How a Submarine 'Sank' a Train
Snotnose writes:
In one of the odder stories from WWII, a submarine destroyed a train.
In August 1945, eight members of the crew of the USS Barb posed for a photo at Pearl Harbor holding up the submarine's battle flag. The different patches on the flag represented the boat's myriad accomplishments over 12 patrols in both the Atlantic and Pacific theaters. Seventeen ships sunk, a Presidential Unit Citation awarded following its 11th patrol, and the Medal of Honor was awarded to the ship's captain, Cmdr. Eugene Fluckey. But, most unusual, the flag also featured a kill marking for a train. Yes, a train.
[...] In the Sea of Okhotsk, Fluckey and the crew observed the rail line. After several days, Fluckey and the chief of the boat, a 26-year-old sailor named Paul Golden "Swish" Saunders, devised a plan. Saunders was the most experienced submariner aboard - he had joined the Navy when he was 17 and had served on the USS Barb since it was commissioned, sailing from the coast of North Africa to the North Pacific, for all of the submarine's 12 patrols.
[...] The USS Barb returned from its final patrol to Midway Island on Aug. 2, 1945, one of the most decorated U.S. Navy submarines of the war, and also the only submarine to have ever sunk a train.
You weren't expecting spoilers were you? JR.
Read more of this story at SoylentNews.