USS Drum

The Battleship Park in Mobile Alabama includes the WWII submarine USS Drum. It is open for tour with all parts of the boat accessible including the conning tower.

There are a number of these class of WWII submarines on display around the country and we seem to be checking them out one by one. The following links will take you to previous posts about these other submarines.

This link takes you to the USS Razorback in Little Rock - http://traversingthetrails.blogspot.com/2016/05/submarine-on-arkansas-river.html

This link takes you to the USS Silversides in Michigan - http://traversingthetrails.blogspot.com/2015/07/silversides.html

They had some nice large scale submarine models on display

Deck guns were used to sink ships when conditions allowed and save torpedoes

View down from the conning tower

Galley

The Fairbanks Morse diesel engines were the same as used in railroad engines of the time

You can see the stern of the Battleship ALABAMA from the deck of the submarine

USS Slater Destroyer Escort

In Albany New York is a WWII era Destroyer Escort, the USS Slater. It has been restored to it's appearance in that time period. I wanted to see this particular ship to get an idea of the type that fought in the Battle of Samar.

It was closed to tours the day we were there, so I only got to see it from the shore. Still, most impressive!

It is painted in the "Dazzle" paint scheme which was intended to confuse the aiming of the gun directors on opposing ships. Each side of the ship has a different pattern, but I could only see the port side. The paint scheme was intended to confuse regarding direction of travel, speed, length and distance away. Entire books have been written regarding this type of paint scheme on war ships.