Gato Class Submarine
(“Ray†class)
Ship/ Class
Length
Beam
Disp.
Main Arm.
Speed
#
Date
Gato Class
311’ 12†(95 m)
27’ (8.2 m)
1,825 t
1x 3†& 6x TT
20.75
77
1940
ID: Plastic submarine gaming piece: Gato (“Rayâ€) class submarine from the game Axis & Allies.
The Story of the USS Ray & Gato Class Submarines: With the US struggling mightily to help Britain cope with the German U-boat menace even before the US officially entered the war, one wonders what went through the minds of American submarine captains leading up to war. I would imagine it was something along the lines of “two can play that game...†The thing was, Germany, unlike Britain, was not an island nation that depended heavily on the sea for its critical supplies. On the other hand, Germany did have an ally that was an island nation, an island nation that was so desparate for oil that it would do almost anything to maintain its supplies of it, including go to war. So when that island nation (Japan) attacked Pearl Harbor suddenly and then made swift moves to seize control of the oil supplies of the East Indies, the US submarine captains had a mission of their own, a mission to do everything possible to put a strangle-hold on Japanese maritime supply lines. They did this in spite of a high command who often didn’t understand how best to do this as well as they did themselves and in spite of torpedoes that were woefully unreliable at first and only barely achieved mediocrity by the war’s end. By war’s end, though, they had (with a little help from US naval air power) largely achieved this mission: Japan was largely cut off from supplies abroad! The nightmare scenerio most feared by Winston Churchill for Britain had actually come to pass for Hideki Tojo!
Usage Notes: Use this piece for “Global 1939†and “Invasion of Italy†Variants as a submarine unit. Other US warships of interest may be: Iowa class battleship, Wasp class carrier & Portland class cruiser.
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