World War II Database

Contributor: C. Peter Chen

ww2dbaseUSS R-5 was commissioned into service in 1919 and shortly after joined Submarine Division 9 of the US Atlantic Fleet. In 1921, her base was shifted to San Pedro, California on the Pacific coast of the United States. In 1923, she was used in the filming of the motion picture "The Eleventh Hour". In the summer of the same year, along with the rest of Submarine Division 9, her base was shifted to Pearl Harbor in the Territory of Hawaii; she would remain at Pearl Harbor for eight years until she was briefly shifted to the US east coast in 1931 before her 1932 decommissioning. She was recommissioned in Aug 1940 as world tension increased the demands on the US Navy. She patrolled the Bay of Panama for the first few months of 1941, followed by some down time for overhaul, and after war began for the United States in Dec 1941 she relieved USS R-1 in the patrol of the shipping lanes between Bermuda and the New England region of northeastern United States. In Feb 1942, while on patrol in the Atlantic Ocean, she made contact with an unidentified submarine, but all torpedoes missed their targets. She remained on patrol in this region until the end of WW2, with several intermissions which saw her conducting training operations. She was decommissioned shortly after the end of the war, and was sold for scrap in 1946.

Submarine R-5 (SS-82) Interactive Map

Photographs

R-5 Operational Timeline