Casting a quick eye over the rest, some impressive moulding detail jumped out, notably the decking, conning tower and deck guns which are the best I have seen and, to top it all off, Revell have included pre-folded metal wire steps which are superb and will save hours of bending! Also included in the kit is a nice set of water slide decals with the choice of five different subs to depict and some printed paper flags, making a truly wonderfully thought out kit? Laying the Keel ![]() What Revell have done, which seems logical, is to split the hull into three parts the main centre hull measures roughly 905mm, the bow 197mm, and the stern 230mm. Tip be careful to avoid cardboard cuts - unlike me! Under the centre hull packing, the rest of the box is crammed with 28 sprues just begging me to spill the contents onto the floor and drool. The box measures an impressive 38in (970mm) so at first I thought my calculations were wrong! Where was the extra 14in? When the lid was prized off, and with the help of my patient girlfriend, we were presented with a large centre hull in two parts neatly packaged in heavy cardboard. As the first batch arrived at the local model shop I couldn't wait to get my hands on one, get the lid off and investigate, and boy! I wasn't, and you won't be disappointed. Wow! When I had done 'the maths' I couldn't believe how long this boat was going to be even in 1:72 scale 'a whopping 52.25 inches (1,325mm) give or take a little, so bear this in mind when you buy one - a very long display shelf will be required. When Revell first announced that they were to release a 1:72 scale GATO Class submarine, I quickly rushed down to the local library for a couple of books on the subject that I had seen sitting on a shelf for some time. Pic 4: A GATO sets out on patrol - the author's 1:72 scale Revell model in a photo-realistic seascape. Another GATO Class submarine (included on the decal sheet from Revell) is the USS Flasher, and this boat received three Presidential unit citations and six battle stars for sinking 21 ships for a record total of 100,231 tons of Japanese shipping. O'Kane would take his boat into the shallows, defying enemy gunfire, to save airmen before heading home to Pearl Harbor. One boat, the USS Tang commanded by Richard O'Kane, in a single patrol saved no fewer than 22 US Navy airmen that had been shot down on scattered reefs during the attack on Truck in April 1944. The crews were in fact able to withstand the hardship of such lengthy deployments significantly better than the German submarine crews these new boats were, in comparison, luxuriously equipped and their hot showers, air conditioning and refrigerated stores made deficiency sickness virtually unheard of, allowing a patrol endurance to last for 75 days! In one of their more satisfying special assignments, the submarines would serve as lifeguards, plucking from the sea downed aircraft pilots and crews. Modifications to the diesel engines and batteries increased patrol duration over that of the TAMBOR and internal alterations provided better conditions for the crew. Using the previous TAMBOR Class submarine as a model standard, the GATOs incorporated improvements that increased their efficiency and allowed for greater patrolling and combat abilities. The GATO Class submarine was 'state of the art' in American design at the start of the War. There were three main types of US submarines in service during the Second World War, the TAMBOR, BALAO and GATO classes. This achievement, however, came at a heavy cost - 52 boats and 3,505 submariners would fail to return. Altogether, the submarines would sink 55% of all Japanese ships lost in the war, more than the US surface navy, carrier planes and the army air forces combined. In the course of the war the American boats would sink no fewer than 201 Japanese warships and over 1,000 Japanese merchant ships of more than 500 tons. ![]() The submarines are all we have left." No one could have imagined the extent of the retribution that the US submarines would eventually exact from Japan's Imperial Navy. In 1941 the US Navy had only a few modern submarines at its disposal, so a grim warning was passed on to their skippers before the first war patrol, "don't go out there and try and win the Congressional Medal of Honor in one day. ![]() The three aircraft carriers that had been at sea and had survived the bombing at Pearl Harbor were held back as the last line of defence, so it was left to the submarine fleet and a large portion of responsibility fell upon the submariners to hold back total Japanese domination of the pacific. In the following weeks after Pearl Harbor on 7th December1941, America's submarines were her only weapons capable of carrying the war to Japan.
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