Chapter 8 Chapter 3 The Achievements of Submarines

Simultaneously with the attack on Pearl Harbor and the combat activities on the coast of North America, our troops also began to land in the Philippine Islands and the Malay Peninsula.The ten submarines of the 4th Diving Squadron, under the command of Rear Admiral Gifu, were launched near the Malay Peninsula. Their mission was to prevent the British fleet from Singapore from destroying our army's landing and cutting off our army's sea supply line. At dawn on December 7, the Japanese army landed on the east coast of the Malay Peninsula, except for the Kota Bharu area, almost all of which were successful. On December 7, our reconnaissance plane reported that there were two British battleships parked in Singapore.At 15:15 the next day, the Yi｜165 submarine discovered two large warships in the South China Sea, 300 nautical miles north of Singapore, and identified them as the battleship Prince of Wales and the battlecruiser Quench.The two warships sailed northward at full speed with the aim of cutting off the supply lines of our landing force.The enemy ship, though clearly in sight, was out of torpedo range.The captain of I｜165, Harada Navy Major, sent a coded telegram, reporting the position and course of the two enemy ships.The Malay Peninsula Combat Command received the telegram in time and ordered all submarines in the area to dispatch immediately to pursue the enemy at maximum speed on the water surface.The Japanese naval forces operating near the Malay Peninsula consisted of the battleship Kongo, the battleship Haruna, a cruiser squadron and a destroyer squadron, all under the command of Vice Admiral Kondo Nobutake.These forces are actually no match for the enemy, but our warships are still advancing at full speed in an attempt to force the enemy to accept night battles in order to win in night battles.But at night, they lost contact with the enemy ship. At 3:40 on December 10, the Yi｜156 submarine discovered the enemy ship sailing south, and then launched an attack on the enemy ship, but due to the darkness, none of the torpedoes fired hit the target.At dawn, encouraged by the news of the successful attack on Pearl Harbor, the air force also began to search for enemy ships and sank the two enemy ships with bombs, which dealt a heavy blow to the British navy.From this day on, the main position of the battleship among the large warships was handed over to the aircraft carrier.

While our aviation can be proud of its role in this battle, it was the submarines that first spotted and determined the positions of the two enemy ships.Therefore, the success of this attack should be regarded as the result of the coordinated operation of submarines and aviation. The commander of the joint fleet must solve a major problem when formulating a battle plan, that is, first of all, he must know the scale of the enemy's battle, especially to determine which force groups the enemy is most likely to use to confront the main force of our navy.There are many ways to obtain this information, the most reliable and practical of which is aerial reconnaissance.However, since the activity radius of the reconnaissance aircraft is not large, we pin our hopes on the aircraft carried by the submarine.The volume of our country's submarines is gradually increasing, so that the activity radius of the aircraft on board is also increasing.Our military authorities have made great efforts to improve this submarine long before the war.Initially, the I｜5 submarine was used to carry out the test of carrying the aircraft.Later, the Navy created a new type of submarine, and the deck can be equipped with aircraft catapults.When the war broke out, a total of eleven submarines could carry special aircraft, including I｜7, I｜8, I｜10, I｜15, I｜17, I｜19, and I｜21 , Yi｜23 and Yi｜26.Later, some new aircraft carried by submarines were manufactured.By the end of the war, the following twenty-four submarines carrying aircraft had been built.From Yi|27 to Yi|45, and Yi|54, Yi|56, Yi|58, Yi|11 and Yi|12.

The aircraft carried by the submarine are all single-seat seaplanes, which can fly continuously for three hours at a speed of 165 kilometers per hour.This kind of aircraft is small in size and has no other weapons except radio stations on board. As long as it encounters enemy fighter jets, it will definitely be shot down. It takes about an hour to lift and secure the aircraft to the deck.Therefore, when the submarine is seriously threatened and needs to dive quickly to escape, the plane has to be thrown away. Because this kind of aircraft is defenseless, it is usually put down before dawn, and it is immediately recovered on the boat at sunrise, and the time of use is very limited.In bad weather and with wind and waves, it is difficult for an aircraft to land on the sea.In short, this method of reconnaissance carries great dangers.

However, due to the efforts of the experienced captains and the calm work of the crew, much valuable information was quickly sent to the high command.Among the pilots of these planes, Sergeant Major Fujita is the most experienced.He has flown for 4,000 hours. Because of his calmness and bravery, he greatly facilitates the crew's work of retracting and launching the aircraft. When an aircraft returns from a reconnaissance mission, it is often difficult to find a target as small as a submarine.Therefore, it is necessary to specify the meeting place, and no matter whether the submarine or the aircraft should arrive at this place accurately.

Airplanes usually take off near the enemy's coast.After the plane took off, the submarine was in constant radio contact with it and waited for it to return.At this time, the captain and the crew were always worried that they would be suddenly discovered by enemy reconnaissance planes.If the plane returns half an hour later, the submarine will need about an hour to prepare for diving after the plane lands.In this way, the submarine will stay on the surface for a total of two and a half hours. Wings are sometimes bruised while preparing to fly, requiring immediate repair.During a practice takeoff, the aircraft engine can be started ten to fifteen minutes after the submarine surfaced; but if it takes off when it is very close to the enemy, it will take thirty to sixty minutes, that is, after the submarine is sure that It was launched after it was not discovered.

Before the declaration of war, the submarines I|10 and I|26 were ordered to sail to the Fiji Islands, Samoa Islands, Turtuila Islands and the Aleutian Islands to conduct reconnaissance, and they were limited to complete this task before December 5, 1941.The two boats left Yokosuka on November 16 and 19, respectively, and completed their missions without using aircraft.I|10 made no discovery other than the USS Astoria on 4 December off the Fiji Islands. At dawn on December 17, 1941, the planes on board I-5 conducted a reconnaissance of Pearl Harbor, and obtained valuable information that helped us understand that our mobile forces had damaged enemy bases and ships at the beginning of the war. what losses.

In January 1942, I|9 also sent a plane to Pearl Harbor for reconnaissance on the way back to Kwajalin from the coast of North America. In February 1942, Yi｜25 sailed from Kwajalin. Within two months, it carried out reconnaissance on the main ports on the east coast of Australia and New Zealand, and obtained a lot of valuable information.The boat returned to Japan in early April.The aircraft on board had scouted Sydney, Melbourne, Hobart (Tasmania), Wellington, Auckland, Suva and Pago (Tutuila). Yi｜17 was ordered to carry out aerial reconnaissance on the Colombo and Trincomalee bases in the Indian Ocean, but due to the tight defense of the enemy, it failed to complete the prescribed tasks.

During operations near Midway and the Aleutians, I|25 and I|26 traveled from Yokosuka to Kodiak (Aleutians) in May 1942 for aerial reconnaissance.On the 25th, while preparing to release the plane near Dutch Harbor, an enemy cruiser was spotted.This put the captain in a dilemma, but he finally decided to send a plane to conduct reconnaissance as originally planned.The cruiser passed close to the submarine, but did not spot the submarine.Shortly thereafter, another enemy destroyer appeared.Fortunately, the plane had been retracted to the boat at this time, and the boat dived to a safe depth immediately.At about the same time, Yi|26 was spotted by an enemy plane when it was about to release the plane.The submarine had to dive immediately, throwing the aircraft it was carrying on the surface.

Submarines carried aircraft for aerial reconnaissance, which continued until 1944.Such reconnaissance became increasingly difficult as the activity of enemy escort ships and patrol aircraft intensified. On August 19, 1943, Yi｜17 was sunk by an enemy plane while conducting reconnaissance near the Nouméa (New Caledonia) base. In August 1942, in retaliation for the attack on Tokyo by American B|25 aircraft, it was decided to carry out an air raid on the continental United States.Our plan was to drop Molotov cocktails into the Oregon woods, using small aircraft carried by submarines, each capable of carrying two 75-kilogram incendiaries. On August 15, 1942, the I｜25 submarine, under the command of Lieutenant Commander Akiji Tagami, left Yokosuka for this mission with six specially-made incendiary bombs.The boat sailed in a great circle and reached the Oregon coast two weeks later.However, due to the bad weather, the plane could not go out, so the boat sailed to the south of Cape Blanco to wait for the weather to improve. One day in mid-September, Yi｜25 arrived six miles south of Cape Blanco Lighthouse half an hour before sunrise, and the plane piloted by Fujita took off from the boat.The plane dropped two incendiary bombs in a forested area eighty kilometers southeast of Cape Blanco.After the bomb was dropped, white smoke rose from the area where the target was located.The plane safely returned to boat Yi｜25, which had been waiting on the water surface for two hours.This time, two specially-made incendiary bombs were dropped, which can generate high temperature after hitting the target.The bomb was presumed to have caused a fire, as American radio had broadcast that some residents had been killed and wounded.

Two hours after sunset, the aircraft was dispatched again.This time, the bombs were dropped sixteen kilometers west of Cape Blanco.When Fujita returned to the prescribed rendezvous point (eighty kilometers east of Cape Blanco), he had difficulty determining the location of the submarine.Fortunately, he found the submarine along the oil stains left by the submarine on the surface of the water. Frequent heavy fog at the end of September, which worsened in October, made retracting and launching the aircraft very difficult or impossible, and the operations were stopped. In early October, the Yi｜25 submarine sank two oil tankers off the west coast of the United States and sank an American submarine with the only remaining torpedo.At the end of the month, it returned to mainland Japan.

In addition, the submarine also completed other tasks. In March 1942, plans were made to use airships to launch an air raid on Pearl Harbor.Yi | Submarine No. 22 was ordered to select a midway refueling station for the airship.As a result, the boat selected French|Frigate Atoll (Note: For details, see the article "Anti-Rendezvous". "Proceedings of the American Naval Institute", May 1953, p. 498.).At the same time, the boat also conducted a pre-reconnaissance of the waters between Hawaii and Midway Island. At the end of February, during preparations for the campaign, I|15, I|19, and I|26 sailed to French|Friget Atoll fully laden with aviation gasoline.The I|9 took up a position in the sea between the Marshall Islands and the French|Frigate Atoll in order to receive the wireless telegram from the airship for forwarding to the water at Jaluit Island (Marshall Islands). aircraft base. The Type II water airship with a large radius of action participated in the air attack on Pearl Harbor. They flew safely from Jaluit Island to French|Friget Atoll at sunset on March 4, refueled from the submarine, flew to the Hawaiian Islands, and attacked Pearl seven hours after sunset Hong Kong, and then safely returned to the base on Jaluit Island. On that day, the enemy task force attacked Wake Island, so the second attack of my sea airship was rescheduled for March 5.The sortie was called off soon after, as the submarine was ordered to intercept the enemy returning from Wake Island. In early September 1942, the situation in the Solomon Islands suddenly changed, and the enemy decided to send the 17th Army to launch the first general counterattack on Guadalcanal.After learning of this information, Admiral Yamamoto, the commander of the Combined Fleet, decided to immediately send a seaplane to conduct reconnaissance in the vast sea area southeast of Guadalcanal Island. In mid-September, Yi｜122 sailed into this sea area and spent almost a week refueling the airship.The airship scouts the enemy's position on a wide front, which enables our troops to guard against sudden enemy attacks. During the naval battle in the South Pacific, Yi|26 carried out reconnaissance on the waters south of the Solomon Islands.The boat left Turok Island on October 4 and did not return to base until November 30.On the 26th, the sea airship that took off from the base on Shortland Island spent several days in the waters of the Solomon Islands to refuel.During the refueling process, the boat ran aground on the reef for a while, and only after draining and reversing did it get out of the water, and the three torpedo tubes at the bow of the boat were damaged.The boat was later attacked by an American B|17 aircraft, but the damage was not serious. I|127 refueled my airship on November 10th, although the enemy airships were constantly making reconnaissance around the Indispensible atoll. When we retreated from Guadalcanal in January 1943, the airship was still able to refuel near Indispensible Atoll.By early February, the submarines could no longer perform this task due to frequent enemy air strikes. As the Americans intensified their offensive in the Solomon Islands and the east coast of New Guinea, most of our submarines were used to hold back enemy reinforcements and deliver supplies to our advanced bases blocked by the enemy. In mid-August 1943, our reconnaissance forces discovered that a large number of US troops were concentrated in the Hawaiian Islands. It seemed that they were preparing for a new campaign.In order to verify this information, the Combined Fleet Command decided to send the No. 36 submarine to the Hawaiian Islands for reconnaissance.After completing the preparation work, the boat left Yokosuka in early September and arrived in the Hawaiian Islands in mid-September. On September 20 and 27, Yi｜36 tried to launch a plane for reconnaissance, but due to the strict surveillance of the US radar, it was difficult for the boat to approach the Hawaiian Islands.Reconnaissance by aircraft was impossible so far from shore that reconnaissance had to be stopped.After that, the boat tried again to approach the Hawaiian Islands, still without success. In mid-October, the captain decided to launch an aircraft three hundred miles away from the Hawaiian Islands for aerial reconnaissance.Over such a long distance, the plane can only fly one way. Soon, the pilot of the plane reported by radio that there were four battleships, four aircraft carriers, five cruisers and seventeen destroyers parked in Pearl Harbor.But he couldn't fly back.The next day, Yi｜36 spotted a huge enemy convoy sailing southeastward three hundred miles southwest of Pearl Harbor. The boat immediately reported the situation to the headquarters and began to pursue the enemy.After receiving the report from I|36, the commander of the United Fleet immediately dispatched I|35, I|19 and I|175 to the Hawaiian Islands.But shortly thereafter, Yi｜36 lost contact with the convoy convoy. On November 9, the convoy convoy suddenly appeared near the Gilbert Islands, and the submarines were ordered to concentrate there again. Several submarines of the special attack team returning from the waters of the Hawaiian Islands, together with several newest submarines, formed the 8th diving team.In the formation of the team, there are Yi｜18, Yi｜20, Yi｜21, Yi｜22, Yi｜24, Yi｜27, Yi｜29 and Yi｜30.The team is training under the leadership of Rear Admiral Ishizaki in preparation for the second phase of special operations. At the end of April 1942, Yi｜10, Yi｜16, Yi｜18, Yi｜20 and Yi｜30 entered the Indian Ocean via Penang and conducted reconnaissance on important areas along the African coast.According to the results of reconnaissance, it was decided to attack the ships in the port of Diego-Suarez (Madagascar Island) on May 31.On the eve of the attack, aircraft from I|10 spotted a Queen Elizabeth battleship, a cruiser, and other ships in the port of Diego-Suarez. On the night of May 30th, Yi｜16 and Yi｜20 released pocket submarines about ten miles away from the entrance of the harbor.The pocket submarine on Yi｜18 could not be released due to machine failure.I｜16 and I｜20 waited at the appointed rendezvous point until the battleship Queen Elizabeth suffered serious damage Submerged, but sailed back to Durban. Another submarine sank a large tanker.), while the pocket submarine crew landed after the attack and died in exchange of gunfire with the enemy. In the second half of May 1942, another part of the 8th Diving Squadron, the submarines I｜21, I｜22, I｜23, I｜27 and I｜29, operated under the command of Lieutenant Sasaki Navy. Australian sea area.We found a battleship, a cruiser, and some other ships anchored in Sydney Harbour, and decided to attack them.For this reason, at 16:30 on May 31, Yi｜22, Yi｜24, and Yi｜27 released pocket submarines seven miles east of Sydney.Since the aircraft carried by the two large submarines were damaged and unable to take off, it was not possible to ascertain the result of the attack.It was not learned until after the battle that a torpedo fired by a pocket submarine passed behind a cruiser and exploded between the cruiser and the pier, damaging a launch and causing some minor damage to the cruiser.However, the attack results of the other two pocket submarines are not clear (Note: According to the data of the United States, a total of four pocket submarines were released, one was caught in the anti-submarine net at the entrance of the harbor, and the remaining three broke into the harbor. One of them launched a A torpedo, the torpedo passed by the cruiser USS Chicago and USS Perkins. It is estimated that the USS Chicago may sink a pocket submarine before the two cruisers sail out of the harbor. The Australian cruiser Canberra is docked by the pier, No losses were suffered. Another pocket submarine was sunk by a security ship. Another pocket submarine was sunk when a torpedo exploded while launching it.).Although the attack was not successful, it was a great boost to the morale of our personnel, and in the years that followed when the war turned against me, those who died heroically in the attack on Sydney Harbor have been the memory of all pocket submariners. Role models. Since the enemy's security ships have strengthened their vigilance on the Lunga Anchorage (Guadalcanal Island), it was decided to form a fleet of I｜16, I｜20 and I｜24 under the command of Lieutenant Officer Ota. Pocket submarines attack enemy ships at anchor.The attack plan stipulated that the large submarines would load pocket submarines in the Turok Islands or Shortland Island, and then sail to Iraq | 16 and Iraq | A total of four transport ships and one destroyer were sunk.Among the released pocket submarines, one failed to launch a torpedo due to damage, and half of them did not return. In order to defend Mindanao Island and cover the San Bernardino Strait and Sullivan Strait, we deployed eight pocket submarines in the Philippines, four of which were deployed in Cebu, two in Zamboanga, and two in Dakar. nest.With the intensification of the enemy's landing activities in the Philippines, the transportation activities from Mindanao Island to other islands in the Sulu Sea also increased frequently. Therefore, the pocket submarine chose Sulu between the southern tip of Nekuro Island and the northern tip of Mindanao Island. The narrowest part of the sea is the sea area where the attack is carried out.The pocket submarine was ready to attack at Longma Nidi (Isla Negro), and the attack was carried out according to the signal sent by the watchtower along the Sullivan Strait. From December 8, 1944 to March 12, 1945, the above-mentioned pocket submarines sank a total of 14 enemy ships, including two cruisers, one seaplane carrier, five destroyers, five transport ships, and one other ship . On March 20, 1945, due to the landing of the United States at Dawo.It is impossible for us to continue to use this base.So the pocket submariners sank the boat and landed to join the fight.