I read this morning in my paper the obituary of Rear-Admiral Eugene Fluckey on June 28th. This officer was aged 93 when he died and was one of the most highly decorated American submarine commanders of WW2. Clearly a most aggressive skipper, he, amongst other things, formed from his own crew a "commando group" which he landed on Japanese territory and then blew up a section of railway line destroying an enemy freight train. Amongst his many attributes two things require especial mention :- 1. No member of his crew ever qualified for an award of the "Purple Heart", thus meaning, of course, that none sustained wounds. 2. Never one to take the U.S.Navy requirement that it's ships be "dry", he always ensured that his subs. were well stocked with crates of beer at the start of a voyage ! One thing, however, does puzzle me - the obituary states that having fired all of his forward tubes , he then brought his stern tubes to bear and discharged four more torpedoes which obtained "eight hits on six of the main targets". How can this be possible ? BG
Probably he was on deck and personally responsible for the extra hits since the really great skippers were all capable of firing either lightning or torpedos from their arse.
Some submarines had aft torpedo tubes. They could have manuevered around and lined up the stern with the target.
Which is what happened. I've read Fluckey's book accounting his war patrols. Fascinating reading, let me tell you. And another hero departs this life... :cry:
Oh yeah, I was well aware that subs. have stern tubes, but I can't work out how Fluckey fired FOUR fish from them and got EIGHT hits on SIX targets !!?? Mind you, with a name like Eugene Fluckey he'd just have to be Irish so that explains it all..............the luck of the Irish ! Talking about US sub books, there is one called "Combat Patrol" by Clay Blair Junior. I was lucky to get a paperback copy, although I think hardbacks are rarer than rocking horse shit ! Just after I first read it there was a bloody good BBC documentary on the TV about the USS "Pampanito". Knowing I was flying out to San Francisco the following week, I kept the tape I'd recorded it on and went and found the guys who were working on her. They were in a dockside shed. We sparked up their TV and VCR and broke out some cold ones, but all to no avail since it seems your TV/ VCR's don't work on our voltage so we couldn't run that bloody tape !! Jeez, did we get through a few tinctures, though !! The last thing I remember was several hours later being poured into a cab !!! BG
The eight hits on six targets is possible if you factor in ALL of the torpedoes fired, not just the stern tubes, and I believe that that is what the reporter meant. No magical feat here, just a misunderstanding.
Not quite, the US TVs and Videos work on a different format from UK and European ones, I can't remember the designation, but it's in a similar way to the way DVDs will only play in a compatible Region or multi-Region DVD player. Dual Format Video players did exist and were very popular among British servicemen and their families in Germany since you could buy films on Video from the US PXs and BXs long before they were even on release in UK cinemas and for about the price of a cinema ticket.
In Europe PAL-system is used, while in USA is NTSC-system. Wiki-waki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PAL http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NTSC
as a kid i toured pampanito when she ws still tied up at the old usn sub base at mare island ca ..the boat was actualy not open to the public then but a grizzeled old navy cheif took pity on our keen young family and let us go below decks ..when he showed us the bathroom sized officers ward room he rolled his eyes and said " and this is where the officers do what ever it is officers do ..." my dad, then a us army major just back from nam ( but incognito in weekend civies ) winked and smiled at mom ...i intend to take my own 11 year old boy to see her this summer at pier 39 ..but i dont think we will get to board her for free this time , eh bos? ...mare island is civillian now and home to a large paintball combat field among other things ....the old chief has likely joined his brethren in vahalla by now ...god rest all their brave young souls ..