{"id":1436,"date":"2018-11-09T10:53:18","date_gmt":"2018-11-09T16:53:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.socpsy.com\/casks\/?p=1436"},"modified":"2023-02-22T06:33:42","modified_gmt":"2023-02-22T12:33:42","slug":"the-sub-that-sank-a-train-in-their-own-words","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.socpsy.com\/casks\/the-sub-that-sank-a-train-in-their-own-words\/","title":{"rendered":"The Sub That Sank a Train – In Their Own Words"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is my second installment of my series, “In Their Own Words” wherein I use quotes from WWII submarine reports to highlight themes of commanders that I find interesting. My introductory post in this series<\/a> focused on a couple of themes:\u00a0Commanders’ candor and\/or colorful descriptions and\u00a0Issues associated with life on the vessel. This installment falls into the former of those themes as I highlight some of the comments of Eugene B. Fluckey<\/a> (sometimes referred to as “Lucky Fluckey”). Fluckey commanded the USS Barb<\/em> (SS-220),<\/a>\u00a0a Gato-class sub that was commissioned in July of 1942, for 5 war patrols. A 1935 graduate of the Naval Academy<\/a>, he was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor, four Navy Crosses, two Distinguished Service Medals, and two Legion of Merit awards.<\/p>\n

Fluckey proved himself to be a resourceful commander who had a knack for developing innovative tactics to fight the Japanese, including the first sub commander to request and receive a rocket launcher for this boat. Much has been written about Fluckey in addition to his own book published in 1997 entitled, Thunder Below<\/em><\/a>. I won’t add to that body of literature here.\u00a0 Instead, I will highlight some of Fluckey’s more colorful descriptions of the “sinking” of a train. He describes this event in his book, but for some reason, his official report is much more descriptive and colorful.<\/p>\n

Essentially, Fluckey decided that sinking ships was a worthy goal, but that destroying the “middle man” that delivered the goods to the ships would be a reasonable strategy. So, in July of 1945, with no torpedoes remaining, Fluckey planned a daring commando raid to destroy a train and the tracks it ran on. The raid would take place just on shore at Patience Bay, Sakhalin Island<\/a>\u00a0in the southern Sea of Okhotsk<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Fluckey’s choice of commandos for this raid involved several criteria. He wanted at least one person with knowledge of wiring a trigger mechanism (extra points if this person knew something about trains). He wanted men from a variety of ratings on the sub. He wanted half to be regular Navy and half to be Naval Reserve. He also wanted some crew who had been Boy Scouts because they would have special survival skills. Finally, he wanted unmarried men, but it turns out that the leader of the raid was married.<\/p>\n

The eight crewmen who participated in the “raid” were<\/a>:<\/p>\n