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Submarine Chaser Photo Archive

PC-558

Sunk 9 May 1944
PC-461 Class Submarine Chaser:

  • Laid down 31 October 1941 by Luders Marine Construction Co., Stamford, CT
  • Launched 13 September 1942
  • Commissioned USS PC-558, 19 November 1942
  • Assigned to the Atlantic and Mediterranean theater of operations
  • On 29 March 1944 the destroyers Ericsson (DD 440) and Kearny (DD 432), along with PC-626, PC-556 and PC-558 and British destroyers HMS Laforeu (G 99), HMS Tumult (R 11), HMS Hambledon
    (L 37) and HMS Blencathra (L 24) began submarine hunt 30 miles northwest of Palermo, Sicily. Their efforts culminate in the sinking of German submarine U-223 at 38º48'N, 14º10'E
  • Patrolling off the coast of Italy on 9 May 1944, PC-558 sighted a German one-man submarine (Neger) and sank it, then picked up the pilot, Oberfähnrich (Ensign) Walter Schulz. She later repeated this
    action with the help of PC-626 and sank a second Neger
  • She was torpedoed and sunk by the German submarine U-230 north of Salerno the same day. The PC-1235 attacked U-230 drove her away and returned to rescue thirty survivors
  • Struck from the Navy Register 16 May 1944.

    Specifications:

  • Displacement 280 t.(lt), 450 t.(fl)
  • Length 173' 8"
  • Beam 23'
  • Draft 10' 10"
  • Speed 20.2 kts.
  • Complement 65
  • Armament: One 3"/50 dual purpose gun mount, one single 40mm gun mount, three 20mm guns, two Hedgehogprojectors, four depth charge projectors and two depth charge tracks
  • Propulsion: Two 1,440bhp General Motors 16-258S diesel engines, Farrel-Birmingham single reduction gear, two shafts.
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