wrote in the book “Silent Victory: The U.S. Telling of the Barb’s attacks on Japanese shipping early in 1945, Clay Blair Jr. 2 behind Commander Fluckey in tonnage destroyed, according to the joint assessment unit, whose post-war findings generally differed from submarine commanders’ reports filed in the aftermath of combat. Richard O’Kane, also a Medal of Honor recipient, ranked No. In September 1944, the Barb sank the 20,000-ton Japanese aircraft carrier Unyo together with an 11,000-ton Japanese tanker in the same torpedo salvo. By his own accounting, he sank 28 ships and took part in a 29th sinking. He was credited by military authorities with sinking 16 Japanese ships and taking part with two other skippers in a 17th sinking, the fourth-highest total among America’s World War II submarine commanders.

According to his own findings, based on his 10 years of post-war research, the Barb sank about 145,000 tons under his command during five extended periods at sea. The Joint Army-Navy Assessment Committee, which provided final, official tallies for World War II submarine attacks, credited him with destroying 95,360 tons of Japanese shipping, the highest total for any American submarine commander.

In addition to receiving the Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest award for valor, he was awarded four Navy Crosses, his service’s second-highest decoration. He was the only American submarine skipper to fire rockets at Japanese targets on shore and he oversaw a sabotage raid in which sailors from his submarine blew up a Japanese train. The skipper of the submarine Barb in the Pacific from April 1944 to August 1945, Commander Fluckey was known for innovative tactics. The cause was complications of Alzheimer’s disease, his daughter, Barbara Bove, said. Fluckey, one of America’s most daring submarine commanders of World War II and a recipient of the Medal of Honor, died Thursday in Annapolis, Md.

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