Japanese submarine I-20
History | |
---|---|
Empire of Japan | |
Name | Submarine No. 46 |
Builder | Mitsubishi Kobe Yard, Kobe |
Laid down | 16 November 1937 |
Renamed | I-20 |
Launched | 25 January 1939 |
Completed | 26 September 1940 |
Commissioned | 26 September 1940 |
Fate | Lost after 31 August 1943 |
Stricken | 1 December 1943 |
General characteristics | |
Class and type | Type C1 submarine |
Displacement |
|
Length | 109.3 m (358 ft 7 in) overall |
Beam | 9.1 m (29 ft 10 in) |
Draft | 5.3 m (17 ft 5 in) |
Installed power |
|
Propulsion |
|
Speed |
|
Range |
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Test depth | 100 m (330 ft) |
Crew | 95 |
Armament |
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Notes | Fitted to carry 1 × Type A midget submarine |
I-20 was one of five
Design and description
The Type C submarines were derived from the earlier KD6 sub-class of the
For surface running, the boats were powered by two 6,200-
The boats were armed with eight internal bow 53.3 cm (21.0 in)
Construction and commissioning
Ordered under the
Service history
Pre-World War II
Upon commissioning, I-20 was attached to the
At the Kure Navy Club in Kure, Japan, on 17 November 1941, the commander of Submarine Division 3 briefed the commanding officers of the five converted submarines on the upcoming attack on Pearl Harbor and on the role of their submarines in it.[4] He had been designated the commander of the Special Attack Unit, made up of all five submarines, each of which was to launch a Type A midget submarine off Pearl Harbor so that the midget submarines could participate in the attack.[4][5] I-22 was to serve as flagship of the Special Attack unit.[4]
On 18 November 1941, the five submarines moved from Kure to the Kamegakubi Naval Proving Ground, where each embarked a Type A midget submarine.[4] At 02:15 on 19 November 1941, the five submarines got underway from Kamegakubi bound for the Hawaiian Islands,[4] taking a direct route that took them south of Midway Atoll.[4] While at sea, they received the message "Climb Mount Niitaka 1208" (Japanese: Niitakayama nobore 1208) from the Combined Fleet on 2 December 1941, indicating that war with the Allies would commence on 8 December 1941 Japan time, which was on 7 December 1941 on the other side of the International Date Line in Hawaii.[4]
World War II
Pearl Harbor
At 02:57 on 7 December 1941, I-20 launched her midget submarine, No. 17, south of
I-20 and the other four "mother" submarines proceeded to the planned recovery area for their midget submarines west of
First war patrol
On 4 January 1942, I-20 departed Kwajalein to begin her first war patrol, assigned a patrol area in the vicinity of
Moving to Fijian waters, I-20 attacked the
February–April 1942
During I-20′s stay in Japan, the
During the detachment′s voyage, 16 United States Army Air Forces B-25 Mitchell bombers launched by the aircraft carrier USS Hornet (CV-8) struck targets on Honshu in the Doolittle Raid on 18 April 1942.[7] The detachment received orders from the 6th Fleet that day to divert from its voyage and head northeast, passing north of the Bonin Islands, to intercept the U.S. Navy task force that had launched the strike.[7] The detachment failed to find the U.S. ships and soon resumed its voyage.
I-30 and Aikoku Maru called at Penang from 20 April to 22 April 1942 before heading into the Indian Ocean to conduct an advance reconnaissance of the "A" Detachment′s planned operating area.
Indian Ocean operation
I-20 and the other "A" detachment units got underway from Penang on 30 April 1942, headed westward into the Indian Ocean with I-10 serving as the detachment′s flagship.[4] The submarines refueled at sea from Aikoku Maru and Hōkoku Maru on 5, 10, and 15 May 1942.[4] I-20 suffered a mishap on 17 May when seawater entered through her main induction valve and flooded her engine room in heavy seas. Her crew repaired the damage, only to have the engine room flood a second time, necessitating further repairs.[4]
I-10′s
On 30 May 1942, I-18′s midget submarine suffered engine failure and could not launch,[4][7] but I-16 and I-20 launched their midget submarines 10 nautical miles (19 km; 12 mi) off Diego-Suarez.[4] I-20′s midget torpedoed Ramillies at 20:25.[4] At 21:20, while British corvettes dropped depth charges, I-20′s midget torpedoed and sank the 6,993-ton tanker British Loyalty in shallow water.[4] After the midget ran aground, its two-man crew reached shore and attempted to make their way overland to the designated recovery area, but they were reported to the British as having been seen outside Anjiabe at around 11:00 on 1 June and died in a gunfight with Royal Marine Commando No. 5 on 2 June 1942 at Amponkarana Bay (12°00′S 049°12′E / 12.000°S 49.200°E).[4] One Royal Marine also died in the exchange of gunfire.[4] Ramillies survived the attack and departed for Durban ten days later, although the Japanese assessed her as sunk after I-10′s floatplane noted her missing from Diego-Saurez during a reconnaissance flight.[4] British Loyalty later was refloated, towed to Addu Atoll, and scuttled.[4]
On 3 June 1942, after I-16 and I-18 had departed the recovery area, I-20 arrived and made an unsuccessful attempt to contact the midget submarines and their crews.[4] She then joined the rest of the "A" detachment in anti-shipping operations.[4] She torpedoed and sank the Panamanian 5,086-ton armed merchant ship Johnstown at 13°12′S 042°06′E / 13.200°S 42.100°E on 5 June,[4] the Greek 5,209-ton merchant ship Christos Markettos at 05°05′S 040°53′E / 5.083°S 40.883°E on 8 June,[4] and the British 7,926-ton armed merchant ship Mahronda at 14°37′S 040°58′E / 14.617°S 40.967°E on 11 June 1942.[4] On 12 June, she sank the Panamanian 2,052-ton merchant ship Hellenic Trader at 14°40′S 040°53′E / 14.667°S 40.883°E with gunfire and torpedoed and sank the British 5,063-ton merchant ship Clifton Hall at 16°25′S 040°10′E / 16.417°S 40.167°E.[4]
After refueling from Aikoku Maru on 19 June 1942,
Concerned by a number of premature detonations of I-20′s torpedoes, her commanding officer ordered her crew to disassemble and examine a Type 95 torpedo on 5 July 1942.[4] On 21 July, she moved into the Gulf of Aden before departing her patrol area and proceeding to Penang, which she reached on 5 August 1942.[4] She later set course for Japan, arriving at Yokosuka on 23 August 1942 to undergo an overhaul.[4]
Guadalcanal campaign
Meanwhile, the
At Truk, I-20 embarked the midget submarine No. 37 and departed on 13 November 1942.[4] She arrived at her launch area off Lungga Point on the northern coast of Guadalcanal on 18 November, and launched No. 37 6 nautical miles (11 km; 6.9 mi) off Cape Esperance at 03:00 on 19 November 1942.[4] At 03:02, No. 37 developed a serious oil leak from her steering system, but she pressed ahead on the surface.[4] Sighting no targets off Guadalcanal, her two-man crew scuttled her off Cape Esperance at 09:55 and swam safely to shore on Guadalcanal.[4]
At Truk, I-20 embarked the midget submarine No. 8 and departed on 26 November 1942.
While I-20 was conducting her midget-submarine operations, the Japanese issued orders on 16 November 1942 for their submarines to begin a series of supply runs to deliver cargo to the Japanese forces fighting on Guadalcanal.[4] Assigned to these duties, I-20 arrived off Cape Esperance on 31 December 1942, delivering 25-tons of cargo in rubber containers.[4] She made a brief stop at Truk before departing on 2 January 1943 for Shortland Island.[4] Getting underway from Shortland for her second supply run, she arrived off Cape Esperance on 7 January 1943, discharging 18-tons of cargo in rubber containers.[4] On her third and final Guadalcanal supply run, she became the first Japanese submarine to deliver cargo using an Unkato supply container — a 135-foot (41.1 m) submersible cargo container that could carry up to 377 tons of supplies, designed for a one-way trip in which the cargo′s recipients released, recovered, and unloaded it[9] — departing Shortland on 20 January and delivering 18 tons of cargo at Cape Esperance in her container on 22 January 1943.[4]
New Guinea campaign
After the conclusion of the Guadalcanal campaign in early February 1943, I-20 received orders to begin supply runs to
On 11 April 1943, the submarine I-5, also making a supply run to Lae, was on the surface in the Solomon Sea 90 nautical miles (170 km; 100 mi) east of Gasmata, New Britain, when she sighted I-20 on the surface at 05:10.[4] Sighting I-5 at 05:13 and mistaking her for an Allied submarine, I-20 began an attack approach.[4] I-5, which had identified I-20 as a Japanese submarine, managed to break contact with I-20, which had never realized during the encounter that I-5 was Japanese.[4]
I-5, I-6, I-16, and I-20 were attached temporarily to the headquarters of the 8th Fleet on 13 April 1942.[4] I-20 delivered 37 tons of cargo at Lae on 15 April 1943 and embarked 42 soldiers.[4] An Allied bomber illuminated her with flares off Lae, but she avoided an attack.[4]
I-20′s next supply run was to Kolombangara in the New Georgia Islands, where she delivered food and ammunition on 20 April 1943.[4] She then returned to her Lae runs, calling there on 2 May 1943 to deliver 39 tons of cargo and evacuate 31 soldiers[4] and on 8 May to deliver another 39 tons of cargo on her seventh and final supply run to Lae.[4] Re-attached to 8th Fleet headquarters on 15 May 1943,[4] she proceeded to Japan, where she arrived on 20 May at Yokosuka for an overhaul.[4]
Second war patrol
With her overhaul complete and reassigned to Submarine Squadron 1, I-20 departed Yokosuka on 4 August 1943 and stopped at Truk from 10 to 19 August before getting back underway to conduct her second war patrol, assigned a patrol area in the New Hebrides.[4] On 30 August 1943, she reported sighting an Allied force including an aircraft carrier and two battleships off Espiritu Santo.[4] On 31 August, she reported that she had torpedoed and damaged the American 10,872-ton tanker W. S. Rheem at 15°51′S 167°02′E / 15.850°S 167.033°E.[4] She was never heard from again.[4]
Loss
The exact circumstances of I-20′s loss remain unknown. I-20 and the submarine
The first action took place on 1 September 1943, when the destroyer
The second action occurred on 3 September 1943, when the destroyer
The submarines Wadsworth and Ellet sank remain unidentified.[4][10] It seems likely that one of them was I-20 and the other I-182.[4][10]
On 18 November 1943, the Imperial Japanese Navy declared I-20 lost with her entire crew of 101 men off Espiritu Santo.[4] She was stricken from the Navy list on 1 December 1943.[4]
Notes
- ^ Bagnasco, p. 192
- ^ Chesneau, p. 201
- ^ a b Carpenter & Dorr, p. 104
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac ad ae af ag ah ai aj ak al am an ao ap aq ar as at au av aw ax ay az ba bb bc bd be bf bg bh bi bj bk bl bm bn bo bp bq br bs bt bu bv bw bx by bz ca cb cc cd ce cf cg ch ci cj ck cl cm cn co cp cq cr cs ct cu cv cw cx cy cz da db dc dd de df dg dh di dj dk dl dm dn do dp dq dr ds dt du dv dw dx dy Hackett, Bob; Kingsepp, Sander (20 July 2017). "IJN Submarine I-20: Tabular Record of Movement". combinedfleet.com. Retrieved 19 August 2020.
- ^ a b c Hackett, Bob; Kingsepp, Sander (2015). "IJN Submarine I-22: Tabular Record of Movement". combinedfleet.com. Retrieved 17 August 2020.
- ^ a b Hackett, Bob; Kingsepp, Sander (2017). "IJN Submarine I-24: Tabular Record of Movement". combinedfleet.com. Retrieved 18 August 2020.
- ^ a b c d Hackett, Bob; Kingsepp, Sander (2017). "IJN Submarine I-18: Tabular Record of Movement". combinedfleet.com. Retrieved 19 August 2020.
- ^ Hackett, Bob; Kingsepp, Sander (2012). "IJN Submarine I-30: Tabular Record of Movement". combinedfleet.com. Retrieved 18 August 2020.
- ^ Hackett, Bob; Kingsepp, Sander (2017). "IJN Submarine I-38: Tabular Record of Movement". combinedfleet.com. Retrieved 3 September 2020.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Hackett, Bob; Kingsepp, Sander (2004). "IJN Submarine I-182: Tabular Record of Movement". combinedfleet.com. Retrieved 19 August 2020.
References
- Bagnasco, Erminio (1977). Submarines of World War Two. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0-87021-962-6.
- Boyd, Carl & Yoshida, Akikiko (2002). The Japanese Submarine Force and World War II. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 1-55750-015-0.
- Carpenter, Dorr B. & Polmar, Norman (1986). Submarines of the Imperial Japanese Navy 1904–1945. London: Conway Maritime Press. ISBN 0-85177-396-6.
- Chesneau, Roger, ed. (1980). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1922–1946. Greenwich, UK: Conway Maritime Press. ISBN 0-85177-146-7.
- Hackett, Bob; Kingsepp, Sander. "IJN Submarine I-20: Tabular Record of Movement". Sensuikan!. combinedfleet.com. Retrieved 20 August 2020.
- Hashimoto, Mochitsura (1954). Sunk: The Story of the Japanese Submarine Fleet 1942 – 1945. Colegrave, E.H.M. (translator). London: Cassell and Company. ASIN B000QSM3L0.
- Stille, Mark (2007). Imperial Japanese Navy Submarines 1941-45. New Vanguard. Vol. 135. Botley, Oxford, UK: Osprey Publishing. ISBN 978-1-84603-090-1.