Editing Balao-class submarine (section)

===World War II===
[[File:Shinano photo.jpg|thumb|left|''Shinano'' underway during sea trials in Tokyo Bay]]

The ''Balao''s began to enter service in mid-1943, as the many problems with the [[Mark 14 torpedo]] were being solved. They were instrumental in the Submarine Force's near-destruction of the [[Imperial Japan|Japanese]] merchant fleet and significant attrition of the [[Imperial Japanese Navy]]. One of the class, {{USS|Archerfish|SS-311|2}}, brought down what remains the largest warship sunk by a submarine, the {{ship|Japanese aircraft carrier|Shinano||2|up=yes}} (59,000 tons). {{USS|Tang|SS-306|2}}, the highest-scoring of the class, sank 33 ships totaling 116,454 tons, as officially revised upward in 1980.<ref>O'Kane 1989, p. 458</ref>

Nine ''Balao''s were lost in World War II, while two US boats were lost in postwar accidents. In foreign service, one in Turkish service was lost in a collision in 1953, one in Peruvian service was lost in a collision in 1988, and {{USS|Catfish|SS-339|2}} was sold to the Argentinian Navy. She was renamed the ARA ''Santa Fe'' (S-21) and was lost in the 1982 [[Falklands War]] after being damaged, when she sank while moored pierside. ''Santa Fe'' was refloated and disposed of a few years after the war by being taken out to deep water and scuttled.

Additionally, {{USS|Lancetfish|SS-296|2}}, commissioned but incomplete and still under construction, flooded and sank pierside at the [[Boston Navy Yard]] on 15 March 1945, after a yard worker mistakenly opened the inner door of an aft [[torpedo tube]] that already had the outer door open. No personnel were lost in the accident and she was raised, decommissioned, and never completed or repaired.<ref name="Register"/><ref>Friedman through 1945, p. 297</ref><ref>Silverstone, p. 199</ref> Her 42 days in commission is the record for the shortest commissioned service of any USN submarine. Postwar, she was laid up in the [[United States Navy reserve fleets|Reserve Fleet]] until stricken in 1958 and scrapped in 1959.
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