TCG Cerbe

History: Earmarked for loan under the Military Assistance Program, the veteran submarine was converted to a GUPPY submarine at Mare Island Naval Shipyard and recommissioned once more 16 July 1954 to prepare for transfer. Decommissioned and loaned to Turkey 23 October 1954, she was recommissioned by the Turkish Navy as TCG Cerbe (S 341), the first submarine of that name. Initially designated S 03, she was later redesignated S 341. The submarine was formally sold to Turkey 1 January 1972, and subsequently scrapped.

Class: The United States Navy Gato-class submarines were launched 1941-43 and were the first mass-production US submarine class of World War II. Together with their near-sisters the Balao and Tench classes, their design formed the majority of the United States Navy's World War II submarine fleet. Named after the first vessel of the class, USS Gato, the Gato class and its successors formed the core of the submarine service that was largely responsible for the destruction of the Japanese merchant marine and a large portion of the Imperial Japanese Navy in World War II. Gato's name comes from a species of small catshark. Like most other U.S. Navy submarines of the period, boats of the Gato class were given the names of marine creatures. In some references, the Gatos are combined with their successors, especially the Balao class.

Nationality: Turkey is a nation straddling eastern Europe and western Asia with cultural connections to ancient Greek, Persian, Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman empires. Cosmopolitan Istanbul, on the Bosphorus Strait, is home to the iconic Hagia Sophia, with its soaring dome and Christian mosaics, the massive 17th-century Blue Mosque and the circa-1460 Topkapı Palace, former home of sultans. Ankara is Turkey’s modern capital.