After the end of WW2 the attacks on the Parche continued! The WW2 submarine was assigned to the famous Bikini Island Operation Crossroads as a target ship for a series of atomic bomb tests. Tough as always, the Parche survived both an atomic airburst blast and the underwater burst, coming through two atomic blasts relatively undamaged!
After decontamination, she was decommissioned on December 10, 1946 and moved to the moth ball fleet Alameda, California in March 1947.
Parche was removed from the Navy List on November 8, 1969 and sold for scrap. Her original conning tower barrel, bridge structure, shears, and upper gun from the war are on display at the Naval Submarine Base, Pearl Harbor.
Technorati Tags: atomic test, Parche, ww2 submarine
The USS Parche, operating as SS-384 in WW2 and as SSN-683 during the cold war, is the most decorated ship in U.S. naval history. Though most of her cold war exploits are still highly classified, her WW2 submarine adventures are legend.
On May 23, 2008, at Ramage Hall in Virginia, she was selected to the Submarine Hall of Fame.
One of the most daring and exciting attacks of WW2 was turned in by the Parche during her second patrol near Formosa. It was certainly theclosest in terms of range to the enemy, the combatants were frequently within rock-throwing range of each other. The Parche was part of a three-ship wolf pack. The other ships in the pack were the Steelhead and the Hammerhead. Transit to the patrol area was quiet, and the patrol was rather unproductive until the evening of 4 July when Commander ‘Red’ Ramage took the boat in on the surface to attack a group of ships. Upon closer inspection, the ships turned out to be destroyers and cruisers. As Captain Ramage turned and made full speed away, the Japanese provided and impressive fireworks display.
Read the complete details of the Parche’s attacks in The 40 Greatest WW2 Submarine War Patrols.
Technorati Tags: Parche, ww2 submarine
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