Chapter 9 Chapter 4: Submarine Bombardment of the Enemy Shore

Japanese submarines are generally equipped with 80|100 mm high-level dual-purpose artillery and dual-mounted 25 mm cannons for air-to-air use.Most countries believe that these weapons are very effective against unarmed merchant ships and coastal targets without shore artillery protection.But the artillery of the submarine is by no means the opponent of the naval or shore artillery.After the submarine surfaced, it took more than a minute to fire the guns. The crew was very worried that the enemy would fire first and shoot at the submarine.In addition, most of the rangefinders on our boats are portable, and the distance measurement is inaccurate, so our shooting method is very simple, and it takes a lot of time to hit the target.

The ammunition box on the upper deck of the submarine can only store twenty rounds of shells at most. If the demand for ammunition exceeds this number, it must be brought up from the ammunition depot. This will cause certain difficulties for the submarine and prolong the speed of diving. The preparation time for the dive is limited, because the cover of the bomb lifter can only be on the deck and cannot be sealed in the cabin; if the cover is not sealed, seawater will enter the cabin.Because of this, Japanese submarines only use artillery as a last resort.The gunnery chief of a submarine is usually a young ensign.

Submarines equipped with high-level and flat-purpose artillery, without modern firing directors, will have difficulty hitting aircraft unless they happen to happen.When I was gunnery officer on a submarine, I tried more than once to shoot down aircraft with artillery, but it was never successful.Because the target distance is estimated with the naked eye, it is very inaccurate when shooting.If radar was used, the distance to the target could be accurately measured, but our submarines did not have artillery radar until the end of the war. Submarines rarely fought aircraft in World War II.Any submarine always dives immediately after spotting an enemy plane; it goes into battle only when it is too late to dive. Such a thing happened in 1944: the I｜44 submarine was chased by an enemy airship in the Admiralty Islands.The boat was lucky and returned to the base safely.

From the beginning of the war to January 1943, most of the Japanese submarines that bombarded the enemy's coastal targets were able to escape under the cover of night without any counterattack. accuracy is questionable.In such cases, it is futile to shoot at small targets, and area fire is usually done in order to cause confusion among the local population.Submarine captains were reluctant to undertake such missions, and only those with experience saw bombardment of the coast as an opportunity for meritorious service.An enemy counterattack could have wiped out the submarine, which could never dive again after being hit by a single shell.Submarines can, of course, approach targets stealthily underwater by passing through areas of the sea where they will not be attacked by surface ships.Although bombardment of the enemy's shore may not at first attract special attention from the enemy, it would be unwise to repeat this activity in the same area.Therefore, bombardment can only be effective if the shots are accurate and everything is going well.Shelling the enemy's shore can also burn down some of the enemy's barracks or destroy some important targets of the enemy in individual cases.

On 16 December 1941, I|22 and I|16 bombarded Johnston Island, the first such mission by a Japanese submarine.The island is about 900 meters long and 220 meters wide. The coast is rolling hills, and there are very few places suitable for building water airship bases.When Yi｜22 approached Johnston Island, it was difficult to accurately determine its position due to dense clouds and dark weather. It did not discover the island until a distance of 900 meters, and launched shelling after sunset. Iraq | On the 16th, Johnston Island was not found.Later, Yi｜68 of the 3rd Diving Team also bombarded the island. At the end of December 1941, another submarine of the group bombarded Palmyra Island.During the shelling, the boat ran aground for a while, but left the shoal unharmed.

At about the same time, Submarines of the 2nd Diving Team also bombarded the islands of Hawaii, Maui, and Kauai. On December 10 and 11, 1941, the old submarines Lu｜13, Lu｜64 and Lu｜68 with 80mm guns bombarded enemy airship bases on Howland Island and Baker Island in the Central Pacific. In early 1942, they bombarded the American coast again. In the second half of January 1942, Yi|24 and Yi|18 received orders to bombard Midway, but only Yi|24 completed the bombardment mission. In early February, Yi｜169 bombarded military targets on Jueying Island after performing a patrol mission in the waters of Midway Island. In June 1942, Yi｜168 also bombarded the island. On February 24, 1942, I｜17 sailed into the Santa Barbara Channel north of Los Angeles, surfaced five minutes before sunset, and conducted its first bombardment of the U.S. coast amid chaos and air raid sirens .After Yi｜17 fired ten shells, it exited the battle at full speed on the water surface.At this time, it found a destroyer rushing to the scene of the accident, but the enemy ship did not find the submarine.

At the end of June, Yi｜26 bombarded the naval navigation platform on Vancouver Island.At that time, the enemy sent out a distress signal by radio and extinguished the lights of the lighthouse. In the panic, the area was blacked out.Although Yi｜26 fired ten shells, the enemy's losses were not serious. Iraq | 25 was ordered to bombard the US submarine base in Astoria.It approached the shore from underwater, and then surfaced in the moonlight, and found some small fishing boats around.It was afraid of being discovered by the enemy, and immediately dived into the water.The next day, Yi|25 approached the coast again and surfaced.The moonlight was very bright that night, and there were no ships nearby.The boat fired twenty rounds at targets ashore.The enemy panicked and sounded the air raid siren.

Although submarine bombardment may not cause much damage to the enemy, bombardment is often carried out. In March, Yi｜4 bombarded Cocoa Island. During the retreat from Guadalcanal in January 1943, I|166 also bombarded Cocos Island.At the same time, the submarine I|165 bombarded Port Gregory, north of the city of Geraldton on the west coast of Australia.When our army retreated from Guadalcanal Island, in order to divert the attention of the enemy, a formation composed of the submarine I｜8, the cruiser HMS and a destroyer bombarded Canton Island. On August 31, 1942, the submarine I|19 bombarded the US seaplane base in Grazioza Bay, Solomon Islands from the sea, causing the enemy to suffer some losses. On September 8, Yi｜31 bravely broke into the bay and bombarded the seaplane base, causing great losses to the enemy. In mid-October 1942, I|7 bombarded the airfield on Espiritu Santo.Later the boat bombarded the airfield again, preventing the enemy from using it well during the general attack on Guadalcanal.

Various facilities along the coast of Australia were also bombarded by Japanese submarines. On 7 and 8 June, I|21 bombarded Newcastle's steel foundries and shipyards.Yi｜24 approached Sydney Harbor and released the pocket submarine, then surfaced and fired more than ten shells at Sydney at a distance of about six miles.Before the shelling, the city lights brightened the sky.After the first shell was fired, all the lights went out at once, and at the same time the searchlights in the harbor began to shine, illuminating the submarine clearly.But Yi｜24 dived immediately and left the place smoothly.

Submarines also sometimes sank merchant ships that had been damaged by torpedoes with their artillery.This is mainly to save torpedoes, but it needs to consume a lot of shells, and it will also increase the time the submarine stays on the water surface; and in the sea area where the enemy's security forces often patrol, it is very dangerous for the submarine to stay on the water surface for a long time.In addition, it should also be observed that merchant ships cannot be sunk quickly by this method, and sometimes they cannot be sunk. One day in June 1942, the I|21 surfaced near Nouméa, New Caledonia, and fired artillery at a merchant vessel.The crew have all left the merchant ship in dinghies.On the 21st, more than 60 shells were fired, but the merchant ship was still not sunk.After the submarine approached the merchant ship, it was discovered that the merchant ship was pierced with many holes above the waterline. In May, a situation similar to this also occurred: the submarine Yi｜26 tried to use artillery to sink an enemy merchant ship in Dutch Harbor.The boat's guns were hot to the touch from the many shells fired, but the merchant ship remained afloat.In the end, the captain had to torpedo her, wasting fifty rounds in vain.It is even more difficult to sink a tanker.It can be seen from the reports of some submarine captains who operated near the west coast of the United States in the early days of the war that no matter how many torpedoes were fired at the oil tankers, they could not sink them, at most they would be disabled.On one occasion, a submarine fired six torpedoes in a row at an oil tanker, and all of them hit their targets, but the tanker remained afloat.Later, the submarine surfaced again and fired at it with artillery, but it was counterattacked by the artillery on the tanker and had to leave the tanker.It is generally believed that in order to sink a tanker, two weapons, torpedoes and artillery, must be used at the same time.