William Hopwood
2013-05-06 22:24:57 UTC
Some weeks ago in another thread Horny Goat wrote"
the Panama Canal out of action but not by the
method suggested above. A book recently reviewed
in the Wall Street Journal titled "Operation Storm, by
John Geoghagan, tells that early in the war Japan had
an ambitious plan to build a fleet of the largest submarines
ever conceived and on their decks to have a watertight
aircraft hangar to contain a specially-built dive bomber
to be catapulted from the deck and attack selected
U.S. targets in an attempt to "demoralize the Americans
into quitting the war."
These "Sen-tuko" subs were said to have a range
which would carry them around the African Cape of Good
Hope, across the Southern Atlantic and reach American
cities as well as Panama from the east and then be able
to return to Japan after doing their damage.
Said to be the brainchild of Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto
the subs were the I-400 Class, more than 400 feet long and
able to stay at sea for four months at a time. The planes
carried with them could carry 1800 pount bombs
Eighteen of these subs were proposed but by the time
war was near an end the Japanese had managed to build
only three and only two of those were ever able to get to
sea--the I-400 and I-401. By that time the only target
selected was the Gatun Locks at the Caribbean end of the
Panama Canal. With Gatun out of commission, the huge
flow of ships and troops to the Pacific theater after the end
of the war in Europe could have been stopped for months.
By the summer of 1945 the two subs were readied and
supposed to rendezvous at Ulithi and then proceed to
their Panama destination. However, a snafu involving
coordinates occurred and although I-400 arrived on station,
i-401 was 1000 miles away at the rendezvous time.
But by then the missed rendezvous didn't matter for by the
time the target could have been reached, as the story
goes, the A-Bombs had been dropped on Japan and
the two monster submarines were ordered back to their
nearest base. If intercepted enroute by U.S. forces they
had been ordered to surrender. The i-400 was quickly
spotted and did so, but the I-401 skipper hoped to remain
undetected until he could ditch on the eastern shore of
Japan.
That was not to be. I-401 encountered the USS
Segundo, a U.S. sub half its size, surrendered to it, and
the i-401 skipper, Commander Ariizumi, locked himself
in his cabin and shot himself.
Many of the surviving officers and crews of the two
giant Japanese sumarines are said to have later gone on
to serve with distinction in Japan's defense forces when
they were reconstituted a decade after the end of WWII.
This was an interesting review of what is most likely an
even more interesting, more detailed, newly published
book advertised at $28 hardcover and available with
previews of some chapters at Amazon for less than
half that amount. For more info on the author:
http://www.operationstormbook.com/about_the_author.html
WJH
One thing I think the Japanese COULD have done
was to position one or more submarines at the
western mouth of the Panama Canal planning on
deliberately scuttling themselves on December
7th/8th 1941with a goal of preventing use of the
canal for 4 to 6 months.....
The Japanese apparently had the intent of puttingwas to position one or more submarines at the
western mouth of the Panama Canal planning on
deliberately scuttling themselves on December
7th/8th 1941with a goal of preventing use of the
canal for 4 to 6 months.....
the Panama Canal out of action but not by the
method suggested above. A book recently reviewed
in the Wall Street Journal titled "Operation Storm, by
John Geoghagan, tells that early in the war Japan had
an ambitious plan to build a fleet of the largest submarines
ever conceived and on their decks to have a watertight
aircraft hangar to contain a specially-built dive bomber
to be catapulted from the deck and attack selected
U.S. targets in an attempt to "demoralize the Americans
into quitting the war."
These "Sen-tuko" subs were said to have a range
which would carry them around the African Cape of Good
Hope, across the Southern Atlantic and reach American
cities as well as Panama from the east and then be able
to return to Japan after doing their damage.
Said to be the brainchild of Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto
the subs were the I-400 Class, more than 400 feet long and
able to stay at sea for four months at a time. The planes
carried with them could carry 1800 pount bombs
Eighteen of these subs were proposed but by the time
war was near an end the Japanese had managed to build
only three and only two of those were ever able to get to
sea--the I-400 and I-401. By that time the only target
selected was the Gatun Locks at the Caribbean end of the
Panama Canal. With Gatun out of commission, the huge
flow of ships and troops to the Pacific theater after the end
of the war in Europe could have been stopped for months.
By the summer of 1945 the two subs were readied and
supposed to rendezvous at Ulithi and then proceed to
their Panama destination. However, a snafu involving
coordinates occurred and although I-400 arrived on station,
i-401 was 1000 miles away at the rendezvous time.
But by then the missed rendezvous didn't matter for by the
time the target could have been reached, as the story
goes, the A-Bombs had been dropped on Japan and
the two monster submarines were ordered back to their
nearest base. If intercepted enroute by U.S. forces they
had been ordered to surrender. The i-400 was quickly
spotted and did so, but the I-401 skipper hoped to remain
undetected until he could ditch on the eastern shore of
Japan.
That was not to be. I-401 encountered the USS
Segundo, a U.S. sub half its size, surrendered to it, and
the i-401 skipper, Commander Ariizumi, locked himself
in his cabin and shot himself.
Many of the surviving officers and crews of the two
giant Japanese sumarines are said to have later gone on
to serve with distinction in Japan's defense forces when
they were reconstituted a decade after the end of WWII.
This was an interesting review of what is most likely an
even more interesting, more detailed, newly published
book advertised at $28 hardcover and available with
previews of some chapters at Amazon for less than
half that amount. For more info on the author:
http://www.operationstormbook.com/about_the_author.html
WJH