![]() ![]() At one point, a train passed by, forcing them to take cover. Reaching it, three men were posted as sentries, and three others got to work setting up the explosive. Leaving two men to guard the boats, the shore party made its way toward the railroad tracks. Saunders was the most experienced submariner aboard - he had joined the Navy when he was 17 and had served on the USS Barb since it was commissioned, sailing from the coast of North Africa to the North Pacific, for all of the submarine’s 12 patrols. After several days, Fluckey and the chief of the boat, a 26-year-old sailor named Paul Golden “Swish” Saunders, devised a plan. In the Sea of Okhotsk, Fluckey and the crew observed the rail line. ![]() In addition, the crew earned a Presidential Unit Citation for the success of the patrols. Fluckey himself was awarded the Medal of Honor for maneuvering through shallow water of a harbor along the Chinese coast and sinking three ships, along with damaging three others, as well as three Navy Crosses. The Barb conducted shore bombardments and rescued British and Australian prisoners whose ship had been sunk by another American submarine. In the first four patrols with Fluckey in command, the USS Barb sank more than a dozen Japanese Navy ships, including an aircraft carrier, as well as numerous other small vessels. Charles Lockwood, commander of all submarines in the Pacific, at least five kills before departing a promise which he fulfilled. As Fluckey wrote in his 1992 account of his wartime service, Thunder Below!, he guaranteed Vice Adm. Get the latest military news, entertainment, and gear in your inbox daily.įluckey, the submarine’s commander, had joined the ship for its seventh patrol, and took command of the boat on April 28, 1944, ahead of its eighth mission. Five minutes after that, the crew was back aboard the Barb.Subscribe to Task & Purpose Today. At 1:47 am, a 16-car train hit their planted explosive and was shot into the sky. But they did it, put the pressure switch into place, and booked it back to the ship as fast as possible. They dug holes for the 55-pound bomb as quickly and as quietly as possible, even having to stop as a freight train rumbled by. Luckily, the guard was asleep and their work continued. Once there, a crewman climbed to the top of a water tower - only to discover it was a manned lookout post. So, they ended up having to struggle through thick bulrushes, cross a freeway, and even fall down drainage ditches on their way to the railway. That was the goal as the crew manned their boats and made it ashore that night, but they accidentally landed in the backyard of a Japanese civilian. Naval Institute tells us how Engineman 3rd Class Billy Hatfield devised a switch trigger for an explosive that, when set between the rails, would go off as the train passed over it. They couldn't just place charges on the tracks, it would be too dangerous for the shore party once the Japanese were alerted. Once the ships were at sea, they were easy pickings for crews like the Barb's.īut why, Fluckey thought, wait for the ships to get to sea? Why not just take them out before the trains ever reach the port? That's exactly what Fluckey and his crew set out to do. They could see as Japanese shipments moved from trains on the island to the ships. This was the ship's 12th war patrol, and the fifth for her skipper, then-Commander Eugene Fluckey. The mission of the USS Barb was to cut the Japanese fleet's supply lines by sinking enemy ships out of the island of Karafuto in the Sea of Okhotsk. The USS Barb off the coast of Pearl Harbor, 1945. ![]()
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