Yanagi missions

Coordinates: 15°16′N 39°55′W / 15.267°N 39.917°W / 15.267; -39.917
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

The Yanagi missions (柳作戦, Yanagi sakusen), or more formally the Submarine Missions to Germany (遣独潜水艦作戦, Kendoku sensuikan sakusen), were a series of

naval superiority in the Indian and Atlantic
Oceans; of the five westbound voyages, three arrived safely, with two submarines sunk en route, while of the three successful vessels only one completed her return voyage, with two sunk before reaching home.

The Yanagi missions were matched by several reciprocal voyages by German U-boats, though these were outside the Yanagi scheme, as were several blockade-running cargo voyages to and from the Far East.

Background

In December 1941 the

Hiroshi Oshima, the Japanese ambassador in Germany, had conversations with senior German officials in which they considered using submarines instead of surface ships. As early as December 1941, Hitler had told Oshima that Germany could use submarines to establish transportation links with Japan in the long term. The commander of the Kriegsmarine at the time, Grand Admiral Erich Raeder, opposed the plan as it would divert the navy from his priority of building more surface ships.[1]

The situation changed in early 1943 when Grand Admiral

Type XX U-boat), but because of limited resources this project was never implemented. They ended up using several Type IX long-range U-boats, several Type X mine-laying U-boats, and one Type XIV U-tanker.[2]

The Yanagi missions

The Yanagi missions were:

In April 1942 I-30 departed Kure, Japan with a cargo of mica and shellac, and plans of the Type 91 aerial torpedo; after missions in the Indian Ocean with other IJN submarines, she detached in June to proceed to Lorient, arriving there in August 1942.[3][4] She departed France later that month carrying German military technology, including plans for and a complete set of a Würzburg radar, eight torpedoes and five torpedo data computers, anti-tank guns, diamonds, 20mm anti-aircraft guns, and fifty Enigma machines, and arrived at Singapore in October. However, she struck a British mine on leaving Singapore for the last stage to Japan. Some equipment was salvaged, but most was lost.[5][6]

In June 1943

rubber and quinine at Singapore. She also carried a spare crew of 48 men from Kure tasked with bringing back a German U-boat, U-1224, which the Kriegsmarine had transferred to the IJN for examination and reverse engineering. The I-8 rendezvoused with the German submarine U-161 from Lorient who transferred two German technicians who installed a radar detector. She arrived at Brest in August.[7] I-8 departed France in October 1943 with a variety of German technology, including: bomb and anti-aircraft gunsights, marine chronometers, a Daimler-Benz torpedo boat engine, electric torpedoes, machine guns, and penicillin, arriving at Kure in December after a round-trip voyage of 30,000 miles (48,000 km).[8][9]

In October 1943

HMS Taurus.[10][11]

In November 1943

Walter rocket engine and plans for the jet-powered Me 262 and the rocket-powered Me 163. She arrived at Singapore in July, but was sunk with her cargo en route to Japan in the Luzon Strait by the American submarine USS Sawfish on 26 July 1944.[14][15]

In March 1944

Cape Verde Islands.[17][18] It is believed that on her return voyage to Japan she would have been carrying uranium oxide.[19]

I-52's voyage was the last Yanagi mission undertaken by the IJN.

Reciprocal voyages

The German

U-boat arm
made several reciprocal exchange voyages, though these were outside the Yanagi scheme; they also made a number of blockade-running voyages, also separate from the Yanagi missions.

From February to June 1943

Subash Chandra Bose, future leader of the Indian National Army, and received two tons of gold picked up from Penang in payment for German goods so far received.[20]

In May 1943 U-511 sailed for Japan from Lorient, arriving in Kure in August. Code-named 'Marco Polo I' she was transferred to the IJN as an exchange in submarine technology, and was commissioned by them as RO-500.[21]

In February 1944

hunter-killer group on 13 May.[22]

On 5 December 1944

action of 9 February 1945, the only time one submarine was sunk by another while submerged.[23]

In March 1945

Newfoundland.[24]

Notes

  1. ^ a b Scalia (2009), pp. 9–10.
  2. ^ Scalia (2009), p. 11
  3. ^ Blair vol II, p231
  4. ^ Hackett and Kingsepp, IJN Submarine I-30: Tabular Record of Movement
  5. ^ Blair vol II, p231
  6. ^ Hackett and Kingsepp, IJN Submarine I-30: Tabular Record of Movement
  7. ^ Blair vol II, pp373-4
  8. ^ Blair vol II, p405
  9. ^ Hackett and Kingsepp, IJN Submarine I-8: Tabular Record of Movement
  10. ^ Blair vol II, p480
  11. ^ Hackett and Kingsepp, IJN Submarine I-34: Tabular Record of Movement
  12. ^ Hackett and Kingsepp, IJN Submarine I-29: Tabular Record of Movement
  13. ^ Blair vol II, p539
  14. ^ Blair vol II, p539
  15. ^ Hackett and Kingsepp, IJN Submarine I-29: Tabular Record of Movement
  16. ^ Hackett and Kingsepp, IJN Submarine I-52: Tabular Record of Movement
  17. ^ Blair vol II, pp566-7
  18. ^ Hackett and Kingsepp, IJN Submarine I-52: Tabular Record of Movement
  19. ^ "Book Exerpt 2". www.i-52.com. Retrieved 2019-07-03.
  20. ^ Blair vol II p231-233
  21. ^ Blair vol II p296
  22. ^ Blair vol II p538
  23. ^ Blair vol II p691-2
  24. ^ Blair vol II p692-4

References

External links
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Yanagi_missions&oldid=1182850791"