USS BARB SS-220

USS Barb, SS-220

This post is in response to a suggestion I received from Pat at e-Quips.

In the closing months of World War II, heavy losses and depleted fuel stocks kept many of Japan’s remaining combat aircraft grounded and warships in port, awaiting an anticipated amphibious invasion. Starting in July 1945, Allied battleships embarked on a series of naval bombardments of coastal cities in Japan in an effort to draw these forces out to battle — with little success.

However, a week before the battleships began lobbing their massive shells, a legendary U.S. submarine toting a rocket launcher began its own campaign of coastal terror that foretold the future of naval warfare — and also engaged in the only Allied ground-combat operation on Japanese home-island soil.

Submarines still made use of deck guns during World War II, most of them ranging between three and five inches in caliber. These were used to finish off unarmed merchant ships or sink smaller vessels that could evade torpedoes, but also were occasionally directed to bombard coastal targets, such as in early-war Japanese raids on the coasts of California and Australia.

Capt. Eugene Fluckey of the Gato-class submarine USS Barb volunteered his boat to try out the experimental rocket launcher in 1945.

At the time, the Navy was actually testing the weapon’s viability as an anti-kamikaze weapon, but Fluckey managed to cajole the R&D staff into releasing the Mark 51 in time for his patrol, making the Barb the only rocket-launching submarine of the Navy.

The Barb, which displaced 2,400 tons submerged, was one of the top-scoring Allied submarines of World War II. By the most conservative count, she sank 17 ships totaling 97,000 tons of shipping. Other tallies are considerably higher.

In January 1945, on his fourth patrol as commander of the Barb, Fluckey sneaked his boat into the shallow waters off of Namakwan Harbor off the coast of China and torpedoed six ships before hightailing away, an action that earned him the Medal of Honor.

The Barb set sail from her base in Midway on June 8 loaded with 100 rockets. She arrived off the Japanese home islands on June 20.  At 2:30 a.m. on June 22, Barb surfaced off of the town of Shari in northeastern Hokkaido Island, unleashing a volley of 12 rockets into the slumbering community. She then sailed northward to the coast of Southern Sakhalin Island, then known as the Japanese prefecture of Karafuto. (All of Sakhalin is presently administered by Russia.)

Over the following month, the Barb expended 68 rockets on Shikuka. Shoritori and Kashiho, mostly firing late at night at near-maximum range.

When Japanese seaplanes began hunting the sub during the day, Fluckey retaliated with a volley of rockets aimed at the Shikuka military airfield. The Barb’s guns also destroyed more than three dozen civilian sampans, while her homing torpedoes took out local trawlers, tugboats and a few large merchant ships.

The Barb’s most famous exploit did not involve those weapons.

USS Barb, 1944                                      

Observing trains passing along the Japanese coastline, Fluckey hatched a scheme to dispatch a landing party to blow up one of the trains by burying the Barb’s 55-pound scuttling charge — essentially a self-destruct device — under the tracks. Rather than using a timer, the explosives would be jury-rigged only to blow when the pressure of a passing train completed the circuit, a trick Fluckey likened to a childhood walnut-cracking prank.

A landing party of eight was selected on the basis of their unmarried status and membership in the Boy Scouts. Fluckey believed the scouts would have better pathfinding skills.

At midnight on July 23, the Barb slipped up to within a kilometer of the shore, and a landing party commanded by Lt. William Walke paddled quietly to the beach. While three men took up guard positions — they encountered a sleeping Japanese guard in a watchtower, whom they left unharmed — the other five buried the demolition charge and managed not blow themselves up jury-rigging the detonation circuit.

They were furiously rowing back to the Barb when a second train passed.

Fluckey described what happened next in his autobiography, “Thunder Below!”

“The engine’s boilers blew, wreckage flew two hundred feet in the air in a flash of flame and smoke, cars piled up and rolled off the track in a writhing, twisting mass of wreckage.”

All 61 train cars derailed, killing 150 passengers. The Barb’s crew added a train to the tally of enemy ships sunk on their battle flag. Her landing party had just performed what would be the only U.S. ground operation on the Japanese home islands during World War II.

Crew of the Barb, 1945, w/ battle flag

The Barb’s raids on the Japanese coast — and even those performed by Allied battleships — were premised on the Japanese military’s inability, by 1945, to effectively defend the home-island coastlines, which included a lack of coastal-defense guns.

While the rockets the Barb employed appear to have been effective, it’s not clear that they were superior to having another deck gun. But within a decade of the Barb’s last mission, new rocket-based technologies in the form of guided cruise and ballistic missiles drastically reduced the relevance of big guns on warships or coastal defenses. The new weapons could be launched by a submerged submarine a long distance from the shore, safe from immediate retaliation.

The Barb’s month-long seaside rampage will remain a unique incident for some time to come.

Fellow blogger, Lee Austin wrote an outstanding poem for the USS Barb…

https://mypoetrythatrhymes.wordpress.com/2020/07/

Youtube has the 26 min. TV episode dedicated to the Barb…

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Military Humor – 

SIGN reads: “SECURE! Sanitation tanks under pressure!

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Farewell Salutes – 

Al Cantello – Norristown, PA; USMC  /  US Naval Academy, Coach (Ret. 50 y.)

Christopher J. Chambers – MD & Westfield, MA; US Navy, Somalia, SEAL, Special Warfare 1st Class, KIA

Remembering

Roger H.C. Donlon – Leavenworth, KS; US Army, Vietnam, Special Forces Team A-726, Captain, Purple Heart, Medal of Honor

Evan S. Huettl – USA; US Army, Specialist, 1/5/1/11th Airborne Division

Nathan G. Ingram – TX; US Navy, Somalia, SEAL, Special Warfare 2nd Class, KIA

Joseph Lynch – Glen Cove, NY; US Army, 511/11th Airborne Division

Charles Osgood – NYC, NY; US Army, US Army Band & Chorus  /  radio & TV announcer

Oliver N. Price – Kearns, UT; US Army, Korea, 187/11th Airborne Division, Purple Heart

Gene F. Walker – Richmond, IN; US Army, WWII, 2nd LT., tank Comdr., Co H/3/32/ 3rd Armored Division, KIA (Hüchein, GER)

Michelle Young – Prescott, AZ; US Arizona Army National Guard, SSgt.

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Edward “Butch” O’Hare

Butch O’Hare, Feb. 1942

On Feb. 20, 1942, the flattop Lexington was steaming toward the Japanese base at Rabaul, Papua New Guinea, when it was approached by two enemy flying boats. Their crews managed to signal its coordinates before American fighters flamed the planes, and the Japanese immediately launched an attack against Lexington.

That chance encounter had dire implications for the U.S., which couldn’t afford the loss of a single ship and certainly not a carrier.

American radar picked up two waves of Japanese aircraft. Mitsubishi G4M1 “Betty” bombers—good planes with experienced pilots.

Six American fighters led by legendary pilot Jimmy Thach intercepted one formation, breaking it up and downing most of the Bettys.

The second wave, however, approached from another direction almost unopposed.

Almost.

Two American fighters were close enough to intercept the second flight of eight bombers. The Navy pilots flew Grumman F4F-3 Wildcats, which like most American planes were practically obsolete at the time, certainly inferior to the best Japanese aircraft.

At this point in the war, the Navy had to rely on the men who flew them.

Lt. O’Hare, 1942

As the Japanese bombers dove from 15,000 feet, the guns jammed on one of the Wildcats, leaving Lexington’s fate in the hands of one young American aviator. Lt. Butch O’Hare —who’d been aboard Saratoga when she was torpedoed—had only enough .50- caliber ammunition for about 34 seconds of sustained firing.

And the Bettys were mounted with rear-facing 20mm cannons, a daunting defense.  O’Hare’s aircraft may have been inferior, but his gunnery was excellent.  Diving on the Japanese formation at an angle called for “deflection” shooting, but Thach had taught his men how to lead a target.

Betty bomber, Lt.Comdr. Takuzo Ito,

O’Hare flamed one Betty on his first pass, then came back in from the other side, picked out another and bored in.

Still too far away to help, Thach observed three flaming Japanese planes in the air at one time.

By the end of the action, O’Hare had downed five of the attacking Japanese planes and damaged a sixth, approaching close enough to Lexington that some of its gunners had fired on him.

After landing on the carrier, he approached one sailor and said, “Son, if you don’t stop shooting at me when I’ve got my wheels down, I’m going to report you to the gunnery officer.”

Thach estimated that O’Hare had used a mere 60 rounds for each plane he destroyed. It’s hard to say which was more extraordinary—his courage or his aim. Regardless, he had saved his ship.

Rita O’Hare puts Medal of Honor on her husband.

On April 21, 1942, at a White House ceremony, Rita O’Hare draped the Medal of Honor around her husband’s neck as President Franklin Roosevelt looked on.  Roosevelt promoted the pilot to lieutenant commander.

Later in the war, Butch O’Hare was killed off Tarawa while flying a pioneering night intercept against attacking Japanese torpedo planes —an exceedingly dangerous mission, employing tactics that were in their infancy.

He had volunteered. Aviators throughout the fleet reacted with disbelief at the news that Butch O’Hare was dead.

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There is a surprising footnote to the story.

“O’Hare” resonates with Americans today for the airport in Chicago that bears his name.  An area of the airport tributes the aviator with a display to educate visitors.

part of the O’Hare display.

Ironically, O’Hare’s father had been an associate of Al Capone. On Nov. 8, 1939, “Easy Eddie” O’Hare was gunned down a week before Capone was released from prison, supposedly for helping the government make its case against his former boss.

“easy” Eddie with Al Capone.

His son, Butch, was in flight training at the time, learning the skills he would put to use little more than two years later in the South Pacific.

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Military Humor –  (For  Aviators)

A HAIRY SITUATION

“AND ON A WINDY DAY, OH MY!”

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Farewell Salutes –

Palmer Andrews – Los Angeles, CA; USMC, WWII, PTO, Pfc., I Co/3/5/1st Marine Division, Purple Heart / US Air Force Reserves

Richard Brinker – St. Clair, MI; US Army, WWII, PTO

One flag for every American every day.
Courtesy of Dan Antion

Myrtle Council – Shillington, PA; US Navy WAVES, WWII

Frank J. DiPiazza – Madison, WI; US Army, WWII, ETO, 42nd Infantry Division

Robert Gaylor – Bellevue, IA; US Air Force, Vietnam / SAC, NCO Academy / 5th Chief Master Sgt. / Chief of Staff of the USAF

John A. Hutton (101) – Wichita, KS; US Army Air Corps, WWII, ETO, 2nd LT., navigator, POW

Kyle Ronald Johnson – Zanesville, OH; US Army, 101th Airborne Division, Afghanistan

Samuel ‘Tickie’ Kleindorf – New Orleans, LA; US Army, Korea, 187th RCT

Frank A. Micara (100) – Brooklyn, NY; US Navy, WWII, Korea & Cuban Missile Crisis, Comdr. (Ret. 29 y.), USS Alabama & USS New Jersey

John O’Rourke – Albany, NY; US Navy, WWII, PTO, USS Roamer & USS Mount Vernon

George F. Petty – Tupelo, MS; US Army Air Corps, WWII

Virginia Spugani – Rahway, NJ; Civilian, WWII, Newark Army Base

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How America Got Into Gear – Post WWII

In late 1940 for the United States to serve as the “arsenal of democracy,” American industry had stepped up to meet the challenge. U.S. factories built to mass-produce automobiles had retooled to churn out airplanes, engines, guns and other supplies at unprecedented rates. At the peak of its war effort, in late 1943 and early 1944, the United States was manufacturing almost as many munitions as all of its allies and enemies combined.

On the home front, the massive mobilization effort during World War II had put Americans back to work. Unemployment, which had reached 25 percent during the Great Depression and hovered at 14.6 percent in 1939, had dropped to 1.2 % by 1944 — still a record low in the nation’s history.

Bendix ad, 1947

With the war wrapping up, and millions of men and women in uniform scheduled to return home, the nation’s military-focused economy wasn’t necessarily prepared to welcome them back. As Arthur Herman wrote in his book, Freedom’s Forge: How American Business Produced Victory in World War II, U.S. businesses at the time were still “geared around producing tanks and planes, not clapboard houses and refrigerators.”

Veterans had no trouble finding jobs, according to Herman. U.S. factories that had proven so essential to the war effort quickly mobilized for peacetime, rising to meet the needs of consumers who had been encouraged to save up their money in preparation for just such a post-war boom.

With the war finally over, American consumers were eager to spend their money, on everything from big-ticket items like homes, cars and furniture to appliances, clothing, shoes and everything else in between. U.S. factories answered their call, beginning with the automobile industry. New car sales quadrupled between 1945 and 1955, and by the end of the 1950s some 75 % of American households owned at least one car. In 1965, the nation’s automobile industry reached its peak, producing 11.1 million new cars, trucks and buses and accounting for one out of every six American jobs.

Levittown, NY, 1947

Residential construction companies also mobilized to capitalize on a similar surge in housing demand, as Federal Housing Administration (FHA) loans and the GI Bill gave many (but not all) returning veterans the ability to buy a home. Companies like Levitt & Son, based in New York, found success applying the mass-production techniques of the auto industry to home building. Between 1946 and the early 1960s, Levitt & Son built three residential communities (including more than 17,000 homes), finishing as many as 30 houses per day.

Studebaker, 1946

New home buyers needed appliances to fill those homes, and companies like Frigidaire (a division of General Motors) responded to that need. During the war, Frigidaire’s assembly lines had transitioned to building machine guns and B-29 propeller assemblies. After the war, the brand expanded its home appliance business, introducing revolutionary products like clothes washers and dryers, dishwashers and garbage disposals.

Frigidaire, 1946

Driven by growing consumer demand, as well as the continuing expansion of the military-industrial complex as the Cold War ramped up, the United States reached new heights of prosperity in the years after World War II.

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Military Humor – Home Front style

“I understand you’ve been riveting in you name and address.”

“Housing shortage or no housing shortage – that’s going too far!”

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Farewell Salutes – 

Stephen Bastian – Basking Ridge, NJ; US Air Force, Lt. Colonel (Ret. 35 y.), pilot

Raymond P. Casatelli (100) – Utica, NY; US Army, WWII, ETO

Land of the Free, because of people like these

Byron Davis (100) – Pitsburg, OH; US Navy, WWII

James A. Ehrsam – La Crosse, WI; US Navy, WWII, PTO, USS Block Island

Russell D. Gula – Dallas, PA; USMC, Vietnam

Nicholas X. Karay Sr. (100) – Detroit, MI; US Army, WWII, ETO

Raymond La Flair – Ogdensburg, NY; US Army, Japanese Occupation

Pearl M. Patterson (102) – Hastings, MI; Civilian, WWII, Willow Run bomber plant

Judith (Scalph) Rich – Scotts Bluff, NE; US Army Women’s Army Air Corps, WWII, medic

Helen L. Uznanski (1oo) – Meridian, CT; Civilian, WWII, made military field telephones

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Army Corps of Engineers in Post-WWII Japan

Tanks at water purification station run by 323rd engineers/98th Division, Osaka, 1945

Under the terms of surrender that ended World War II, Japan fell under Allied occupation. U.S. Army engineers faced a daunting challenge in constructing facilities for the occupation forces and rebuilding the vanquished nation’s infrastructure. The immediate postwar standard of living in Japan had sunk to subsistence levels and U.S. Army Air Force bombing raids destroyed much of the nation’s industrial base. Roadways originally were designed for light vehicle traffic and frequently were unsurfaced, and railroads often were of differing gauges. Unskilled labor was plentiful but craftsmen were scarce. Sewage systems were nonexistent. To complicate matters, at the occupation’s outset, Japanese construction firms were not considered financially sound nor did they operate with bonding or insurance.

Under the Far East Command—the ruling authority in occupied Japan—the Supreme Commander for Allied Powers created an engineer district equivalent, the Army Construction Agency, Japan, to accomplish all project work, with project review performed by the Army Forces Pacific theater engineer. However, the engineering support for the occupation was the responsibility of engineers from the U.S. Eighth Army, the Sixth Army Engineers out of Kyushu, and elements of the 5th Air Force Engineers. Additionally, to overcome a shortage of engineer troops, indigenous labor gangs were organized.

872nd Airborne Engineers repair Atsugi Airdrome runway, 1945

The intact Japanese civil government bore the financial responsibility for infrastructure reconstruction, including military programs. American area commanders funded projects by levying requisitions known as procurement demands on local Japanese administrations. After some abuses arose, the commanders lost their ability to make such requisitions. Instead all requirements were processed through General Headquarters. Eventually, the Japanese government, using Termination of War funds, was able to procure its own construction contractors. All were Japanese companies either created or expanded in response to the building requirements.

The centerpiece of the U.S. reconstruction effort in Japan was the base-building program to construct facilities supporting the occupation forces that at the same time would have joint-use applications. While in the early part of the occupation the U.S. military engaged in or supervised the Japanese in humanitarian and related civilian activities, the bulk of the engineering projects it performed involved converting existing facilities for the Eighth Army and other military units. Housing, hospitals, airfields, and administrative and operational structures were provided for American garrison divisions by rehabilitating former Imperial Army military camps. Many Japanese housing units were converted to house Americans and their dependents.

Quonset Hut – originally barracks for the 736th Engineers, reused as office space for the 598th Engineer base, 1947

Other than some prefabricated buildings and petroleum tanks, building materials came from the local economy. In all, 15,000 dependent housing units were built or converted. Furthermore, former Japanese military ports and industrial plants became not only U.S. Army depots and logistics staging areas but also dual-use facilities. Repair and utilities support to all installations was funneled through regional post engineers, under whom utilities detachments and technicians resided. Because of the lack of civilian-operated heavy earth-moving equipment, engineer units performed all earthworks. By 1950, Army engineers had carried out total construction valued at more than $400 million.

With the outbreak of the Korean War in June 1950, a new and extensive construction support program had a direct effect on Japan’s rehabilitation. Procurement totaled nearly $1 billion annually by 1953 and involved contracts with 3,000 Japanese firms. By the end of 1951 the Japanese were able to negotiate an end to Allied occupation.

598th Engineers supply division at Yokohama, 1948

U.S. forces remained in Japan. This agreement began the permanent base construction that has continued with the establishment of the Far East District in 1957 and the Japan Engineer District in 1972. The work of Army engineers, although begun in the wake of a war with such terrible devastation, in large measure contributed to the rise of a former enemy as both an advanced, democratic nation and a stable bulwark for American interests in the wider region. This effort lives on in the continued cooperation among uniformed and civilian employees of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, its contractors, other U.S. agencies abroad, local nationals, and the host government.

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Military Engineer Humor – 

“I don’t care if they are biting…back to work!”

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Farewell Salutes – 

Christafula Andriopoulos – Bennington, VT, Civilian, WWII, Red Cross Blue Lady

Richard C. Bradley – Madison, WI; US Navy, WWII, Manhattan Project, Oak Ridge, TN

Howard W. Camp – Xenia, OH; US Army, Korea, Co L/19/24th Infantry Division, Purple Heart

Elizabeth Chabala (102) – Summit Hill, PA; US Army WAC, WWII, PTO, 1st Lt, 13th Station Hospital, Australia

Nicholas Dural – Lafayette, LA, USMC, LCpl., Congo, US Embassy Security unit

George A. Geer – Leavenworth, KS; US Army Air Corps, WWII, Pfc.

Dale Hicks – Marshalltown, IA; US Navy, WWII & Korea, Petty Officer 1st Class

Mary B. Klimcak (100) – Chelsea, MA; Civilian, WWII, warship welder

Mike Sadler (103) – Kensington, UK; Rhodesian Army, WWII, MI6 desert navigator for SAS & LRDG

Gordon Sullivan – Boston, MA; US Army, Vietnam, Bronze Star, Purple Heart/ Army Chief of Staff, General (Ret. 36 y.)

Arlie D. Wood – Lawton, OK; US Navy, WWII

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ENJOY YOUR MONDAY!!

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New Years 2024

TO ALL MY FRIENDS, READERS AND CASUAL VISITORS; LET’S MAKE 2024 THE BEST YET!!

HOW THE MILITARY SPENDS NEW YEARS

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TO ALL…

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 Civilian New Year Humor –

“Happy New Year? I’m not through with the old one yet!”

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Farewell Salutes – 

Lawrence C. Baldwin – Washington D.C. – US Navy, Japanese Occupation, US Naval Academy, Comdr. (Ret. 20 y.), test pilot

Opal C. Cecil – Huntington, WV; Civilian, WWII, assorted “Rosie the Riveter” jobs

Clifton Goldner – Nashville, TN; US Army, WWII, ETO

Fred S. Greenfield (aka Shecky Greene) – Chicago, IL; US Navy, WWII  /  comedian-actor

Russell Hamler – Pittsburgh, PA; US Army, WWII, CBI, 5307th Composite Unit, last of the “Merrill’s Marauders”, Bronze Star, Purple Heart

Patricia A. Kincannon – Spokane, WA; US Army WAC, WWII, ETO, nurse

Russell Lisson – Rochester, NY; USMC, WWII, PTO

Philip L. Peoples – Bend, OR; US Army Air Corps, WWII  /  Boeing Aircraft

James H. Russell – Sagerville, ME; US Navy, WWII, Seaman 1st Class

Günther “Guy” Stern (101) – Hanover, GER, US Army, WWII, ETO, the “Richie Boys”, interrogator, Bronze Star

Nicholas Van Pelt – Ringold, GA; ND National Guard, MSgt., 219th Security Forces

John S. Waller Sr. – Lynchburg, VA; US Army, WWII, ETO, 66th Infantry Battalion

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MONDAY IS NEW YEARS – COINCIDENCE??

A New Year?  Yikes!