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| Japanese submarine recovered after raid on Sydney Harbor (awr.gov.au) |
One
morning back in the middle of last century, the people of Australia awoke to
the chilling news that Japanese submarines had successfully entered Sydney
Harbour and shelled nearby shipping and shore
installations. Three midget submarines
were launched from three mother submarines about 6 miles off the entrance to
Sydney Harbour, on the eastern coast of the Australian continent. This all happened some 73 years ago, this
weekend.
Back on December 16, 1941, the
Imperial Japanese Navy with its headquarters in Yokohama began active planning
for a concerted attack on a major coastal city somewhere in the South Pacific. The four most likely targets would be: Noumea
in New Caledonia, Suva in Fiji, Auckland in New Zealand, and Sydney in
Australia. It was planned that six
mother submarines would carry four midget submarines and two scout planes into
enemy waters in the South Pacific.
Next
year, on May 11, 1942, four mother submarines were ordered to proceed to Truk
Lagoon in the Caroline Islands where they would take aboard one midget
submarine each. However one of the
midget submarines exploded on board the mother submarine, and this combined
vessel was forced to withdraw from the attack project.
During
mid May, the submarine fleet of five combined vessels cruised south from the
Carolines, skirting the Solomon Islands, and down into Australian territorial
waters. On the way, one of the
submarines fired on a Russian freighter steaming out from Newcastle.
In
the early morning of Saturday May 23 (1942), a float plane from the mother
submarine I-29 was launched, and it ventured out on a reconnaissance flight
over the Sydney Harbour area. A radar
unit at Iron Cove detected the intruder, but the initial report dismissed the
flight of this hostile plane, under the impression that it was an American.
Six days later, all five mother
submarines rendezvoused some 35 miles out to sea off Sydney Heads, the
entrance to Sydney Harbour. Then before
dawn on Friday May 29, another flight plane, this time from submarine I-21,
made a final reconnaissance flight over Sydney; and again, it was misidentified
as an American plane.
However at 5:07 am, an alarm was
finally raised and search planes from the Richmond Air Force base took off in
an unsuccessful search for the intruder and its mother submarine. The float plane was damaged on its return to
the submarine and scuttled, though the two man crew were not injured.
Then at 5:20 pm on Sunday May 31
(1942), the first midget submarine M-14 was launched from the mother submarine
I-27 at a location just 6 miles outside of the entrance to Sydney Harbour. At 8:01 pm, this midget submarine passed over
the magnetic loop lying across the entrance, but it was thought to be just a
local boat in the area.
A quarter of an hour later, this
midget submarine got caught in an anti-submarine net in which it was mortally
entangled. More than two hours later,
two navy vessels encountered the entangled submarine and dropped two depth charges
that did not explode due to the shallow waters.
However, the midget submarine M-14 activated scuttling charges that
destroyed the submarine and killed the two man crew.
The second midget submarine M-24 was
launched from the mother submarine I-24 and it crossed the magnetic loop at
9:48 pm, 1¾ hours
behind the first midget. This submarine
followed behind the local Manly Ferry and entered the harbour waters
undetected.
The M-24 was subsequently detected
and fired upon by an American navy vessel, the USS Chicago. After firing a couple of torpedoes, the M-24
turned and left the harbor, crossing out at 1:58 am on the Sunday morning.
At this stage, the M-24 disappeared
from history, until it was found accidentally in November 2006 by some scuba
divers some three miles off Bungan Head, which is some 25 miles north of
Sydney. The M-24 was sitting upright on
the sea floor, 180 feet underwater, and it showed
several machine gun bullet holes; apparently slow flooding brought this vessel
to a standstill.
The third midget submarine M-21,
from the mother vessel I-22, entered Sydney Harbour over the loop at 10:50
pm. They were spotted shortly
afterwards, and so they quickly exited from the Harbour area. However, this same submarine then re-entered
the harbour at 3:01 am, though soon afterwards they were spotted again and
attacked and destroyed by a surface vessel, the HMAS Yandra.
By prior arrangement, the three
midget submarines were expected to meet their mother ships off Port Hacking, 20 miles south of
Sydney. Four of the mother submarines
were in a row, east & west, with the fifth a little further south. They waited for two days after the attack in
Sydney Harbour, but they waited in vain.
The two midget submarines that were
sunk in Sydney Harbour were afterwards raised, and a complete submarine was
assembled from the damaged pieces for display purposes. The four dead seamen were cremated with due
ceremony and their remains were sent to Japan, first on an English exchange
vessel, the City of Canterbury which met the Japanese exchange ship, the navy
vessel Kamakura Maru at Lorenco Marques in Portuguese East Africa.
On the radio scene, submarine
chatter was heard at the Royal Air Force station in Brisbane when the five
submarines were off the coast of Queensland.
After the first reconnaissance flight over Sydney, the mother submarine
transmitted a radio report to Fleet Headquarters at Kwajelein in the Marianas
which was heard in part by the American FRUMEL monitoring station in
Melbourne. Then, on May 26 and May 29
radio chatter from Japanese submarines was heard in New Zealand, though not
decrypted, and direction finding indicated that they were closing in on Sydney.
When the first midget submarine
safely crossed over the magnetic loop into Sydney Harbour, they reported on
radio to the two other midget submarines the success of their venture thus
far. However, the midget submarines
talked to each other on the international distress frequency 500 kHz, and these
signals were picked up by the army radio station at Middle Head and reported to
the navy.
On the night of June 2, FRUMEL in
Melbourne again heard chatter from the five mother submarines waiting off the
coast of Port Hacking for the return of the three midget submarines. Five air force planes were sent out to search
for the waiting submarines, but found nothing.
Wartime historians state that the
midget submarine attack on Sydney Harbour did occasion some damage, and one
small ship was sunk with the loss of a score of seamen. However, the greatest impact was
psychological, and fear of what might come subsequently gripped Australia for
some time.
The events of the midget submarine
attack on Sydney Harbour took place at the same time as the newspapers were
beginning to print their regular issue for the new day, and consequently, very
little coverage of the attack was given in the Monday morning editions. Next day of course, very wide coverage was
accorded. Soon after the attacks began,
local mediumwave stations began to report what was known of the events soon
after they occurred, though little accurate detail was known at the time.
Radio Australia, or Australia
Calling as it was in those days, reported the attack on Sydney Harbour, and
Radio Tokyo gave glowing reports on what they considered to be the success of
the venture. Paris Radio erroneously
stated that an American navy cruiser had been sunk, along with two merchantmen;
and Rome Radio stated that the Japanese successfully blew up Sydney
Harbour.
Australia Calling also broadcast the
funeral ceremony for the four submariners, and when the ashes of the men
arrived in Japan, Radio Tokyo called their return a chivalrous act by Australia
that greatly impresses Japan.
(Awr-Wavescan/NWS 327)
