Chapter 13 Chapter Eight: The Scramble for Guadalcanal

In 1942, the Japanese 4th Fleet commanded by Vice Admiral Inoue carried out a bombing of Port Moresby, with the purpose of occupying all of New Guinea.The formation of this fleet includes the two heavy aircraft carriers Xianghe and Zuihe, the light aircraft carrier Xiangfeng, and some cruisers, destroyers and transport ships.In addition, there are three diving teams under the command of the fleet: the 21st diving team composed of Lu｜33 and Lu｜34, the 8th diving team composed of Yi｜29 and Yi｜28 and the 11th diving team. Team, the third diving team composed of Yi｜22 and Yi｜24. At the end of April, Lv｜33 and Lv｜34 carried out reconnaissance on Rassel Island, the anchorage near Deboyne Island, the Homaad Channel and the waterway east of Port Moresby, with the purpose of ascertaining that there were No enemy ships and transports. On May 5th, Yi|22, Yi|24, Yi|28 and Yi|29 arrived at their positions, but like Lu|33 and Lu|34, they did not find the enemy.Therefore, in the battle of the Coral Sea, although the submarines did not lose, they did not achieve any victories.

On August 7, 1942, the first phase of the massive U.S. counteroffensive against Guadalcanal began.Vice Admiral Mikawa, commander of the 8th Fleet, personally led the cruiser fleet to participate in the first naval battle of the Solomon Islands and achieved great victories.But the second time, nothing was achieved; neither the enemy's landing was prevented nor the enemy's transports were sunk.The enemy not only defended the airport, but gradually strengthened its defense.The period from August 1942 to February 1943, when Japan withdrew from the island, saw heavy fighting on land, sea and air.

During this period, the tasks of our submarines were: delivering supplies, destroying enemy transport ships, obstructing the advance of enemy reinforcements, refueling aircraft, searching for enemy ships, etc.Each submarine made its own contribution to the coordinated operation, unfortunately we do not have detailed and accurate charts of this area of ​​the sea.The submarine ran aground several times in uncharted shoals.It can be seen that the operating conditions for submarines in this sea area are very difficult.Coupled with the continuous attacks of enemy aircraft and surface ships, our losses are increasing.From about September 1942, the effectiveness of enemy radars increased.When we encountered enemy aircraft in poor visibility, the advantage we had gained by relying on better binoculars was quickly lost.Fighting at night became our problem.This is also an important reason for our increased losses.

On August 7, Vice Admiral Mikawa immediately ordered all submarines under his command to concentrate in the Indispensable Strait after receiving the report of the enemy's landing force on Guadalcanal Island.Lu｜No. 33, Lu｜34, Lu｜121, Lu｜122 and Yi｜123 of the 7th diving team were ordered to go to Lunga and Tulaji anchorages to search for the enemy.U-33 sank an enemy transport at Lunga anchorage after contacting the remaining garrison forces on Guadalcanal and handing them medicines.Afterwards, the boat was repeatedly attacked by depth charges during the 18 nautical mile journey, but only the periscope was damaged.Yi|121 and Yi|123 were ordered to shell the enemy's landing troops, while Yi|122 went to the sea area of ​​​​the Santa Cruz Islands to search for the enemy.

All forces of the 8th Fleet, including surface ships and aviation, participated in the landing operation.The submarine launched from Guadalcanal along the southeastern islands of the Solomon Islands. Yi｜9, Yi｜17, Yi｜19, Yi｜26, Yi｜31 and Yi｜33 arrived in San Cristobal on August 24. The enemy's line of communication between the island and the island of Endeni. The I|26 submarine discovered an enemy task force consisting of an aircraft carrier, a battleship, a cruiser and about ten destroyers in the northeast of the Solomon Islands.The conditions for the attack were very difficult, but Yi｜26 still fired a torpedo salvo at the aircraft carrier, and one mine hit (Note: This is the USS Saratoga aircraft carrier. After the Yi｜26 submarine fired six torpedoes , surfaced to the depth of periscope, and was only nine meters away from the destroyer Marktonno. The boat made a speed dive and got out of the trap, although it was hit by the destroyer when it dived. At the end of the year, Yi｜26 sank the U.S. Cruiser Jonno.).After the boat launched the torpedo, it was already very close to the enemy destroyer, so it immediately dived to a depth of 90 meters.The enemy ship dropped four depth charges on it, but caused no damage.

From the end of December 1942, Lu｜100, Lu｜101, Lu｜102 and Lu｜103 all joined the newly formed 7th diving team.They operate in the waters of Rabaul.These small displacement submarines mainly operate on the approach road of Port Moresby, the southeast of Milne Bay and the waters east of the Central Solomon Islands, and in the Homaad Channel. transport tasks. By mid-August 1943, the 7th submarine, composed of seven submarines including Lv｜34, Lv｜100, Lv｜101, Lv｜102, Lv｜103, Lv｜106 and Lv｜107 The diving team lost Lu｜34 in the battle (Note: At dawn on April 5, Lu｜34 on the surface was spotted by the radar of the destroyer USS O'Bannon and was shot by the ship's five-inch artillery. After the enemy ship approached the submarine, it was strafed with machine guns, and then depth charges were dropped on it, and finally it was sunk.), Lu｜102, Lu｜103 and Lu｜107 and other boats, while The results of their own battles were not great, only Yi｜106 sank a transport ship in July.

On April 1, 1943, the combined sea and air forces launched a large-scale offensive (this offensive was called Operation Iraq).This battle was conducted under the personal command of Admiral Yamamoto, the commander of the combined fleet.After a series of swift attacks, by April 7th we had some victories.However, due to the absolute superiority of enemy aviation, these victories did not have a significant impact on the course of the campaign. In early May, Confederate troops landed on Lendoval Island in the Solomon Islands and attacked New Guinea from the west.The Japanese troops stationed on Lendova Island, assisted by reinforcements from Rabaul, put up a tenacious resistance to the enemy landing party.Several destroyers and a cruiser (the flagship of the battle group) made several attacks on the enemy in order to support the army's operations from the sea, but the Japanese ships did not achieve their intended purpose due to the aggressive actions of the enemy's naval and air forces.In fact, our forces have been routed.Several Lu｜100 submarines rushed to the war zone.Lu｜101, who was at the forefront, was ordered to sail to the west coast of Guadalcanal Island in order to prevent the landing of the enemy's landing force.

From mid-August 1943, a force composed of Lu｜104, Lu｜105, Lu｜108, and Lu｜109 was reinforced by several other submarines and continued to perform the previously assigned tasks.But none of these submarines prevented enemy landing forces from landing where they wanted to land. During September, Lu｜101 (Note: According to the data of the U.S. Navy, on the night of July 1, the Japanese submarine Lu｜101 sank due to a sudden attack by the USS Radford on the surface, so it is impossible Participate in the battle in September.), Lu｜105, Lu｜106 and Lu｜109 mainly operate in the south and southeast waters of the Solomon Islands.The mission of Lu｜100, Lu｜104 and Lu｜108 was to attack the enemy in the waters of Huang Bay in eastern New Guinea (although Lu｜105 rescued a pilot who was forced to land, the actions of these submarines had no immediate effect).When performing this task.Lu | No. 101 is missing.To sum up, the Lu｜100 submarine has been performing various tasks in a vast sea area, and has neither time for the crew to rest nor to overhaul the machinery. The Lu｜108 submarine, which has been active in Huang Bay since the end of September, Three enemy destroyers were spotted 50 nautical miles north of Woodhunt Point on 3 October and attacked them.Although the submarine came under a heavy depth charge attack, both destroyers were sunk. In January, when Lv｜106 and Lv｜109 were operating in the waters of Hu'ang Bay, they spotted several enemy transport ships and warning ships, but they didn't get the chance to attack.Lu｜105, who was active in Salamaoa, also did not get the chance to attack the enemy.

Due to the critical situation on Bougainville Island, Lu｜100 loaded supplies and sailed to Bouin at the end of October.But before it reached Buin, it was sunk by enemy torpedoes thirty nautical miles west of Oema Island on November 25 (Note: According to the official data of the Allies, Lu｜100 was not destroyed before the end of November 1944. sunk, see Schedule II.). Lv｜104 and Lv｜105, which sailed to Salamaoa to deliver supplies in late October and early November, were ordered to support the troops on Bougainville Island and participate in the naval battle there.But they did not achieve any results. They only rescued the crew of the light cruiser Sendai on November 2, and rescued some pilots who had crashed and fell into the water on the 6th.

At the beginning of November, one of our cruisers was attacked by an enemy plane after entering the port of Rabaul, and other surface ships also suffered losses due to repeated enemy attacks.Therefore, the flagship of the 7th diving team, the Long Whale, decided to withdraw from Rabaul to the Japanese mainland. The headquarters of the team moved from the ship to the shore and worked at the submarine base. By the end of November, only Lu｜100, Lu｜104, Lu｜105 and Lu｜109 remained in the 7th diving team.In addition to the above-mentioned four boats, Yi｜6, Yi｜16, Yi｜38 and Yi｜117 were also performing transportation tasks.Later, due to repeated heavy bombings by the enemy, the port of Rabaul could no longer be used as a submarine base at all.So the headquarters of the 7th Diving Squadron and the remaining Lv｜100, Lv｜104, Lv｜105 and Lv｜109 moved to Turk in March 1944.At this time, Lu｜34, Lu｜100, Lu｜102, Lu｜103 and Lu｜107 were all sunk.We lost a total of twenty-five submarines in the Solomon Islands, New Guinea, and the Coral Sea, and sank the enemy aircraft carrier USS Wasp , launched four torpedoes, and three hit them. Shortly thereafter, I｜15 carried out a torpedo attack on the battleship USS North Carolina. According to the information released by the United States, the battleship USS North Carolina, like the aircraft carrier USS Wasp, was also attacked by the USS Wasp. ｜The torpedo of No. 19 was hit. The torpedo fired by the boat was not four, but six.) (Jack press, Yi｜The six torpedoes fired in one salvo on No. 19 may be the largest single submarine torpedo in history In the attack, three torpedoes hit the vitals of the aircraft carrier USS Wasp, forcing it to abandon the ship after 45 minutes, and finally sunk by the US destroyer itself with torpedoes; one torpedo severely damaged the hull structure of the USS O'Brien. The ship broke and sank 34 days later while sailing to San Francisco for repairs; another torpedo hit the battleship USS North Carolina, opening a 10-meter hole and allowing it to dry dock for a month.) and 14 other ships ship, and seriously damaged three enemy ships.Here it should be pointed out that at that time our submarines were mainly used to cut off the enemy's supply lines, but our efforts did not cause the enemy to suffer greater losses.