World War II Database

Contributor: C. Peter Chen

ww2dbaseUSS R-1 was the lead ship in her class of submarines. Upon commissioning in Dec 1918, she held her shakedown cruise off the New England region of northeastern United States before joining Submarine Division 9 of the US Navy Atlantic Fleet. In 1920, she performed exercises with the division in the Gulf of Mexico. In Jul 1920, she was given the hull classification symbol SS-78. In 1921, she was assigned to the Pacific Fleet, with her new base being San Pedro, California, United States, arriving on 30 Jun. In early 1923, she participated in fleet exercises off Central America. On 16 Jul 1923, she, along with the remainder of Submarine Division 9, was ordered to transfer to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, United States, where she would play a part in the development of US Navy submarine tactics in the 1920s. On 1 May 1931, she was decommissioned at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States.

ww2dbaseAs tension grew with the start of the European War, USS R-1 was recommissioned on 23 Sep 1940 at Groton, Connecticut, United States. She was assigned to Submarine Squadron 3 of Submarine Division 42. She was stationed at Coco Solo, Panama Canal Zone for the following year. In Jun 1941, she was assigned to Submarine Division 31. She received refit at New London, Connecticut in Oct 1940, where she was also ordered to be transferred to Submarine Squadron 7.

ww2dbaseWhen the Pacific War began on 7 Dec 1941, USS R-1 was in New England. On 9 and 10 Dec, she patrolled the New England coast, and on 11 Dec she arrived at Bermuda, where she would join with Submarine Squadron 7 vessels on anti-submarine patrols. She operated out of Ordnance Island, Bermuda until Jul, when she returned to New London to resume patrolling the New England coast. In late Sep 1942, she returned to Bermuda again to perform anti-submarine patrols. She would shift between these two locations until Nov 1944. In Dec 1944, she underwent extensive modernization, emerging on 26 Feb 1945. Although the modernization gave her updated machinery, she was of an older design, thus she was not to be sent to the Pacific Ocean where more modern submarines were by then effectively blockading the Japanese home islands. Instead, she helped to develop anti-submarine warfare tactics off the coast of New England, then, in Jul 1945, she joined the Fleet Sonar School at Key West, Florida, where she would serve for the remainder of her career. She was decommissioned from service at key West weeks after the Japanese surrender and was sold for scrap in 1946.

Submarine R-1 (SS-78) Interactive Map

Photographs

R-1 Operational Timeline