Shooting up sampans: it wasn't all that easy
 

...as this report from the Pollack shows:

:arrgh!: :88)

It was a shipment of Balsa :know:


No really I dont know, but they were mostly wood but you wold think after all those rounds it would be driftwood.

Yea, those Sampans seem to be tougher than they look.:yep:

Fluckey's encounter with a large sampan:



"In half an hour, I welcomed Tom back aboard. Nine down, six to go. Backing clear,

we sank her with one 5 inch shell.

These single shots at the waterline from 100 yards saved a lot of ammuntiion."


Excerpt was From the book Thunder Below, page 391 paragraph 7 that was written by Admiral Eugene Fluckey the comander of USS Barb.

Got a bit sidetracked there, eh?

???


Care to elaborate?

Um... the fact that American submarines would surface in coastal areas to sink sampans?

excerpt from Thunder Below p.98
"Since our basic orders were to sweep the seas clean of all fishermen, pickets, weather vessels et cetera, we decided on a gun attack."

Urge

No just Fluckey.

The Barb commander wanted to prove the submarines versatility as a weapon of war. So on the Barb's last war patrol he did.

Shore gun bombardments:

7/02/1945: Kaihyo To Island; new naval radar station, radio station, all buildings, boats, and supplies completely destroyed.

07/25/1945: Chiri cannery completely destroyed.

07/26/1945: Shibetoro lumber mill, sampan building yard, all cradles, and all new sampans destroyed.

Rocket attacks:

First rocket attack by US submarine.

06/22/1945: Factories at Shari.

07/13/1945: Shikuka Air Base.

07/14/1945: Shiritori town and Oji paper factory.

07/25/1945: Kashiho Factories.

Vessels destroyed by ramming:

150 ton trawler.

Fluckey regretted sinking the trawler. He claims he did not think about it untill after he did it. From what he claims he wanted to transfer some fuel to it and take it as a prize to bring back to Pearl.

Destroyed by commando raid:


One train and 16 cars.

Vessels destroyed by gunfire:

Three luggers 69 sampans*

*50 or so sampans were done in when they opened up shore bombardment with 20mm and 40mm only. Apparently they hit the fuel supply.

Torpedo.

3 merchants.

1 frigate.

Fluckey also ended up taking Admiral Lockwood's place after the war. He was a successful sub captain when most were returning to port full of torpedoes complaining they couldn't find anything to shoot at. I think you can use Fluckey as the supreme example of aggressiveness without recklessness. His crew was one of the safest in the fleet. Fluckey was proudest of the fact that in his entire career not one crewmember received the Purple Heart.

That's my kind of commander!

Yup :|\\

In '45, I doubt there were any Japanese merchants left to sink. That explains it.

Yea, almost all of japans merchant fleet was at the bottom of the ocean. I know, I did acouple of 1944-45 patrols in RFB/ the run silent run deep campaign.:lol:

Concerning Fluckey, yeah, he was an "unconventional" skipper in a lot of regards...:up:

[quote=NEON DEON]Thats still one of my favorite storys. "The sub that sank a train !" :p

[quote=SteamWake]It was a convoy! :doh:
:D

Did in by 50 caliber machine gun from the SS168 Nautilus:

"Attack No. 2 39-47 N 142-40 E

Sight 200 ton sampan at 2329 K on September 25, 1942 and manned 50
caliber machine gun. Commenced firing at about 2000 yards using armor
piercing ammunition for 150 rounds. Subsequent ammunition was a special
belt of tracer, ball, incendiary, and armor piercing. Closed range to
200 yards by 0000, September 26, 1942, and strafed entire length of
sampan. At 0015, sampan burst into flames. Observed to sink at 0055."



Some Sampans are tough and some are not. Every attack has story of its own.

As put in by The Nautilus' very next attack.

"Attack No. 3 38-43 N 142-20 E
sighted large sampan of about 500 tons at 2340 K on September 26, 1942,
and manned 50 caliber machine gun. Commenced firing at 2355 and hit
immediately. Sampan maneuvered to avoid. Used ammunition with
incendiary projectiles and started one fire at 0040, September 27, 1942,
but the crew put it out. As there was one projectile remaining in gun 2,
a reduced charge was brought up and that gun unloaded at the sampan.
Projectile made nipper hit on the starboard gunwale. Gun 2 was secured
and gun 1 manned as only the forward ammunition hoist was operative.
Fired three additional rounds and made 2 hits in the superstructure, but
did not set her on fire. Sent men on deck with burning oil soaked rags
and set her afire. At 0217 there was an explosion and sampan sank"

What the heck is a nipper hit?

Shootin sampans is like eatin potato chips, it's hard to stop with just one.

... and they're "salty", too!
:D