I was watching a video about the usa submarine "The Barb". It was a fascinating story about sub commander Fluckey and his crew. They had an Amazing record.....unsurpassed really. Anyway.......in the course of watching, the narrator said that Sub Commanders were transferred to a different branch of the navy after Four "Combat" Patrols. Is that correct.? Am i understanding the video properly.? The narrator said the rationale for the rule was...The navy thought that after patrols, the sub commander would become too cautious or too reckless. Is that right... did sub commanders get yanked after 4 patrols.? Thank You
Depends - as I guess there are German U boat commanders who did many more than 4 - have a check on The U-boat Wars 1939-1945 (Kriegsmarine) and 1914-1918 (Kaiserliche Marine) and Allied Warships of WWII - uboat.net or are you only concerned with USA commanders?? Might need to be a little more specific TD
Like i said.....usa navy...boat named The Barb...commander named Fluckey. Eugene B. Fluckey - Wikipedia So no.....i was not inquiring about The Kriegsmarine
I understand that your post was based on the commander of The Barb, but you went on to say: and it was this point that I was trying to provide some sources for you to investigate further and answer that specific question you raised TD
Interesting numbers, and some of those guys sunk a lot of ships.! Though none claimed a steam locomotive, like Fluckey and the crew of The Barb.
For the RN. Lt Cdr Malcolm David Wanklyn, VC, DSO** commanded HM S/M Upholder for 27 patrols. Malcolm Wanklyn - Wikipedia Tim
The USN did have a reasonable turnover of submarine CO's in the Pacific but I don't know if there was a particular "formula" that they used. Adm Lockwood, the SUBPAC commander from 1943 -45 certainly encouraged his submarine commanders to "take the war to the enemy". In the above list the number of patrols both O'Kane and Morton undertook were limited by enemy action with O'Kane's USS Tang being accidently sunk by one of its own torpedo's which circled back while attacking a convoy in 1944 and Morton's USS Wahoo being lost with all hands in 1943. O'Kane was one of the few to survive the sinking of the Tang and was captured by the Japanese. He survived the war and was ultimately awarded the Medal of Honor after the war once his story became known. You can download PDF copies of most of the USN submarine's patrol reports here: Submarine War Reports
Great source, but... everytime I try to download a Report from the issuu page, it says "The publisher chose not to allow downloads for this publication" Is there a way to download those reports?
Sorry Micheal I should have said "read the reports" rather than "download" them in my first post. Personally I have not downloaded any just read them online so I'm not sure how you may be able to download them. Maybe you can sign up to issuu and save them that way? Cheers Peter
