Submarine Barb (SS-220)

Barb

Country	United States
Ship Class	Gato-class Submarine
Hull Number	SS-220

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Submarine Barb (SS-220) Interactive Map

Photographs

Two submarines of US Navy Submarine Squadron 50 at Rosneath, Scotland, United Kingdom, circa 7 Dec 1942; sub possibilities were USS Barb, USS Blackfish, USS Herring, USS Shad, USS Gunnel, and USS Gurnard

View of the conning tower of USS Barb, Mare Island Navy Yard, Vallejo, California, United States, 7 May 1945; note USS Sunfish in background

Barb Operational Timeline

20 Jan 1945	USS Barb pursued a Japanese convoy in the Taiwan Strait, but the convoy was able to enter the southern entrance of the Haitan Strait before the submarine could attack. Commander Eugene Fluckey suspected that the Japanese had dredged the previously shallow northern end of the strait for warships to move through, and asked Sino-American Special Technical Cooperative Organization (SACO), which had a wide coastwatcher network in China, for information.
22 Jan 1945	USS Barb, acting on information shared by Sino-American Special Technical Cooperative Organization (SACO), continued to pursue a Japanese convoy up the coast of China. When it entered into a bay near Nanguan Island ("Namkwan harbor") on the southern border of Zhejiang Province, Commander Eugene Fluckey checked in with Sino-American Special Technical Cooperative Organization (SACO), which reported no known minefield.
23 Jan 1945	USS Barb attacked a Japanese convoy near Nanguan Island ("Namkwan harbor"), Zhejiang Province, China at 0405 hours, firing eight torpedoes and recording eight hits. At 1130 hours, Commander Eugene Fluckey sent Sino-American Special Technical Cooperative Organization (SACO) chief Commander Milton Miles a radio message, thanking him for the intelligence about the attack location. In Jun 1991, Fluckey was able to visit the fishing village of Huang Qi where several eyewitnesses of the attack still lived; the Chinese recalled seeing 4 Japanese ships sinking and 3 heavily damaged.
1 Jul 1945	US submarine Barb attacked Japanese positions at Kaihyo Island off Sakhalin with rockets; it was the first American submarine-based rocket attack.
2 Jul 1945	USS Barb launched rockets on Japanese shore installations; she was the first American submarine to fire rockets in combat.
18 Jul 1945	The 3,593-ton Japanese railway passenger ferry Soya Maru departed Wakkanai, Hokkaido, Japan for Odomari (now Korsakov, Russia) carrying over 600 passengers including women and children, escorted by anti-submarine vessel CD-112. As the two ships crossed the mouth of the Magotsue River, the American submarine USS Barb (SS 220) sighted them and fired two and then three torpedoes at the convoy. Of the two torpedoes in the first salvo, one exploded on the nearby shoreline, and the other was seen by lookouts on the Soya Maru heading straight for CD-112. When the torpedo struck CD-112, it set off the depth charges aboard the ship, blowing her apart in a huge explosion. The commanding officer Shunichiro Ishiwatari and 199 of her crew were killed. The ferry went on ahead unharmed.
23 Jul 1945	Men landed by submarine USS Barb destroyed a train in Karafuto, Japan (Kurile Islands).

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Visitor Submitted Comments

1. Anonymous says:
30 May 2013 12:27:17 PM

excelllent biography of captain Barb during this mission is available. E. Fluckery, Google pdf ww2 submarines

2. Augustine Siswanto says:
15 Jun 2018 03:27:39 AM

Needs more comprehensive and detailed about Eugene B Fluckey as well as his heroic operation in Japanese shore

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