9 March 2025: Once again, we (most of the United States) went through the sleep depriving exercise of setting our clocks ahead one hour for ... well, not so sure these days. Used to be for the farmers, but now folks generally think it's a waste of time [pun intended!]. And with a look back in naval history, we have the story of the USS Barb, an American submarine which made her mark during WWII. From National Interest.org.
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Barb and her gonzo CO were a problem for America’s enemies—and a much-needed solution for the United States.
When one reads about the exploits of the World War II-era Gato-class United States Navy submarine, USS Barb (SS-220), one almost sits in disbelief that any Navy crew pulled off the kind of missions they did. But this is a matter of record.
The Barb, once dubbed “The Galloping Ghost of the China Coast,” was a product of her unorthodox skipper, Commander Eugene “Lucky” Fluckey. Over the course of the war, Barb conducted twelve wartime patrols and amassed a record that stands out even today among the US Navy’s submarine service. The sub is credited with having sunk a whopping 17 enemy vessels, totaling 96,628 tons, including the Imperial Japanese Navy aircraft carrier Ur’yō. Indeed, most historians assess that the USS Barb’s contributions to the Pacific Theater of WWII were by themselves critical to the overall American victory in the Pacific.
The Gato-class Specs
Gato-class submarines were a mainstay of the U.S. Navy in the Pacific. They were diesel-electric submarines that displaced approximately 1,525 tons when surfaced and 2,424 tons when submerged. Their surface speed reached around 23 miles per hour, and their speed undersea was about ten miles per hour. They had a range of around 11,000 nautical miles (12,658 land miles). Their maximum depth ranged between 300 and 400 feet. The Gato-class submarine had a crew complement of 6 officers and 54 enlisted, although this number could vary because of the war.
In terms of armaments, the Gato-class had 10 21-inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes—six forward, four aft—and a total of 24 torpedoes aboard. These subs also came equipped with one three-inch (76 mm)/.50 caliber deck gun, and four .50-caliber machine guns. They could also come with two 20mm Oerlikon cannons for anti-aircraft defense.
As for what made this submarine go, she had four General Motors Model 16-278A V16 diesel engines driving electrical generators. There were two 126-cell batteries onboard, powering four high-speed General Electric motors with reduction gears to spin a pair of propellers.
Lucky Fluckey
Commander Fluckey was the real brains behind the Barb. During his time in command of the submarine, Fluckey devised innovative hit-and-run tactics to use against the Japanese that kept them reeling. Many of the tactics that Fluckey employed aboard the Barb were so great that they became part of the Navy’s submarine training repertoire (and, moreover, the stuff of legend). The Barb has numerous claims to fame, but one that stood out for the rest of Commander Fluckey’s life was what he claimed was the first ballistic missiles ever being fired from the USS Barb. Their target was a group of Japanese factories that were successfully destroyed by the attack.
For kicks, Fluckey deployed a group of American saboteurs ashore on Sakhalin Island, where they blew up a 16-car freight train. From that point on, Barb has held the high honor of being the only submarine in history to “sink” a train. The mission involved landing a team of volunteers on the Japanese-held island, where the saboteurs placed explosive charges under a railway track. These charges were triggered by the weight of an oncoming train, derailing it in a truly spectacular fashion and adding to Fluckey and Barb’s fame.
And according to legend, Barb secreted herself into the notoriously shallow water of the Japanese-held Chinese Namkwan Harbor and, in the dead of night, let loose ten torpedoes, eight of which scored direct hits that sank three Japanese ships and gravely damaged another three. Barb then ripped out of the shallow harbor at her full surface speed, evading incensed Japanese defenders, and earning for herself the nickname “The Galloping Ghost of the China Coast.”
This action merely lived up to Captain Fluckey’s personal motto which read, “We don’t have problems, just solutions.” Indeed, Barb and her gonzo CO were a problem for America’s enemies—and a much-needed solution for the United States. Barb’s memory is so important the Navy announced that one of its new Virginia-class submarines will be named as the USS Barb.
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How about that for a "sea story" friends! As an interesting [ed: to us] sidebar, one of the US Navy Destroyers on which your scribe served during the conflict in Southeast Asia in the '60's earned the nickname "galloping ghost of the Vietnam coast" as we frequently turned up with guns blazing in widely separated locales.
See you next time,
Fair Winds,
Old Salt
