Japanese submarine I-8
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| Japanese submarine I-8 | |
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| Career |  |
|---|---|
| Completed: | 1937-1938 |
| Fate: | Sunk 31 March 1945 |
| General Characteristics | |
| Displacement: | 2,525 tons surfaced 3,583 tons submerged |
| Length: | 358.5 ft |
| Beam: | 29.8 ft |
| Draft: | 17.3 ft |
| Surface propulsion: | 2 diesels: 11,200 hp |
| Submerged propulsion: | Electric motors: 2,800 hp (1.8 MW) |
| Surface speed: | 23 knots |
| Submerged speed: | 8 knots |
| Maximum depth: | 100 m (330 ft) |
| Range: | 14,000 nautical miles at 16 knots |
| Complement: | 100 officers and men |
| Armament: | 1 Yokosuka E14Y sea-plane 6 x 533 mm forward torpedo tubes (21 torpedoes) |
The Japanese submarine I-8 was a World War II Junsen Type J-3 Imperial Japanese Navy submarine, famous for completing a technology exchange mission to German-occupied France and back to Japan in 1943.
The series (I-7 and I-8), based on the KD (Kaidai) type, were the largest Japanese submarines to be completed before World War II. They participated in the attack on Pearl Harbor in patrol missions with their Yokosuka E14Y seaplanes being used in reconnaissance flights.
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[edit] Mission to Germany
These missions took place under the Axis Powers' Tripartite Pact to provide for an exchange of strategic materials and manufactured goods between Germany, Italy, and Japan. Initially, cargo ships made the exchanges, but when that was no longer possible, submarines were used. Only six submarines attempted this trans-oceanic voyage during World War II: I-30 (April 1942), I-8 (June 1943), I-34 (October 1943), I-29 (November 1943), and German submarine U-511 (August 1943). Of these, I-30 was sunk by a mine, I-34 by the British submarine Taurus, and I-29 by the American submarine, Sawfish (assisted by Ultra intelligence). I-52 was the final submarine to make the attempt.
Commanded by Shinji Uchino, I-8 departed Kure harbor on 1 June 1943, together with I-10 and the submarine tender Hie Maru. Their cargo included two of the famed Type 95 oxygen-propelled torpedoes, torpedo tubes, drawings of an automatic trim system, and a new naval reconnaissance plane, the Yokosuka E14Y. A supplementary crew of 48 men, commanded by Sadatoshi Norita, was also packed into the submarine, with the objective of manning a German U-Boat submarine (U-1224, a Type IXC/40 U-boat) and bringing it back to Japan for reverse engineering.
On arriving in Singapore nine days later, I-8 also took onboard quinine, tin, and raw rubber before heading for the Japanese base at Penang.
On July 21, I-8 entered the Atlantic, where she encountered fierce storms, but was able to continue to German-occupied France.
Getting closer to Europe, on August 20, I-8 rendezvoused with German submarine U-161, commanded by Captain Albrecht Achille. Two German radio technicians were transferred onboard, as well as a FuMB 1 "Metox" 600A radar detector which was installed on the bridge of I-8. As I-8 entered the Bay of Biscay on 29 August, the Germans sent Ju-88s to provide air cover all the way to Brest, France, where she arrived two days later.
The Japanese submarine was welcomed warmly by the Germans. German news agencies announced that "now even Japanese submarines are operating in the Atlantic." Over a period of about a month, parties and visits to Paris and Berlin were organized for the crew.
[edit] Return to Japan
I-8 left Brest on October 5, with a cargo of German equipment: machine guns, bomb sights, a Daimler-Benz torpedo boat engine, naval chronometers, radars, sonar equipment, anti-aircraft gunsights, electric torpedoes, and penicillin. The submarine also transported Rear Admiral Yokoi, naval attaché to Berlin since 1940; Captain Hosoya, naval attaché to France since December 1939; three German officers; and four radar and hydrophone technicians.
In the South Atlantic, I-8 radioed its position to the Germans, but the message was intercepted by the allies, prompting an attack by anti-submarine aircraft, which failed. I-8 arrived in Singapore on 5 December, and finally returned to Kure, Japan on 21 December, after a voyage of 30,000 miles.
[edit] Atrocity Reports
[edit] SS Tjisalak
On the 26 March 1944, during a raid into the Indian Ocean, I-8 torpedoed the 5,787-ton Dutch freighter SS Tjisalak. The submarine then surfaced amid the debris field and after a brief exchange of shots with the ship's defensive armament, collected the survivors upon the boat's deck. It was at this point, shortly after the frieghter had sunk, that crew and passengers, totalling 97 survivors, were tied together and forced to run a gauntlet of Japanese sailors, during which they were slashed with samurai swords and beaten with monkey wrenches and sledgehammers before being shot, and kicked into the water. Six men somehow managed to survive this massacre and find a life raft, from which they were picked up by the liberty ship SS James O. Wilder sometime later.
[edit] SS Jean Nicolet
Just two months after the murder of the crew of the Tjisalak, the crew of the I-8 were involved in yet another atrocity, when they hit the 7,176-ton liberty ship SS Jean Nicolet with two torpedoes, not far from the scene of the sinking of the Tjisalak. The 100 crew of the American ship abandoned the burning craft and took to life rafts, but were all gathered on the submarine's deck in a similar fashion. This time the massacre took several hours, as the crew were made to walk individually past the conning tower, before being set upon and murdered. Suddenly, and without warning the submarine dived, plunging the tied up sailors lying on her deck into the ocean where most drowned. Sources differ over the number of survivors, but it is believed that 22 men made it to a life raft, from which they were picked up by the HMS Hoxa some 30 hours later. Five prisoners were also taken to Japan by the submarine, one of whom survived to be released after the war.
I-8 also sunk numerous other ships, often with high loss of life, and some with total loss, possibly implying further atrocities which remain unknown. Her captain who had encouraged and participated in the events, Tatsunoke Ariizumi committed suicide at the Japanese surrender, and no charges were ever brought against the remainder of the crew, few of who survived hostilities.
[edit] Later developments
In late 1944, I-8 was converted to carry Kaiten suicide torpedoes. She was lost off Okinawa on 31 March 1945, in an encounter with the American destroyers USS Morrison and USS Stockton.
Commanding Officers
Chief Equipping Officer - Cmdr. Hiroshi Goto - 20 May 1938 - 15 December 1938
Cmdr. Hiroshi Goto - 15 December 1938 - 15 November 1939
Cmdr. Taro Shimizu - 15 November 1939 - 31 October 1941
Cmdr. Tetsuhiro Emi - 31 October 1941 - 25 July 1942
Cmdr. Shinji Uchino - 25 July 1942 - 15 January 1944
Cmdr. / Capt. Tetsunosuke Ariizumi - 15 January 1944 - 15 December 1944 (Promoted to Captain on 15 October 1944.)
Lt. Cmdr. Shigeo Shinohara - 15 December 1944 - 31 March 1945 (KIA)
Imperial Japanese Navy  |
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[edit] See also
- Imperial Japanese Navy submarines
- [Article with pictures of I-8 stay in France from a Kriegsmarine reel (French text) from www.cybervillage.bzh.bz ]
[edit] References
Tony Bridgland, Waves of Hate, Pen & Sword, 2002, ISBN 0-85052-822-4
