Chapter 23 Chapter 18 The Battle of Okinawa

On March 24, 1944, the US task force began to bombard the south coast of Okinawa, so our submarine was ordered to sail to the waters of Okinawa at full speed.Yi｜8, Lu｜41 and Lu｜46, which were searching for the enemy there, were sunk by the enemy.The enemy has established a very tight anti-submarine defense, because they have mastered the sea and air supremacy in this area.Nevertheless, we also established a manned torpedo team named Tatara, and the submarines participating in this team were I|47, I|56, I|58 and I|44.Each submarine carries six redesigned manned torpedoes. Yi｜47 sailed to the waters of Okinawa on March 29.The boat passed through the Bungo Channel smoothly, but was suddenly attacked by more than 50 enemy planes that it mistook for our plane near Miyazaki.The boat immediately dived underwater to avoid the enemy.The enemy plane dropped more than 30 bombs, but the submarine was not damaged.Half an hour later, the submarine surfaced again and continued to sail forward.At 2:30 am the next day, two warships were spotted at a distance of about 5,400 meters.The lookouts reported that these were two cruisers, and the submarine immediately dived underwater to prepare to attack.But after further observation in the periscope, it was found that the opponents were two destroyers. At this time, the submarine had no time to dodge and was attacked by depth charges, and it was not until the vicinity of Tanegashima that it got rid of the enemy.After sunset, the submarine surfaced to check the cause of oil leakage from the fuel tank.But it was suddenly attacked by enemy planes.After the speed dive, a bomb exploded nearby.The oil spill was more serious, so they had to return to Wugang.

The other two submarines, I|56 and I|44, disappeared after sailing from the base on April 3.After the war, it was heard that they were sunk by American destroyers off Okinawa. The I|58 under my command sailed from the base on April 2nd.The pilots of the boat are the same people who attacked Iwo Jima with us last time.The operation plan this time is relatively flexible, and the completion of the plan mainly depends on the configuration of enemy ships. I request the headquarters to provide me with detailed information, let me know the configuration of enemy ships near Okinawa Island and the operational characteristics of the enemy destroyer search group in the north of the island.As always, we traveled through the Bungo Suido at night, taking all safety precautions with great care. During the day on April 2, we dived under the water and continued to sail south.Cloud cover increased at night and visibility was poor. On April 2nd and 3rd, we took various methods to avoid the attack of enemy planes and arrived safely in Yakushima.We had originally decided to approach our destination from the west, but since Nakajo Bay (Okinawa) was already in enemy hands, it might be safer to approach from the east.

In the end, we still decided to approach from the west, because approaching from the west, we can encounter enemy ships at anchor, and they will be good targets for manned torpedo attacks. In the middle of the night on April 3, we began to approach the enemy.In the middle of the strait, we suddenly spotted a target that looked like a submarine on the surface.We immediately dive under the water.About an hour later, due to loss of contact with the target, we surfaced again and continued sailing in a zigzagging motion.During the daytime the next day, radar detected aircraft nearby and we were forced to dive again.

April 5th | 6th, we were forced to dive seven times.We have no equipment to identify enemy aircraft.Frequent dives took a lot of time; we only reached the waters west of the Amami Islands on April 6.At about 13 o'clock a mast was spotted on the horizon.After diving, we judged that it was a small anti-submarine ship, but we were not sure whether it belonged to the enemy or our own.Due to the proximity of Japan to combat operations, it was easy to mistake enemy ships or aircraft for their own. The weather began to turn bad, the sky was covered with dark clouds, and the waves on the sea surface increased.We began to worry about whether we could launch manned torpedoes.Now I just hope that the weather in the anchorage near Okinawa will be better.Our course to Okinawa was quite far from the shore, so it was difficult to gauge the boat's exact position in bad weather conditions.Even radar can't find nearby islands.Because the range of the radar is not enough.Due to the frequent harassment of enemy aircraft during the day and night, we simply did not have enough time to recharge.Under such circumstances, the presence of a single destroyer would put us in mortal danger.

On April 7th the situation did not improve and our time on the surface was short.The submarine's position can still only be estimated by reckoning.The current, with a speed of two knots, increased the position error and made our situation more difficult. On April 7, we learned that the battleship Yamato was to take part in the battle near Okinawa.We all want to be glad to be in battle with it.But in fact the Yamato had been sunk by then (this was only known later). On April 8, the Commander-in-Chief of the Combined Fleet sent a telegram ordering us to fight to the death.We surfaced and decided to break through directly to our destination.Not long after, we encountered a large patrol aircraft in daylight.This kind of aircraft is used by the enemy to deal with submarines.We almost lost hope of escape, so we had to dive urgently.The strange thing is that the plane didn't attack us.But we had to spend the whole day underwater.

Since there are also enemy planes patrolling at night, we cannot float to charge.If this goes on for a long time, the battery will run out of power, and even a single attack will not be possible.We decided to float for a short time to charge, and then make a second attempt to approach the destination when the weather improves.So we returned to the vicinity of Kyushu Island.We measured the boat's position and found that the error in the estimation of the boat's position was up to forty-five nautical miles.The submarine again headed for Okinawa.The weather is worse than before.Also, being harassed by enemy aircraft day or night, we had no chance of recharging.We face the same difficulties as the previous time.

On April 14th we were suddenly ordered to go to the Pacific Ocean.During the voyage, we first had to pass through our own minefields to the China Sea, and then along the coast of Taiwan into the Pacific Ocean.Prior to this, we spent more than seven days trying to attack enemy ships in the waters off Okinawa.But these attempts failed due to bad weather.We were hit by more than fifty air strikes.The maximum time floating on the water is no more than four hours.During the two days we approached Okinawa, the longest we spent on the surface was only an hour and ten minutes.At that time, the submarine's radar was unreliable, and within two or three minutes of surfacing, we were attacked by enemy aviation.It usually takes four to five hours to charge the battery, and six hours to fully charge it.Once the high-pressure tank is inflated, it can be used for floating the submarine three or four times; and it takes thirty minutes to make the high-pressure tank fully inflated.According to our own experience, in difficult situations, it may happen that although the batteries are charged, the submarine cannot float due to the exhaustion of high-pressure gas.A destroyer chasing a submarine for a day can drain a half-charged battery, rendering the submarine immobile.

It should be noted that a submarine carrying a manned torpedo has no artillery, only two machine guns, and it is impossible to surface to a duel with its pursuers.Manned torpedoes cannot be used in stormy weather. We entered the Pacific Ocean from the eastern coast of Taiwan and sailed north.Three or four hundred nautical miles away from Okinawa.Except for an accidental encounter with a plane on the way, there was no encounter with the enemy. At about 1 o'clock on April 25, we were sailing on the water and found the target on the sea radar.The sea was calm and the wind was weak.We dived immediately and waited for the enemy.Soon after, a ship sailing with lights on was spotted in the periscope, it was a hospital ship, and we let it pass.

At around 3:00, we heard nine consecutive explosions.Periscope saw one or two masts on the horizon.Before long, we saw three ships.At first, we thought it was a cruiser.But it turned out later that they were small destroyers.While we were studying the situation, the enemy ship turned towards us.Did the enemy discover us?It was impossible to launch a manned torpedo because it had not been inspected since it sailed from the base for more than a month.There is no other way except to dodge.We descended to a depth of eighty-two meters, and the cabins were silent.Half an hour later, we heard the noise of three ships' propellers.No doubt we were spotted.The only way is to keep quiet.The crew took their positions according to the damage control deployment.The sound of the propeller was getting louder and louder.One enemy ship passed by the stern of the submarine, a second enemy ship passed on the starboard side, and a third ship passed on the port side.We wait for the attack.There was deathly silence in the boat, and the atmosphere was extremely tense, but the enemy left after passing above us, we felt both strange and relieved.Then there was the explosion of a depth charge, but by this time the destroyer was far away from us.The enemy turned out to be not as scary as we thought.We turned to the opposite course to the direction of the blast, keeping well out of the way of the enemy, but we figured the submarine was still in the enemy's line of communication.Unfortunately, we received an order to return and returned to the base on April 29.On the way to the base, a mine laid by the enemy exploded near the submarine.A school of bombed-out fish floated on the surface, allowing us to celebrate the Emperor's birthday in style.

After arriving at Kure Port, we learned that none of the other submarines sent to Okinawa had returned.Lu｜109 reported that it was attacked by enemy ships, and the enemy dropped more than 300 depth charges.Although it had been ordered to return, it did not return.Thus, I|58 was the only submarine to return to base during the operation.A conference was held to study the actions of I|56 and I|109.It has been studied that, after the enemy has landed, it is futile to attempt to break into a well-defended base where the enemy has landed; in the present situation, we can only win by attacking the enemy's communication lines.In fact, this question was not raised for the first time during the Battle of Okinawa.Now that we were down to four large submarines, it was decided to convert the transport submarine I|300 to carry manned torpedoes.

We did not know until after the war that the other submarines involved in the Okinawa operation were sunk by American destroyers in the east and south of the island.Yi｜A survivor on No. 8 recounted what happened: At around 23:30 on March 30, the watchmen found an enemy destroyer approaching us, and Yi｜8 quickly dived immediately.At a depth of twenty-eight meters, it was attacked by the first depth charges.In the next four hours, the enemy carried out continuous attacks and finally sank the boat.The enemy's depth charges are very accurate, as they can easily determine the location of the submarine based on the noise of the submarine's propeller.The enemy's attacks became more and more fierce, and a hole was blown in the soldiers' quarters at the stern, and seawater poured in from the hole.We tried everything in our power to plug the leak, without success.The submarine began to sink, the stern trim reached 25°, and the water in the boat began to flow to the stern.At this time, the submerged depth of the submarine was 137 meters.The time had come for emergency measures to be taken, so the captain ordered the stern tank to be drained.When draining, the air bubbles rise to the surface, revealing their position.We are all at our posts waiting for death to come.The torpedoes on the boat were launched, and the captain decided to surface to fight and ordered the main water tank to drain.The submarine's batteries have run out of power. At about 2 o'clock on March 31, the submarine began to float with a trim of 20°.I am a gunner, on standby in the command room.As soon as the hatch opened, we jumped onto the deck.There was an enemy destroyer on the starboard side, we immediately opened fire on it with the 25mm cannon, and while the other gunner and I were loading the 140mm gun, I was wounded in the leg by shrapnel.I wanted to go to the bridge, but then the bridge was hit by a shell, which blew a big hole.I wanted to go to the machine gun position again, but found another enemy cruiser approaching us.Two enemy ships bombarded our boat from a distance of about 2,750 meters, and we had little hope of surviving.The submarine quickly flipped over and sank.At this time, I was still struggling on the surface of the water, not to let myself sink.Next to me was another person floating, but I couldn't see his face clearly.There was a pale moonlight on the sea, a cold wind was blowing, and the waves were strong.I soaked in the water for two hours and passed out.When I awoke, I found myself lying in the infirmary of an American destroyer.