Tambor-Gar Class & the deck gun
 

Navweaps and wikipedia both state that six of the Tambor class boats were rearmed with the 5in/51 gun, but does anyone have a concrete source as to which specific boats were given this weapon? Wikipedia specifically combines both Gars and Tambors as one class, whilst navweaps just says that the "T" (SS-198) class used this gun, both really aren't specific. Anything with even a fraction of more detailed information would be greatly appreciated and enough for me. Thanks in advance!

-GK

P.S. Apologies if this is the wrong part of the forums for such a kind of post - there's no dedicated history forums so I thought that SH4 would be the most fitting for this kind of question.

Seems that after doing some more digging, I've finally found my answers! It was the Tambor herself, then Tautog, Thresher, Tuna, Gar and Grayling. Thread is up for deletion now, I suppose, if I knew how to do it at least!

you can delete your own post, one at time.
i believe if click on the edit button, a delete button appears.
i have not done that in quite a while so my directions might be a bit off, but there is definitely a way to delete your posts.
good luck with the deletion and your new 5 inch cannon.
:Kaleun_Salute:

I can only delete my post, yes, but not the thread itself. Back when the thread was just the original post, I still couldn't delete the thread.

Why delete it?


You were interested in the information, and somebody else might be some day.

For the full story of the big 5"/51 caliber guns of the Tambor/Gar class boats, surf over to this link: https://www.flipsnack.com/oceanoutre...fall-2021.html The whole newsletter is worth a read and will give you a good overview of the efforts to find the Grayback. The article with specific information on the gun starts on page 22. The article also has photos of the Grayback's gun sitting on the bottom near the wreck.

Existing photographic evidence shows that Tautog never was equipped with this gun. She was refitted to carry the 4"/50 caliber Mk 9 gun, but not the larger 5"/51 cal version.

The six submarines of the Tambor-class were authorized for construction in Fiscal Year 1939, and the six boats of the Gar-class in 1940. Other than that the 12 boats are of the same design, with numerous small differences depending on who built them (government navy yards vs. Electric Boat). There is a great deal of debate amongst historians as to what class these 12 boats fall into. One historian (Alden) considers them to be one class, the Tambors. Another (Friedman) considers them to be two classes, Tambor and Gar. Strangely, official Navy documents are not consistent in this regard and this adds to the confusion. Personally, I have adopted the convention of referring to them as the Tambor/Gar-class. For further information on this pathfinder group of boats, see the postscript in the article at this link: http://navsource.org/archives/08/pdf/0829294.pdf