Talk:USS Barb (SS-220)

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I can find no evidence for "barb" as a type of "kingfish", but the Atlantic coast ref suggests a no-longer-common name for Menticirrhus. Stan 06:13, 7 Sep 2004 (UTC)

Looks fishy to me, too, so I linked it to an article I found on Wikipedia. --the Epopt 13:15, 7 Sep 2004 (UTC)

:-) What we need is a 1940s book on fishing - even at 193,000+ common names, FishBase is still known to be incomplete! Stan 13:41, 7 Sep 2004 (UTC)

Most tonnage[edit]

While I am willing to believe that a photograph exists that has a handwritten note saying “The Submarine that sank the most tonnage by Japanese Records”, I think that having that claim in a caption at the top of the article is potentially misleading. I had thought that traditionally, the USS Flasher was considered to have sunk the most tonnage, and the USS Barb was considered to have sunk the most ships. If there are alternate accounting methods which produce different winners, a detailed explaination may be appropriate, but presenting such a claim without its context does not seem consistent with Wikipedia's neutral point of view policies. JNW2 (talk) 05:22, 2 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Fluckey's book says it's a 4-inch gun[edit]

The article says it's 76mm. But the book by the skipper says it's a 4-inch gun.

WallySouthWest (talk) 03:14, 12 June 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Page 38 of Flucky's book says 4", navesource.org states 3"/50, barbreunion2007.us states 4"/50. collectair.com states 5"/25. The photos on navesource show the gun initially forward facing then stern facing after the Mare Island overhaul. I think the 3" was replaced with a 4" or, maybe a 4" replaced with a 5"? Is it really a 4"/50? That would mean the barrel is 16.7' long. Jim1138 (talk) 09:16, 12 June 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Two of the sources stopped working in the meantime. I think we can trust the captain to know the size of the gun. I guess the Barb was built with the 3" and got the 4" at some point. --Trublu (talk) 17:20, 23 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]

I've kept reading and found a better quote that explains some of this. In March 1945 USS Barb was in Mare Island for an overhaul and Flukey states: "The Barb now had a 5-inch gun aft of the conning tower in place of the 4-inch gun forward". This means to me that Barb had 3-inch, 4-inch and 5-inch guns at different points in their career. --Trublu (talk) 20:08, 23 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

If Karafuto is a home island, then so is Okinawa[edit]

This article appears to reference the Fluckey book to say that the ground attack on Karafuto was the only attack of the war on the Japanese "home islands". But how was Karafuto (Sakhalin Island) a "home island" but Okinawa was not? This is ridiculous. The "home islands" were and are Honshu, Kyushu, Shikoku and Hokkaido, not Sakhalin. If anything, Okinawa was more of a "home island" than Sakhalin, since Okinawa was a "ken" (prefecture), and Karafuto was a "cho". It is wrong for the ignorance of Fluckey's book to reappear in this article. --Westwind273 (talk) 05:02, 16 August 2012 (UTC)[reply]

If there is no objection, I will remove the sentence. --Westwind273 (talk) 07:10, 18 August 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Propulsion[edit]

Under the boat's stats its propulsion is listed as "16-248" GM Diesel engines. My recollection may be a bit hazy, but I believe those engines would have been 16V-567 models, rated at 1350 horsepower each. Would someone please verify that?

38.69.12.6 (talk) 20:47, 6 January 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Train[edit]

How many civilians were murdered, when the train was blown up? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 94.220.88.113 (talk) 08:31, 31 August 2017 (UTC)[reply]

None at all. This was a legitimate wartime operation against an enemy target - people were killed, not "murdered." — Preceding unsigned comment added by 50.111.25.210 (talk) 13:07, 23 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]

According to Fluckey, who interviewed a prisoner who had read about the attack in the newspaper, 150 people were killed in the attack on the train.

Obviously that isn't the most reliable source, given that the newspaper, the prisoner, or Fluckey's memory may have been incorrect, but its probably the only source you'll find that is easily accessible in English. 162.239.64.227 (talk) 10:47, 26 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]