USS Blower (SS-325), a Balao-class submarine, was a ship of the United States Navy in commission from 1944 to 1950. She was named after the blower, a type of pufferfish of the United States East Coast and West Indies. During World War II, She completed three war patrols, all in the Indian Ocean, Java Sea, and South China Sea.
Blower was transferred to Turkey in 1950 under the Mutual Defense Assistance Program, where she was recommissioned in the Turkish Naval Forces as the second TCG Dumlupınar. Dumlupınar sank after an accident off the coast of Turkey on 4 April 1953 following a joint North Atlantic Treaty Organization training exercise.
Construction and commissioning
Blower′s keel was laid down on 15 July 1943 at Groton, Connecticut, by the Electric Boat Company. She was launched on 23 April 1944, sponsored by Mrs. Richard F. J. Johnson, wife of Commander Richard F. J. Johnson, and commissioned on 10 August 1944 with Lieutenant Commander James H. Campbell in command.
Service history
United States Navy
World War II
August 1944–January 1945
Following shakedown training off the coast of New England and in Narragansett Bay, Blower departed Naval Submarine Base New London in Groton on 17 September 1944 for advanced training at the Sound School in Key West, Florida. She left Key West on 10 October 1944 bound for the Panama Canal and the Pacific Ocean. Early on the morning of 11 October, during a heavy rain squall, the submarine chaser collided with her. No one on either ship suffered any injuries, but PC-1145′s bow was smashed back to the first water-tight bulkhead. Blower suffered a hole in her bow buoyancy tank, damage to her conning tower, and a sheared blade on her starboard propeller. She returned to Key West on 12 October 1944 for repairs, but the damage proved to be so extensive that the work had to be completed at Groton.
Blower got underway from Groton again on 13 November 1944, bound via the Panama Canal for Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, which she reached on 16 December 1944. She spent a month training at Pearl Harbor, then proceeded to Saipan in the Mariana Islands, where she topped off her fuel supply.
First war patrol
Blower departed Saipan for her first war patrol on 17 January 1945. She spent most of the 48-day patrol in the South China Sea between Hainan Island and Japanese-occupied French Indochina off Cape Tourane. She served as part of a scouting line of 15 submarines stretched out across the South China Sea between Singapore and the Formosa Strait along the most probable track for Japanese warships returning to Japan after an oil resupply mission to Singapore. On 13 February 1945 she sighted the masts of a battleship and two cruisers and, after some maneuvering, managed to fire six torpedoes from a range of . Her sound operators reported one hit on each of two targets, and she later spotted two oil slicks, but Japanese records do not indicate any damage. She also tried to attack Japanese convoys off Tourane, French Indochina, on 15, 22, and 24 February 1945 but could not get close enough, mainly owing to Japanese air patrols and large numbers of small fishing boats that impeded her efforts. Groups of floating mines often forced her to submerge at inopportune moments, further disrupting her operations.
With her diesel fuel running low, Blower headed for Fremantle, Australia, on 5 March. She arrived at Fremantle on 19 March 1945 and began a refit alongside the submarine tender , during which she received new LORAN (long-range navigation) and radio direction-finding equipment and an overhaul of both of her radars and all four of her diesel engines.
Second war patrol
Blower departed Fremantle to begin her second war patrol on 14 April 1945. After a brief stop to refuel at Exmouth Gulf on the coast of Western Australia, she proceeded through Lombok Strait on 21 April 1945 and took up a patrol station in the Java Sea. On 22 April, she received orders to form a coordinated attack group with the submarines and . The three submarines set up a scouting line at intervals across the east-west shipping routes between Makassar and Borneo and covering the north-south lanes between Borneo and Java. Blower′s only surface contact was with Besugo, with which she rendezvoused twice. Blower also was plagued by numerous Japanese patrol aircraft. Indeed, at 11:30 on 25 April 1944, her lookouts spotted two closing Imperial Japanese Navy floatplanes and she quickly dove to avoid attack. Unfortunately for Blower, the water near Solombol Island was clear and only deep, allowing the floatplanes to bomb and otherwise harass her for almost two hours as she twisted and turned along the sea bed.
