is so dramatic to see the underwater photo and be certain it was in fact Grunion."

Side scan sonar experts first detected a target on the first expedition in August 2006, and the following year obtained images of the wreckage using a high definition camera on a robot.

Rear Admiral Douglas McAneny, commander of the U.S. submarine fleet in the Pacific, said the navy was able to positively identify the wreckage as the Grunion using images provided by the Abeles.

"We hope this announcement will help to give closure to the families of the 70 crewmen of Grunion," he said in a statement.

Why the Grunion sunk is still not known.

It had reported heavy Japanese anti-submarine activity around Kiska and that it was down to 10 torpedos more than month into its first war patrol. The Grunion was ordered back to a resupply base at Dutch Harbor in the western Aleutians before it disappeared.

Japanese records do not show a submarine was attacked in the Kiska area at the time the Grunion was lost, the U.S. Navy said.

Original Post found at NewsHawk Forum
http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/showthread.php?threadid=676

Fibber
October 3rd, 2008, 13:30
Miamieagle;
I believe that the US Naval Proceedings had a article on this find awhile back. If I recall right it did refer to a Japanese officer who served in their Aleutian campaign and he referred to a armed member of his convoy engaging what they believed at the time to be a surface running submarine. They fired only a few shots and then ceased with no confirmed hits or further contact. This was about the time of the Grunion's disappearance. I will look and see if I still have the article or find it online.
May the crew RIP on their Eternal Patrol.

Fibber
October 3rd, 2008, 13:41
Here you go guys.

http://www.ussgrunion.com/
www.csp.navy.mil/ww2boats/grunion.htm
www.oneternalpatrol.com/uss-grunion-216.htm
http://www.navsource.org/archives/subidx.htm

Pips
October 3rd, 2008, 16:37
3,200 ft! A long way down. USS Grunion was the seventh US submarine lost in WWII.

The Navy named a destoyer after it's captain, the USS Mannert L. Abele (DD-733). It too was sunk during WWII, when hit by two kamikaze aircraft off Okinawa on 12 April, 1945.

Skywolf
October 3rd, 2008, 19:34
Read this awhile ago at subsim.com. still nice to hear about it though