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     USS BARB (SS 220) vs JAPANESE TROOP TRAIN

                     

Night after night as USS BARB patrolled off the Japanese Home Islands, Commander GENE FLUCKEY saw a troop train making its way along the seacoast to the port, bringing fresh troops to be sent against American marines and soldiers in the hard-fought island campaign.  FLUCKEY decided to stop the train!

He designed a pressure switch that would detonate the explosive charge when the train rolled over it.  the eight men he picked to place the charge under the bridge ashore were all former Boy Scouts.  FLUCKEY reasoned that they would be able to take care of themselves in the event they had to be left behind.  As USS BARB lay a mere 600 yards off the coast, the eight men paddled ashore in two rubber rafts with their deadly cargo.  This was the first - and ONLY - time that American military men set foot on the Japanese Home Islands in World War II.

The rafts were halfway back to BARB when the train came by and was blown sky-high!  The men in the rafts saw pieces of the locomotive fly high in the night sky.  Boilers blew, train cars started on fire and military vehicles with screaming sirens raced along the coast highway.

This event is depicted by artist RAINER HANXLEDEN.  All 1,000 prints are hand-signed by Rear Admiral FLUCKEY who, with a Congressional Medal of Honor, four Navy Crosses and too many other awards and medals to name, is the most highly decorated American submariner ever in history.

Print size is the popular 18 x 24 inches.

     Print H     Only $125     (plus $10 shipping)

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