World War II Database

Contributor: C. Peter Chen

ww2dbaseSubmarine USS Becuna was commissioned in May 1944. She embarked on five war patrols during WW2, two of which, the first and the third, were deemed successful, having sunk two small vessels and two tankers. After the war, she arrived at San Diego, California, United States in Sep 1945, and served with the United States Navy's Pacific Fleet until Apr 1949. Between Apr 1949 and 1950, she served with the Atlantic Fleet, serving largely as a training submarine. Between Nov 1950 and Aug 1951, she received GUPPY IA modernization at the Electric Boat Company in New London, Groton, Connecticut, United States, where she was originally built between 1943 and 1944. She conducted her post-modernization shakedown cruise in the Caribbean Sea, returning to New London in Sep 1951. In the 1950s and the 1960s, she made several cruises, visiting ports in the Mediterranean Sea and Northern Europe and crossing into the Arctic Circle, but otherwise she largely remained a training submarine in New London. In 1969, she was reclassified an auxiliary submarine (with new designation AGSS-319) and then placed in the Atlantic Reserve Fleet in Nov. In 1971, her designation reverted to the original SS-319. In 1943, she was struck from the United States Naval Registrar, and three years later she was transferred to the Cruiser Olympia Association of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States to convert Becuna into a museum ship. She is now on display at Penn's Landing on the shore of the Delaware River in Philadelphia.

Submarine Becuna (SS-319) Interactive Map

Photographs

Becuna Operational Timeline