
USS Pomfret, a 1526-ton Balao class submarine built at the Portsmouth Navy Yard, Kittery, Maine, was commissioned in February 1944. She joined the Pacific fleet several months later and made her first war patrol, in the waters off Japan, in June-August 1944. Though the submarine attacked three Japanese ships, including a battleship, none were hit. A second patrol, which took her into the Luzon Strait during September and October, produced the sinking of a Japanese transport. Returning to the Luzon Strait for her third combat cruise, Pomfret sank three more ships. Between late January and the end of the Pacific War in mid-August 1945, she made three patrols, during which she rescued several downed U.S. aviators (one in outer Tokyo Bay), shelled shore facilities and sank a number of floating mines.
As part of the post-war active fleet, Pomfret deployed three times to the Western Pacific during 1946-1949 and again in 1951, during the Korean War. In 1952 and early 1953 Pomfret underwent a "Guppy IIA" modernization, greatly enhancing her underwater performance. Her Pacific Fleet service continued for nearly two more decades, with regular deployments to the Far East. Decommissioned in mid-1971, Pomfret was loaned to the Turkish Navy and renamed Oruc Reis. She was sold to Turkey two years later and remained a unit of that nation's navy until the later 1980s.
This page features all the views we have related to USS Pomfret (SS-391).
| If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions." | 
Click on the small photograph to prompt a larger view of the same image.
This photograph shows Pomfret in her original configuration, with a 5"/25 deck gun mounted aft:
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    Photo #: 80-G-1042402 USS Pomfret (SS-391) Underway in 1951, prior to her "Guppy IIA" modernization. Official U.S. Navy Photograph. Online Image: 118KB; 740 x 615 pixels Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system.  |  
    
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These photographs show Pomfret following her "Guppy IIA" modernization, with streamlined hull and a stepped "sail":
These photographs show Pomfret in her final configuration, with the enlarged "sail" fitted in the early 1960s:
In addition to the images presented above, the National Archives appears to hold several other views of USS Pomfret (SS-391). The following list features some of these images:
The images listed below are NOT in
the Naval Historical Center's collections. 
DO NOT try to obtain them using the procedures described in our
page "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions".
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 USS Pomfret (SS-391) underway on 31 March 1955. Port bow aerial view. USS Pomfret (SS-391) drydocked for repairs at Yokosuka, Japan, 15 December 1955. Starboard bow view (rather tight on the bow), showing the submarine "high & dry" on the drydock's blocks. Planks bracing Pomfret's sides are necessary due to Yokosuka's location in an earthquake zone. 
 USS Pomfret (SS-391) off the Mare Island Navy Yard, California, 9 August 1962, after she had been fitted with a new "sail". Port bow surface view. As USN 1062029, but taken from directly off the submarine's stern. 
 Reproductions of these images should be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system for pictures not held by the Naval Historical Center. The images listed in this box are NOT in the Naval Historical Center's collections. DO NOT try to obtain them using the procedures described in our page "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions". | 
  
| If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions." | 
Page made 12 August 2003