Editing Gato-class submarine (section)

==Boats in class==
{{Main|List of Gato-class submarines}}

Seventy-seven of these ships were commissioned from November 1941 ({{USS|Drum|SS-228|2}}) through April 1944 ({{USS|Croaker|SS-246|2}}). Twenty of the 52 U.S. submarines lost in World War II were of this class, plus {{USS|Halibut|SS-232|2}}, a damaged ship that returned to the U.S., but was considered a [[constructive total loss]] and not repaired.<ref name=Bauer271>{{harvnb|Bauer|Roberts|1991|pp=271–273}}</ref><ref name=SubLoss1>″United States Submarine Losses World War II″, Naval History Division, Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, Washington: 1963 (Fifth Printing)</ref>

Occasionally, some confusion arises as to the number of ''Gato''-class submarines built, with some sources listing the total as 73, due to the transitional nature of the first four ships (SS-361 through SS-364) constructed under the second contract by the [[Manitowoc Shipbuilding Company]] of [[Manitowoc, Wisconsin]]. These were originally intended to be ''Balao''-class subs and were assigned hull numbers that fall in the middle of the range of numbers for the ''Balao'' class (SS-285 to SS-416, SS-425, and SS-426).<ref>[http://www.navsource.org/archives/08/04idx.htm Fleet Submarine index page at Navsource.org]</ref> Manitowoc was a designated follow-on yard to Electric Boat; they used construction blueprints and plans supplied by Electric Boat and used many of the same suppliers. The government-owned shipyards ([[Portsmouth Naval Shipyard]] and [[Mare Island Naval Shipyard]]) began to make the transition to the new ''Balao'' design in the summer of 1942. Electric Boat, due to the huge backlog of ''Gato''-class construction, was not ready to make the transition to the new design until January 1943. Manitowoc had already completed their allotted production run of ''Gato''s and could not switch over to the ''Balao'' design until Electric Boat supplied them with the plans. Faced with a work stoppage while they waited for Electric Boat to catch up, managers at Manitowoc got permission to complete four additional boats (SS-361 through SS-364) to Electric Boat's ''Gato''-class plans. Manitowoc's first ''Balao''-class ship was {{USS|Hardhead|SS-365|2}}.<ref>{{harvnb|Alden|1979|p=84}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Friedman|1995|pp=209}}</ref>