The submarine that sank a train: the U.S.S. Barb [8:28]

YouTube ^ | May 18, 2017 | The History Guy: History Deserves to Be Remembered

[SunkenCiv]

The submarine that sank a train: the U.S.S. Barb | 8:28 
The History Guy: History Deserves to Be Remembered | 1.57M subscribers | 663,144 views | May 18, 2017

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TOPICS: History; Science; Travel
KEYWORDS: edwardheimberger; eugenebfluckey; godsgravesglyphs; japan; luckyfluckey; pacificwar; tarawa; ussbarb; worldwareleven; wwii

[UB355]

Interesting observation. My granddaughter graduated from the US Naval Academy and decided of all things to be a submariner. she is 2/3 thru her 18-month training at Groton and Charlston. WE are very proud of her

[Az Joe]

While I could not imagine having women on board back in the ‘70s..I wish her well. It’s a unique fellowship

[TalBlack]

“ …the USS Barb sank more tonnage of Japanese ships than any other US submarine of the war. “

At this point we were using the Mark what torpedo? Or was this guy really lucky? He must have been hitting what he aimed at. How many torpedoes did they go out with?

[TalBlack]

“…when US torpedoes were having troubles with their detonators, he and his crew dismantled the detonators on all of their torpedoes and rebuilt them using stronger springs,…”

Ok I knew something was up.

I wonder how many he had to put into that aircraft carrier?

[ProtectOurFreedom]

The Mark IV had several simultaneous problems...

The WWII torpedo unreliability problem in the Pacific Theater, particularly with the U.S. Navy’s Mark 14 torpedo, stemmed from multiple issues: faulty magnetic exploders, incorrect depth settings, and unreliable contact detonators. Stronger springs in the contact detonators could have addressed one specific issue but not the full scope of the problem.The Mark 14’s contact detonator (Mark 6 exploder) often failed to trigger on direct hits due to weak springs and poor design, causing the firing pin to jam or not strike with enough force. Stronger springs might have improved the reliability of the contact mechanism by ensuring the firing pin moved with sufficient force to detonate the warhead.

However, this alone wouldn’t solve the other major issues:
Magnetic Exploder Failures: The Mark 6 magnetic exploder was designed to detonate under a ship’s hull but was overly sensitive to Earth’s magnetic field variations, often causing premature or no detonation. Stronger springs wouldn’t address this.

Depth Control Issues: The Mark 14 often ran deeper than set, missing targets. This was due to faulty depth regulators, not detonator springs.

Testing and Bureaucracy: The Navy’s Bureau of Ordnance (BuOrd) resisted acknowledging these flaws due to inadequate pre-war testing and institutional inertia. Even with stronger springs, systemic delays in addressing all issues would likely persist.

Historical fixes, implemented by 1943, included deactivating the magnetic exploder, recalibrating depth mechanisms, and redesigning the contact detonator with improved materials and mechanisms (not just springs). Data from 1941–1943 shows the Mark 14’s failure rate dropped from ~70% to under 20% after these corrections.In short, stronger springs could have helped the contact detonator issue but wouldn’t have been a complete fix for the Mark 14’s multifaceted problems. Comprehensive testing and redesign, as eventually done, were necessary.

[TalBlack]

Thanks. I’d read up on this years ago but couldn’t pull it all up. An aggressive guy who did the best he could with what he had.

[SunkenCiv]

Ten tubes, but not sure how many they carried.

[SunkenCiv]

• USS Harder: Legendary U.S. World War II submarine located 3,000 feet underwater off the Philippines [05/24/2024]
• Wreck of US submarine that 'sank the most Japanese warships' during WWII is found in South China Sea [05/24/2024]

[FreedomPoster]

Precisely.

[Flag_This]

I saw a Japanese submarine sink an American Ferris wheel in “1941.”

[ProtectOurFreedom]

It’s one of the most remarkable WW II storied I’ve read. What an amazing commander.

[SunkenCiv]

😊

[NorthMountain]

[FreedomPoster]

Compared to Okinawa, Iwo Jima is a fly speck on the map.

[SunkenCiv]

One more sidebar, the USS Archerfish:

1 US Sub Sinks a Japanese Supercarrier - Sinking of Shinano Documentary
16:44
Historigraph
490K subscribers
10,858,470 views
December 23, 2022

This is the extraordinary story of how a single US submarine, skippered by a then unremarkable captain sank a Japanese supercarrier single-handed, instantly becoming the most successful US submarine patrol of the entire war by tonnage sunk.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Lgc_NtwApQ

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e2/USS_Archerfish%3B0831110.jpg
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1e/Shinano_photo.jpg