Japanese submarine I-35

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History
Japan
NameSubmarine No. 143
BuilderMitsubishi
Laid down2 September 1940
RenamedI-45
Launched24 September 1941
RenamedI-35 on 1 November 1941
Completed31 August 1942
Commissioned31 August 1942
FateSunk 23 November 1943
Stricken10 April 1944
General characteristics
Class and typeType B1 submarine
Displacement
  • 2,584 tons surfaced
  • 3,654 tons submerged
Length108.7 m (357 ft)
Beam9.3 m (31 ft)
Draft5.14 m (16.9 ft)
Propulsion
  • 2 diesels: 12,400 hp (9,200 kW)
  • Electric motors: 2,000 hp (1,500 kW)
Speed
  • 23.5 knots (43.5 km/h) surfaced
  • 8 knots (15 km/h) submerged
Range14,000 nautical miles (26,000 km) at 16 knots (30 km/h)
Test depth100 m (330 ft)
Complement94
Armament
Aircraft carried1 Yokosuka E14Y seaplane

I-35 was an

B1 type submarine. Completed and commissioned in 1942, she served in World War II, operating in the Aleutian Islands campaign and the Battle of Tarawa
before she was sunk in November 1943.

Construction and commissioning

I-35 was

laid down on 2 September 1940 by Mitsubishi at Kobe, Japan, with the name Submarine No. 143.[2] Renamed I-45 by the time she was launched on 24 September 1941,[2] she was renamed I-35 on 1 November 1941.[2] She was completed and commissioned on 31 August 1942.[2]

Service history

Work-ups

Upon commissioning, I-35 was attached to the

Rear Admiral Tadashige Daigo.[2] I-34 replaced her as the flagship on 4 September 1942.[2]

From 14 to 21 September 1942, I-34 and I-35 conducted work-ups in the

Bungo Strait, returning to Kure on 28 October 1942.[2]

Aleutian Islands campaign

On 15 November 1942, I-34 and I-35 were reassigned to the Northern Force in the

Paramushiro in the Kuril Islands on 20 December 1942.[2]

On 25 December 1942, I-35 set out from Paramushiro on another supply run to Kiska, calling there briefly on 31 December 1942 to discharge her cargo before moving to a patrol area in the Bering Sea northeast of Adak Island.[2] On 7 January 1943, she received orders to divert to an area in the Bering Sea northeast of Attu to search for American cruisers that Japanese forces had sighted there.[2] She did not find them, and on 10 January 1943 she moved to a patrol area in the North Pacific Ocean south of Kiska.[2] She visited Kiska from 17 to 18 January, then got back underway to patrol in the North Pacific south of Kiska and Amchitka.[2] The light cruiser Kiso and destroyer Wakaba steamed through her patrol on their way to Kiska carrying supplies and sighted what they thought was an American submarine on 23 January 1943, raising a concern that their supply mission had been compromised and prompting them to abort it and return to base, not realizing until later that the submarine they sighted probably was I-35.[2] I-35 moved to a new patrol area north of Constantine Harbor on Amchitka on 30 January 1943, and on 14 February 1943 visited Kiska to embark a staff officer of the North Sea Defense Force and transport him to Attu.[2] After completing her patrol, she eventually returned to Japan.

On 27 March 1943, I-35 departed Yokosuka.[2] She arrived at Paramushiro on 1 April 1943 and was reassigned to Submarine Division 15 in the Northern Force that day.[2] She got underway from Paramushiro on 3 April 1943 for her third supply run to Kiska, which she visited on 8 April to unload four tons of cargo and disembark staff officers of the 51st Base Force.[2] She departed Kiska the same day and reached Paramushiro on 13 April 1943.[2]

I-35 departed Paramushiro on 16 April 1943 to make her first supply run to Attu, where she delivered supplies and ammunition and disembarked several Imperial Japanese Army staff officers on 20 April 1943 before getting back underway the same day to return to Paramushiro, which she reached on 24 April 1943.[2] She put to sea again on 27 April 1943 for her fourth supply run to Kiska, where she unloaded her cargo on 1 May 1943.[2] She returned to Paramushiro on 5 May 1943.[2]

The

diesel oil slick had come to the surface.[2] The identity of the submarine Phelps attacked is unknown, but it probably was either I-34 or I-35, both of which were in the area at the time.[2] A depth charge presumably had knocked the metal drum off the submarine's deck,[2]
but no Japanese submarine was sunk in the action.

In foggy conditions on the morning of 15 May 1943, I-35 sighted Pennsylvania standing by as the attack transport USS J. Franklin Bell (APA-16) unloaded off Holtz Bay on Attu. I-35 fired torpedoes at what she identified as a light cruiser and heard two explosions.[2] At 11:40, four torpedoes passed astern of Pennsylvania and on either side of J. Franklin Bell.[2] Two destroyers counterattacked, dropping 58 depth charges and inflicting serious damage on I-35. I-35 called at Paramushiro from 19 to 27 May 1943, then proceeded to Kure, which she reached at 17:00 on 2 June 1943.[2] She later moved to Kobe where repairs to her damage began on 17 June 1943.[2]

Later operations

With her repairs complete, I-35 departed Kure in mid-September 1943 and arrived at Truk on 18 September.[2] On 11 October 1943, she set out from Truk on a war patrol in the area of Wake Island and Hawaii,[2] and while at sea on 16 October 1943 was reassigned to Submarine Group A.[2] At 00:32 on 17 October 1943, the submarine USS Nautilus (SS-168), which was en route Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, after conducting a reconnaissance of Makin Island in the Gilbert Islands, sighted the conning tower of a submarine that looked to her commanding officer like that of a new-construction U.S. submarine, but he later received information that he had seen a Japanese submarine, which may have been I-35.[2]

After patrolling near Wake Island, I-35 received orders on 23 October 1943 to move to the Hawaii area.

escort aircraft carriers USS Sangamon (CVE-26), USS Suwanee (CVE-27), and USS Chenango (CVE-28) and the destroyers escorting them — 70 nautical miles (130 km; 81 mi) southwest of Tarawa.[2] The Japanese never heard from her again and declared her missing that day.[2]

The declaration was premature, as I-35 continued her operations. On 23 November 1943, she crash-dived west of Tarawa Atoll when an aircraft attacked her with bombs at 05:20.[2] Undamaged, she proceeded east.[2]

Loss

By the afternoon of 23 November 1943, I-35 was operating at a depth of 65 feet (20 m) near the west coast of Betio.[3] A surviving member of her crew later expressed the belief that she was attempting to enter Tarawa Atoll′s lagoon; however, the only entrance to the lagoon for a vessel of her size, which lies 4 nautical miles (7.4 km; 4.6 mi) north of Betio, is twisting, extremely narrow, and shallow, and the lagoon itself is shallow and full of submerged reefs and shoals, making it unlikely that that I-35′s commanding officer intended to enter it.[4] Instead her commanding officer probably intended to position her to attack ships in the seaward approaches to the lagoon's entrance channel.[5]

At 12:00 on 23 November, the destroyer USS Gansevoort (DD-608) detected the sound of I-35′s propellers west of Betio, but lost contact before she could make an attack.[3] At 15:00 the destroyer USS Meade (DD-602) detected I-35′s propeller noises.[2][5] Meade made three depth-charge attacks at 30-minute intervals without success before losing contact.[5]

Meade requested assistance, and the destroyer

oil slick on the surface.[5] Meade made the destroyers′ final depth-charge attack at 17:38, with the depth charges set to explode with a deep setting.[2][5]

The final attack inflicted heavy damage on I-35, knocking out her internal lighting, instruments, and

gun mount, but they all were killed or wounded, and the destroyer crews reported seeing some of the wounded retreat back inside I-35.[5]

Frazier turned toward I-35 and worked up speed to ram her, and was making 25 knots (46 km/h; 29 mph) when she struck I-35 on her port quarter aft of her conning tower at 17:51, rupturing I-35′s

antisubmarine patrol approached and dropped depth charges which landed within 50 yards (46 m) of her, exploding near her as they sank alongside her.[7] At 18:00, the destroyer crews heard and felt a large underwater explosion,[7]
apparently marking the final destruction of I-35.

The destroyer crews sighted four survivors from I-35 in the water, and each destroyer launched a boat to recover them.[2][7] One of them opened fire on an approaching boat crew, which returned fire and killed him, but the boats rescued the other three,[2][7] all of whom were wounded.[7] As the boats were returning to the destroyers, with one Japanese aboard Meade′s boat and two aboard Frazier′s, an SBD Dauntless dive bomber from Suwannee arrived on the scene, mistook Meade′s boat for a Japanese submarine, and dropped a 500-pound (227 kg) bomb.[7] The explosion of the bomb lifted the boat into the air, badly damaging it but inflicting no serious injuries on its occupants.[7] Uncertain of the dive bomber's identity, Meade opened fire on it, damaging it and driving it off but not harming its crew.[7] The boat returned safely to Meade and the Dauntless landed safely aboard Suwannnee.[7]

I-35′s three survivors said that they believed that I-35 had been in combat with two cruisers, that the cruisers had launched two floatplanes, and that the floatplanes had bombed the submarine, with one bomb striking the ammunition box for her 140-millimeter (5.5 in) deck gun.[2]

Perhaps because of the proximity of the International Date Line to the Gilbert Islands, some sources place the events of 23 November 1943 — the date in the Gilbert Islands of the sinking of I-35 — on 22 November,[3] the date in the waters of the Pacific Ocean on the other side of the line, not far west of the islands.

In ramming I-35, Frazier sustained serious bow damage, with the lower 4 feet (1.2 m) of her bow bent 3 feet (0.91 m) to port.[7] Two days after the sinking of I-35, Frazier departed the Gilbert Islands area for repairs at Pearl Harbor.[7]

On 10 January 1944, the Imperial Japanese Navy — unaware that the destroyers had rescued three survivors — declared I-35 to be presumed lost with all hands in the Gilbert Islands area.[2] She was stricken from the Navy list on 10 April 1944.[2]

Notes

  1. ISBN 0-87021-459-4
    p.191
  2. ^ 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 Hackett, Bob; Kingsepp, Sander (2019). "IJN Submarine I-35: Tabular Record of Movement". combinedfleet.com. Retrieved 19 August 2020.
  3. ^ a b c d e McQuarrie, p. 57.
  4. ^ McQuarrie, pp. 57–58.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m McQuarrie, pp. 58.
  6. ^ McQuarrie, pp. 58–59.
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k McQuarrie, p. 59.

Sources

  • Hackett, Bob & Kingsepp, Sander. IJN Submarine I-35: Tabular Record of Movement. Retrieved on August 26, 2020.
  • McQuarrie, Peter (October 2023). "The Sinking of I-35: The Imperial Japanese Navy's Submarine I-35 Went Down During 'Operation Galvanic,' the American Seizure of Tarawa and Makin in the Gilbert Islands". WWII History. McLean, Virginia: Sovereign Media.
  • Milanovich, Kathrin (2021). "The IJN Submarines of the I 15 Class". In Jordan, John (ed.). Warship 2021. Oxford, UK: Osprey Publishing. pp. 29–43.
    ISBN 978-1-4728-4779-9
    .
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