Allied Warships

Kete (SS-369)

Submarine of the Balao class

USS Kete on trials in Lake Michigan in August 1944.

Navy	The US Navy
Type	Submarine
Class	Balao
Pennant	369
Built by	Manitowoc Shipbuilding Co. (Manitowoc, Wisconsin, U.S.A.)
Ordered	6 Jun 1942
Laid down	25 Oct 1943
Launched	9 Apr 1944
Commissioned	30 Jul 1944
Lost	20 Mar 1945
History	USS Kete (Lt Cmdr Edward Ackerman) is lost on or after 20 March 1945 by unknown causes while enroute to Midway from Colnett Strait, all hands lost. She was due to arrive at Midway on 31 March 1945 and was officially declared overdue on 16 April 1945. Possibly sunk by the Japanese submarine RO-41 (offsite link).

Commands listed for USS Kete (369)

Please note that we're still working on this section
and that we only list Commanding Officers for the duration of the Second World War.

	Commander	From	To
1	T/Cdr. Royal Lawrence Rutter, USN	31 Jul 1944	30 Jan 1945
2	T/Lt.Cdr. Edward Ackerman, USN	1 Mar 1945	20 Mar 1945 (+)

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Notable events involving Kete include:

15 Oct 1944
With her trials and initial training completed USS Kete (Cmdr Royal Lawrence Rutter) arrived at Pearl Harbor.

31 Oct 1944
USS Kete (Cmdr Royal Lawrence Rutter) departed from Pearl Harbor for her 1st war patrol, and was ordered to patrol in the East China Sea.

4 Nov 1944
USS Kete (Cmdr Royal Lawrence Rutter) refuels at Midway.

24 Nov 1944
USS Kete (Cmdr Royal Lawrence Rutter) arrived at Saipan to repair her malfunctioning bow planes.

24 Dec 1944
With the repairs completed USS Kete (Cdr. R.L. Rutter) departed from Saipan to resume her 1st war patrol.

30 Jan 1945
USS Kete (Cdr. R.L. Rutter) ended her 1st war patrol at Guam.

1 Mar 1945
USS Kete (Lt.Cdr. Edward Ackerman) departed from Guam for her 2nd war patrol, and was ordered to patrol of the Ryukyu Islands.

10 Mar 1945
USS Kete (Lt.Cdr. E. Ackerman) torpedoed and sank the Japanese troop transport Keizan Maru (2116 GRT) and the Japanese army cargo ships Sanka Maru (2495 GRT) and Dokan Maru (2270 GRT) about 100 nautical miles north-west of Amami o Shima in position 29°48'N, 128°02'E.

14 Mar 1945
USS Kete (Lt.Cdr. E. Ackerman) reports that she had fired four torpedoes but missed a Japanese cable laying vessel. She also reports that she has only three torpedoes left.

Kete was ordered to depart from her patrol area on March 20th.

19 Mar 1945
USS Kete (Lt.Cdr. Edward Ackerman) acknowledged the receipt of these orders to leave her patrol area on the next day.

20 Mar 1945
USS Kete (Lt.Cdr. Edward Ackerman) sent a special weather report. This is the last ever heard from her.