Rear Adm. Eugene Fluckey, one of the greatest naval heroes of World War II and who was awarded the Medal of Honor and four Navy Crosses for his daring submarine attacks on Japanese shipping, died June 28 at Anne Arundel Medical Center in Maryland. He was 93 and had Alzheimer’s disease.
Fluckey, who was born and raised in Washington, was a pioneer of submarine warfare and among the most highly decorated veterans from any branch of the military.
In 1944 and 1945, as commander of the USS Barb, he became a Navy legend for his nighttime raids that sank dozens of enemy ships along the east coast of China. His bold forays were complicated by continual barrages from Japanese airplanes and boats and by shallow waters that often forced him to bring his submarine to the surface. He sometimes came so close to shore that his men were able to launch sabotage missions on land.
“A naval epic”
On Jan. 25, 1945, Fluckey embarked on what Navy officials, seldom given to hyperbole, called “virtually a suicide mission – a naval epic.”
In “an exceptional feat of brilliant deduction and bold tracking,” in the words of his Medal of Honor citation, Fluckey found more than 30 Japanese vessels lurking in a concealed harbor protected by mines and rocky shoals.
Evading a cordon of armed escort boats, the Barb slipped into the harbor on a moonless, cloudy night and scored eight direct torpedo hits on six large ships. One of them was an ammunition vessel, which exploded and caused “inestimable damage by the resultant flying shells and other pyrotechnics,” according to the Medal of Honor citation.
As Fluckey watched from the bridge of his submarine, The Washington Post reported in 1945, “Japanese ships were erupting in the night like a nest of volcanoes.”
On other occasions, Fluckey maneuvered his submarine so close to shore that he could bombard coastal installations with torpedoes and guns. On its final patrol in 1945, the Barb became the first U.S. sub equipped with ballistic missiles.
Another first during war
One time, Fluckey selected eight commandos from his crew to paddle ashore in rubber boats and place a 55-pound bomb under railroad ties on the northern Japanese island then called Karafuto. As the men were rowing back to the Barb in darkness, the pressure- sensitive charge blew up a 16-car troop train. It was the only time in World War II that U.S. forces set foot on the soil of the Japanese home islands.
Fluckey and his 80-man crew were credited with sinking 29 ships, including an aircraft carrier, destroyer and cruiser. He destroyed more gross tonnage than any other submarine commander. For his wartime exploits, he became known as “Lucky Fluckey” and the “Galloping Ghost of the China Coast.”
In addition to the Medal of Honor and Navy Crosses (second only to the Medal of Honor), Fluckey received the Distinguished Service Medal, the Legion of Merit and a host of lesser decorations.
His greatest achievement, he often said, was that no one under his command ever received another well-known medal: the Purple Heart.
