Original U.S. WWII USS Raton Officer Photo Albums with Photo of Sinking Japanese Ship Used in Newspaper & Walt Disney Raton Insignia Carved into Cover - 346 Photographs Total
In stock
-
Original Items. One-of-a-Kind Group. These are the outstanding photo albums of Navy Captain D.J. Mooney, who served aboard the USS Raton, a Gato-class submarine which saw extensive service in the Asitatic Theater during World War II. There is a modern tag on the interior naming it to a Capt. D.J. Mooney, who we couldn’t find in the rosters, but in one album is a sleeve with a portrait of Lieutenant D. W. Sencenbaugh, the communications officer aboard the USS Raton, who we believe is more likely to be the owner. Both albums together contain a staggering 346 photographs, with many photos aboard the submarine, some photos of its battle flag, and an outstanding photograph of a Japanese merchant ship going down which was used in a newspaper article shown on the following page!
The first album, which is the larger 11½ x 15½” album, contains 225 photographs. These include photos of men aboard the Raton, with “The Last of the Aleuts” painted on the side, an interesting reference. There are many photos of men using a sextant, looking towards the land, many photos of the open sea through the spyglass of the submarine, photos of the tropical places they visited, places they stayed on leave, photos of officers and women in the places they visited. There are photos of the submarine on a dry dock, and some larger photos of officers and crew.
The second album, the smaller 12 x 13½” album, is a fantastic hand-made leather-bound album with the Walt Disney designed insignia of the USS Raton carved into the front cover. The back cover has the US Naval Academy insignia carved into it, a fantastic bit of detailing. This album contains a great deal of ephemera on top of 121 photographs. This album contains photographs of the USS Raton’s battle flag, showing the ships she sunk, along with an outstanding photograph of a Japanese merchant ship with its bow pointed diagonally, as it is in the process of sinking. The back of this photo notes that it is an Official USN Photograph, and the very next page has a fold-out newspaper article with this exact photograph! The first photo of this album is a page-size group photo of the crew and builders of the USS Raton, with 14 men numbered and named. There are photos of men and sailors aboard the submarine, men on leave or just relaxing on the top deck, and a great shot of the painted insignia of the USS Raton, with the Walt Disney signature visible at the bottom! Some of the photos in this album have some names written below with numbers corresponding to them, but there are not many like this.
This is a fantastic Submarine officer’s photo album with tons of great material and ephemera to a ship with tons of combat! Comes ready for further research and display.
The USS Raton
A fleet submarine, Raton was laid down on 29 May 1942 by the Manitowoc Shipbuilding Company at Manitowoc, Wisconsin. She was launched on 24 January 1943, sponsored by Mrs. C. C. West, and commissioned on 13 July 1943.
Following training in Lake Michigan, Raton moved to Coco Solo in the Panama Canal Zone for additional training. She was off Coco Solo on 11 August 1943 when the merchant ship SS Hiram Maxim′s United States Navy Armed Guard mistakenly opened fire on her, firing one 5-inch (127 mm) and two 3-inch (76.2 mm) rounds. Raton immediately crash-dived and sustained no damage.
Raton departed Panama for the South West Pacific Area on 19 September 1943, and upon arriving at Brisbane, Australia, on 16 October 1943, joined the Submarine Force, United States Seventh Fleet.
From Brisbane, Raton headed for Tulagi in the Solomon Islands for her first war patrol which she conducted from 20 November to 6 December 1943 — in the Bismarck Archipelago–Solomons–New Guinea area. On 24 November 1943, while patrolling west of Massau, Raton sighted a Japanese convoy of two cargo ships escorted by two destroyers and a Nakajima A6M2-N (Allied reporting name "Rufe") floatplane. She trailed the convoy and that night made a torpedo attack, sinking the cargo ship Onoe Maru. Displaying excellent antisubmarine warfare proficiency, the two destroyers thwarted four attempts Raton made to sink the remaining cargo ship.
On 28 November 1943, Raton sighted a Rabaul-bound Japanese convoy of five cargo ships accompanied by two escorts. In a submerged attack, Raton sank two of the cargo ships, Hokko Maru and Yuri Maru. After a severe pounding by the escorts, Raton escaped, but she remained in the area to renew her attack on the convoy. In a night attack, she heavily damaged a third cargo ship, then called for assistance, as her torpedoes were nearly expended. The submarine USS Gato (SS-212) arrived and joined the attack, only to be attacked by the two Japanese destroyers. Raton surfaced and raced at flank speed to draw the escorts away from Gato and succeeded, allowing Gato to sink the cargo ship Columbia Maru. Raton concluded her patrol with her return to Milne Bay, New Guinea, for rest and refit there alongside the submarine tender USS Fulton (AS-11).
Raton departed Milne Bay on her second war patrol— conducted from 11 December 1943 to 25 January 1944 — bound for the Mindanao–Celebes–Halmahera area. On 24 December 1943, she attacked a Japanese convoy of four merchant ships and two destroyers in Morotai Strait, sinking the merchant ship Heiwa Maru and damaging an auxiliary aircraft carrier.
On 2 January 1944, Raton encountered two Japanese tankers escorted by a Fubuki-class destroyer northwest of Faland Island on the Palau shipping lane. She scored hits on one tanker, but then the Japanese escorts interrupted her attack. Raton departed the patrol area on 19 January 1944 and reached Fremantle, Australia, on 25 January 1944 for refit by the submarine tender USS Pelias (AS-14).
Raton conducted her third war patrol from 18 February to 14 April in the Java Sea, the Karimata Strait, and the South China Sea. The submarine Rasher sank the only two ships Raton contacted during the patrol.
Raton′s fourth patrol began on 19 May when she got underway for a patrol area in the South China Sea and Java Sea, which provided good hunting. On 23 May 1944, she intercepted two small intercoastal cargo ships north of the Tambelan Islands and sank both with her deck gun. That same evening, she contacted the Japanese fast convoy Hi-63, which consisted of three transports and four destroyers. She sank the destroyer Iki, and damaged a transport.
On 27 May 1944, Raton′s logbook reported:
"0615 (H) Ship shaken up considerably by either two underwater explosions or by striking submerged object. People in forward torpedo room thought we had struck something or had been struck by something."
This turned out to be two torpedoes fired by the submarine USS Lapon (SS-260). Lapon was looking for a Japanese submarine passing through the area and mistook Raton for that submarine. Lapon′s commanding officer checked fire on the second set of torpedoes realizing he was not shooting at an enemy submarine. Later dry-dock inspection of Raton showed dents where the torpedoes hit. This is the only known friendly fire incident in World War II between two U.S. submarines.
On 28 May 1944, Raton sighted and tracked a Japanese Type L submarine, but was unable to attack due to an unfavorable firing angle.
On 6 June 1944, a bright moonlit night allowed Raton to sight a large Japanese convoy of 11 ships with four destroyer-type escorts. Three hits from a spread of torpedoes Raton fired blew apart one frigate, but Raton received a severe pounding from a prolonged depth charge attack before making her escape.
A boarding party from Raton captured a small sailing vessel on 13 June 1944, taking 11 prisoners-of-war and scuttling the craft. On 17 June 1944, Raton sighted a small cargo ship, sinking it with one torpedo and rescuing nine survivors. Raton returned to Fremantle on 23 June 1944 for upkeep alongside the submarine tender Orion.
Raton′s fifth war patrol, conducted from 18 July to 10 September 1944 with a patrol area in the South China Sea off Luzon, gave her only one victory, a Japanese tanker left beached off Dasol Bay, in the Philippines on 4 August 1944.
Raton had better luck on her sixth war patrol, which she began on 6 October 1944, again with a patrol area in the South China Sea. On the night of 18 October 1944, Raton slipped into the center of a nine-ship Japanese convoy for a surface attack. She fired both sets of torpedo tubes, her bow tubes at six overlapping targets and her stern tubes at a large cargo ship. Two merchant ships — Shiranesan Maru and Taikai Maru — sank, and another vessel was damaged. A final attack resulted in damage to another cargo ship. With her torpedo supply running low and a typhoon approaching, Raton pulled into Mios Woendi in the Schouten Islands for more fuel and torpedoes with which to finish the patrol.
Leaving Mios Woendi 27 October 1944, Raton encountered a Japanese task group of two heavy cruisers and five escort vessels on 6 November 1944. In a submerged attack, she scored three hits on the Mogami-class heavy cruiser Kumano, but did not put Kumano out of action.
On 11 November 1944, Raton and the submarine USS Ray (SS-271) attacked a four-ship Japanese convoy guarded by three escorts. In a surface action, Raton sank Unkai Maru and Kurasaki with four torpedoes. Then, both submarines fired torpedoes at the remaining auxiliary ships with unconfirmed results. With only four torpedoes remaining, Raton headed for the United States, arriving at San Francisco, California, on 1 December 1944.
On 13 March 1945, after an overhaul at Mare Island Navy Yard in Vallejo, California, Raton headed west for Pearl Harbor, HAwaii, for refresher training. She departed for the Yellow Sea on 20 April 1945 to begin her seventh war patrol. On 2 May 1945, she blew up a loaded Japanese tanker, Toryu Maru, in a night torpedo attack off China′ Shantung Peninsula despite gunfire from two Japanese escorts. That same day, Raton sank a medium-sized Japanese cargo ship, Rezikan Maru, in a submerged torpedo approach. On 16 May 1945, she made a submerged attack on two Japanese transports, sinking the larger one, Eiju Maru. Raton concluded the patrol with her arrival at Guam on 25 May 1945 for upkeep alongside the submarine tender USS Proteus (AS-19).
Raton departed Guam on 22 June 1945 for her final patrol of World War II, tasked with lifeguard duty off Hong Kong. No Allied planes went down in the area, and she made no contact with Japanese forces. Arriving at Subic Bay in the Philippines on 23 July 1945 for upkeep, Raton was preparing for her next patrol when the war ended on 15 August 1945.
- This product is available for international shipping.
- Eligible for all payments - Visa, Mastercard, Discover, AMEX, Paypal & Sezzle
We Buy Military Antiques
Our team expert buyers travels the world to pay fair prices for entire estate collections to singular items.
START SELLING TODAY
