The Sub That Sank a Train

well not literally. but the USS Barb (SS-220) was credited with blowing one up when a shore party was dispacted to blow up railroad tracks and got a train as a bonus.

Barb was sent to the U.S. for a yard overhaul and alterations, which included the installation of 5 in (130 mm) rocket launchers at the Captain's request. Returning to the Pacific, she commenced her 12th and final patrol on 8 June. This patrol was conducted along the coasts of the Sea of Okhotsk. For the first time in submarine warfare, Barb successfully employed rockets, against the towns of Shari, Hokkaido; Shikuka, Kashiho; and Shiritoru on Karafuto. She also bombarded the town of Kaihyo To with her regular armament, destroying 60 percent of the town. She next landed a party of carefully selected crew members who blew up a railroad train. This is notable as the only ground combat operation that took place on the Japanese home islands.

its at the very bottom center. you can see it better in the story: New Page 1
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Her Skipper, Eugene Fluckey was one aggressive warrior who always tried to find ways of taking the war to the enemy. On the Barb's 12th war patrol, he put a raiding team ashore to place mines on the railroad tracks and was rewarded by seeing a train load full of supplies and rail cars being derailed from the explosion.

 

The Top Ten US Navy Submarine Captains in WW2:

1. Richard H. O'Kane.
2. Slade D. Cutter.
3. Dudley W. Morton.
4. Eugene B. Fluckey.
5. Samuel D. Dealey.
6. Rueben T. Whitaker.
7. Gordon W. Underwood.
8. Royce L. Gross.
9. Charles O. Triebel.
10. John S. Coye Jr.

Awards to the top 10 US Submarine Captains, and Unit Presidential Citations.

Medal of Honor.
Three times, to Richard O'Kane, Eugene Fluckey and Samuel Dealey.

Navy Cross.These 10 Captains between them were awarded the Navy Cross an amazing 29 times.

Silver Star.
Once, to Samuel Dealey.

Unit Presidential Citation.
Four times, to USS Wahoo, USS Barb, USS Harder, and USS Flasher.

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The top 10 U-Boat Aces:

1. Otto Kretschmer.
2. Wolfgang Luth
3. Eric Topp
4. Gunter Prien
5. Herbert Schultze.
6. Heinrich Lehmann - Willenbrock.
7. Karl - Friedrich Merten.
8. Victor Schutze.
9. Heinrich Liebe.
10. Heinrich Bleichrodt.

Ahoy - Mac's Web Log - Top Ten US Navy Submarine Captains in WW2 By Number of Confirmed Ships Sunk

 

Excellent story. Rockets on a WW2 sub... Why? Weren't rockets inaccurate? Was he hoping to saturate the target with rockets ? What was a salvo of rockets from a sub? Like a Calliope? Maybe now I've heard everything.

 

Just nitpicking the title of this thread....'sinking' a train? Surely it wasn't swallowed up by the soil itself!

Just joshing with yaz!

Seriously though, American submariners have lots to look back on with awe. Their contribution to the sucessful prosecution of the Pacific war is probably unequalled by any technical branch of the American armed services in the Pacific. As a player of "Silent Hunter 4", it's harder to sink a vessel and get away scot-free than the game makes it, and I play the hardest version of the game!

I also play with no reloads. When a sub of mine is sunk, I start a new one. My best performance is 14 patrols for 560,000 tons of shipping, lasting all the way to January 1944. I have not been able to take a sub all the way to VJ day, but I've not given up yet. A truly challenging game, SH4!

 

Well if the bridge was over a river and the train was on the bridge when they blew it perhaps they did "sink" it.

 

American ingenuity

 

Where would the rocket launchers have been installed on deck?