Operation Barney: Japan Called It Their 'Protected Lake' Until 9 U.S. Subs Sank 28 Ships in 15 Days

🔥 If you want to dive deeper into this story, here are the books and resources I used to research this episode:

1. "Blind Man's Bluff" by Sherry Sontag - THE definitive book on Cold War submarine espionage. Contains detailed accounts of submarine collisions just like USS Baton Rouge. This is the book I used to research this episode.
Get it here: https://amzn.to/4al5gsH

2. "Red November" by W. Craig Reed - Focuses specifically on U.S.-Soviet submarine confrontations in waters where collisions like Baton Rouge happened regularly. Includes incidents never before declassified.
Get it here: https://amzn.to/48q6lNh

3. "Hostile Waters" by Peter Huchthausen - The story of K-219, another submarine collision in 1986 that nearly started World War III. Shows what could have happened if Baton Rouge had been worse.
Get it here: https://amzn.to/3KqiPfV

4. If you prefer watching: "The Hunt for Red October" (4K) remains the best submarine thriller ever made and captures the tension of the Cold War underwater warfare that led to incidents like this.
Get it here: https://amzn.to/48qQcqS

*Your purchases directly support this channel. Every sale helps us research and produce more deep-dive Cold War submarine stories. Thank you! 🙏 Operation Barney: Japan Called It Their 'Protected Lake' — Until 9 U.S. Subs Sank 28 Ships in 15 Days

June 1945. Japan believed their Sea of Japan was untouchable—protected by 400 deadly contact mines strung across the Tsushima Strait. No American submarine had survived entry since USS Wahoo was destroyed in 1943. Then Admiral Charles Lockwood did the impossible: he sent nine submarines armed with experimental sonar into the minefields. Commander Earl Hydeman led USS Sea Dog through four lines of mines at 150 feet depth, guided only by a ringing tone the crews called "Hell's Bells"—technology officially rated "not operationally reliable." For 20 hours they navigated blind through waters that had killed every boat before them. When they emerged inside Japan's protected lake, the hunting began. 28 ships vanished in 15 days. 643 vessels refused to sail. Japan's war economy collapsed two months before Hiroshima. This is Operation Barney—the mission that proved nowhere was safe, and experimental technology could accomplish what conventional tactics never could.

RESOURCES:

Naval History and Heritage Command - Operation Barney Documentation

USS Bowfin Submarine Museum - Pearl Harbor

"Silent Victory: The U.S. Submarine War Against Japan" by Clay Blair

"Hellcats: The Epic Story of World War II's Most Daring Submarine Raid" by Peter Sasgen

National Museum of the Pacific War - Fredericksburg, TX

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TAGS:

Cold War, Cold War History, Submarines, Naval History, Military History, World War 2, Naval Engineering, Spy Documentary, Military Technology, Nuclear Submarines, US Navy, Soviet Navy, Operation Barney, USS Sea Dog, Earl Hydeman, FM Sonar, Hell's Bells, Tsushima Strait, Sea of Japan, USS Wahoo, Mush Morton, Admiral Lockwood, WWII Pacific, submarine minefields, Japanese Navy, Balao class submarine, 1945, WWII submarines, torpedo warfare, silent service, submarine documentary