Submarine story of WW2. The USS Barb. 

This is a great submarine story of WW2

      Patience Bay was wearing thin the patience of Commander Fluckey and his innovative crew.  Everything was ready. In the four days the saboteurs had anxiously watched the skies for cloud cover, the inventive crew of the Barb had built their microswitch.  When the need was posed for a pick and shovel to bury the explosive charge and batteries, the Barb's engineers had cut up steel plates in the lower flats of an engine room, then bent and welded them to create the needed tools.  The only things beyond their control was the weather....and time.  Only five days remained in the Barb's patrol.
 
      Anxiously watching the skies, Commander Fluckey noticed plumes of cirrus clouds, then white stratus capping the mountain peaks ashore.  A cloud cover was building to hide the three-quarters moon.  This would be the night.
 
MIDNIGHT, July 23, 1945
      The Barb had crept within 950 yards of the shoreline. If it was somehow seen from the shore it would probably be mistaken for a schooner or Japanese patrol boat.  No one would suspect an American submarine so close to shore or in such shallow water. Slowly the small boats were lowered to the water and the 8 saboteurs began paddling toward the enemy beach.  Twenty-five minutes later they pulled the boats ashore and walked on the surface of the Japanese homeland.  Having lost their points of navigation, the saboteurs landed near the backyard of a house. Fortunately the residents had no dogs, though the sight of human AND dog's tracks in the sand along the beach alerted the brave sailors to the potential for unexpected danger.
 
  Stumbling through  noisy waist-high grasses, crossing a highway and then stumbling into a 4-foot  drainage ditch, the saboteurs made their way to the railroad tracks.  Three men were posted as guards, Markuson assigned to examine a nearby water tower.  The Barb's auxiliary man climbed the ladder, then stopped in shock as he realized it was an enemy lookout tower....an OCCUPIED tower. Fortunately the Japanese sentry was peacefully sleeping and Markuson was able to quietly withdraw and warn his raiding party.
 
  The news from Markuson caused the men digging the placement for the explosive charge to continue their work more slowly and quietly. Suddenly, from less than 80 yards away, an express train was bearing down on them.  The appearance  was a surprise, it hadn't occurred to the crew during the planning for the mission that there might be a night train. When at last it passed, the brave but nervous sailors extricated themselves from the brush into which they had leapt, to continue their task. Twenty minutes later the holes had  been dug and the explosives and batteries
hidden beneath fresh soil.
 
  During planning for the mission the saboteurs had been told that, with the explosives in place, all would retreat a safe distance while Hatfield made the final connection.  If the sailor who had once cracked walnuts on the railroad tracks slipped during this final, dangerous procedure, his would be the only life lost.  On this night it was the only order the saboteurs refused to obey, all of them peering anxiously over Hatfield's shoulder to make sure he did it right.  The men had come too far to be disappointed by a switch failure.
 
1:32 A.M.     
Watching from the deck of the Barb, Commander Fluckey allowed himself a sigh of relief as he noticed the flashlight signal from the beach announcing the departure of the shore party.  He had skillfully, and daringly, guided the Barb within 600 yards of the enemy beach.  There was less than 6 feet of water beneath the sub's keel, but Fluckey wanted to be close in case trouble arose and a daring rescue of his saboteurs became necessary.
 
1:45 A.M.     
The two boats carrying his saboteurs were only halfway back to the Barb when the sub's machine gunner yelled, "CAPTAIN!  Another train coming up the tracks!"  The Commander grabbed a megaphone and yelled through the night, "Paddle like the devil!", knowing full well that they wouldn't reach the Barb before the train hit the microswitch.
 
1:47 A.M.     
The darkness was shattered by brilliant light and the roar of the explosion.  The boilers of the locomotive blew, shattered pieces of the engine blowing 200 feet into the air.  Behind it the cars began to accordion into each other, bursting into flame and adding to the magnificent fireworks display. Five minutes later the saboteurs were lifted to the deck by their exuberant comrades as the Barb turned to slip back to safer waters.  Moving at only two knots, it would be a while before the Barb was into waters deep enough to allow it to submerge. It was a moment to savor, the culmination of teamwork, ingenuity and daring by the Commander and all his crew.  "Lucky"  Fluckey's voice came over the intercom.  "All hands below deck not absolutely needed to maneuver the ship have permission to come topside."  He didn't have to repeat the invitation.  Hatches sprang open as the proud sailors of the Barb gathered on her decks to proudly watch the distant fireworks display. The Barb had "sunk" a Japanese TRAIN!
     On  August 2, 1945 the Barb arrived at Midway, her twelfth war patrol  concluded. Meanwhile United States military commanders had pondered the prospect of an armed assault on the Japanese homeland. Military tacticians estimated such an invasion would cost more than a million  American casualties. Instead of such a costly armed offensive to end the war, on August 6th the B-29 bomber Enola Gay dropped a single atomic bomb on the city of Hiroshima, Japan.  A second such bomb, unleashed 4 days later on Nagasaki, Japan, caused Japan to agree to surrender terms on August 15th. On September 2, 1945 in Tokyo Harbor the documents ending the war in the Pacific were signed.
     The  story of the saboteurs of the U.S.S. Barb is one of those unique, little known stories of World War II.  It becomes increasingly important when one realizes that the 8 sailors who blew up the train at near Kashiho, Japan conducted the ONLY GROUND COMBAT OPERATION on the Japanese "homeland" of World War II.  The eight saboteurs were: (L to R)
    Paul Saunders, William Hatfield, Francis Sever, Lawrence Newland, Edward Klinglesmith, James Richard, John Markuson, and William Walker.
WEBNOTE: 
      Eugene Bennett Fluckey retired  from the Navy as a Rear Admiral, and wears in addition to his Medal of  Honor, FOUR Navy Crosses...a record of awards unmatched by any living  American.  In 1992 his own history of the U.S.S. Barb was published in the award winning book, THUNDER BELOW.  Over the past several years proceeds from the sale of this exciting book have been used by Admiral Fluckey to provide free reunions for the men who served him aboard the Barb, and their  wives. 

Thunder Below a Submarine Story

Everybody rates this book EXCELLENT except for one reviewer on this web site who must be one of those sub skippers who kept his boat under at 60 ft day and night. I've read about 20 WWII submarine books and Gene Fluckey's book about the Barb is one of the best. It's the equal to Dick O'Kane's book on the U.S.S. Tang. Both were outstanding submariners and both later went on to become Admirals. BOTH skippers won the Congressional Medal of Honor, something awarded to only 7 WWII sub skippers out of more than 200, and 4 of the 7 were posthumous. Gene Fluckey was one of those who received the medal for daring and successful action, not for going down with his ship. They don't give the medal out lightly, especially in the United States Navy.

Starring Robert Mitchum and Curt Jurgens and winner of an Academy Award for special effects, this is a study in submarine warfare from both sides of the battle. Mitchum plays the captain of a U.S. destroyer escort caught in a cat-and-mouse game with Jurgens, the honorable and compassionate captain of a German U-boat. And though the two men develop a mutual respect as they pursue one another throughout the North Atlantic, the climax of the chase is both tension-filled and moving. Color, widescreen, Dolby stereo. 1 hr. 38 mins.