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Two Japanese submarines designed to carry bomber aircraft to launch attacks on American cities during the Second World War have been found on the sea bed off the coast of Hawaii.
A close up of the gun turret of the I-401 submarine
The vessels were captured by the United States Navy when Japan capitulated in 1945, but were hastily scuttled the following year when the Soviet Union demanded access to the vessels.
The US learned many technological secrets from the I-14 and I-201 submarines and did not want the information falling into the hands of its Cold War enemy.
The two boats have now been located by a team from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Undersea Research Laboratory and the University of Hawaii-Manoa, working with the National Geographic Channel.
Designed as underwater aircraft carriers, they were able to stow three Aichi light bombers, with folded wings, in a hangar on the deck. The aircraft were designed to be catapulted from the deck and were fitted with floats to allow them to land on water once they returned from their missions.
At 400ft long, the Imperial Japanese Navy's I-400 class were the largest submarines of the war and remained the largest constructed until the first nuclear ballistic missile boats rolled down slipways in the 1960s.
Aware of its inferiority in surface ships in the Pacific theatre, the Japanese Navy wished to take the fight to the enemy and the I-201 was given the task of approaching the US coast, surfacing, preparing and launching its aircraft within minutes.
One of the earliest missions called for the aircraft to drop rats infected with bubonic plague and insects carrying cholera, dengue fever, typhus and other diseases on cities on the West coast of America. When the bacteriological weapons were not ready in time, the target switched to the Panama Canal. Japan surrendered before the attack could be carried out.
Five submarines were captured by the US in total and sent to Hawaii for inspection.
But in 1946, as the Soviet Union began showing an interest, the vessels were sunk by torpedoes from the USS Cabezon and sank almost 2,700ft off Oahu. The I-401 was the first to be located, in March 2005, but it has taken a further four years to locate her sister boat.
Dr Hans Van Tillburg, maritime heritage coordinator for the agency's National Marine Sanctuaries in the Pacific Islands, said: "If you look at a sub like the I-201, it was nothing like anybody had in World War II,
"It had a streamlined body and conning tower and retractable guns," he said. "It looks more like a Cold War sub. And the I-14 predates the cruise missile concept."
The I-14 carried enough fuel to travel 37,000 miles or around the world one-and-a-half times and was three times the size of other submarines of the time. It had a crew of 144, displacement of 5,223 tons and a maximum operating depth of 330ft.
Each of the Aichi Seiran bombers whose existence was unknown to Allied intelligence was able to carry an 800kg bomb over a distance of 650 miles at a speed of 295mph. A crew of four could ready the aircraft in 45 minutes after it emerged from the hangar on the deck and before it was launched from a 120-foot catapult on the deck.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/wor...arines-designed-to-carry-bomber-aircraft.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I-400_class_submarine
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aichi_M6A
maximus otter
A close up of the gun turret of the I-401 submarine
The vessels were captured by the United States Navy when Japan capitulated in 1945, but were hastily scuttled the following year when the Soviet Union demanded access to the vessels.
The US learned many technological secrets from the I-14 and I-201 submarines and did not want the information falling into the hands of its Cold War enemy.
The two boats have now been located by a team from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Undersea Research Laboratory and the University of Hawaii-Manoa, working with the National Geographic Channel.
Designed as underwater aircraft carriers, they were able to stow three Aichi light bombers, with folded wings, in a hangar on the deck. The aircraft were designed to be catapulted from the deck and were fitted with floats to allow them to land on water once they returned from their missions.
At 400ft long, the Imperial Japanese Navy's I-400 class were the largest submarines of the war and remained the largest constructed until the first nuclear ballistic missile boats rolled down slipways in the 1960s.
Aware of its inferiority in surface ships in the Pacific theatre, the Japanese Navy wished to take the fight to the enemy and the I-201 was given the task of approaching the US coast, surfacing, preparing and launching its aircraft within minutes.
One of the earliest missions called for the aircraft to drop rats infected with bubonic plague and insects carrying cholera, dengue fever, typhus and other diseases on cities on the West coast of America. When the bacteriological weapons were not ready in time, the target switched to the Panama Canal. Japan surrendered before the attack could be carried out.
Five submarines were captured by the US in total and sent to Hawaii for inspection.
But in 1946, as the Soviet Union began showing an interest, the vessels were sunk by torpedoes from the USS Cabezon and sank almost 2,700ft off Oahu. The I-401 was the first to be located, in March 2005, but it has taken a further four years to locate her sister boat.
Dr Hans Van Tillburg, maritime heritage coordinator for the agency's National Marine Sanctuaries in the Pacific Islands, said: "If you look at a sub like the I-201, it was nothing like anybody had in World War II,
"It had a streamlined body and conning tower and retractable guns," he said. "It looks more like a Cold War sub. And the I-14 predates the cruise missile concept."
The I-14 carried enough fuel to travel 37,000 miles or around the world one-and-a-half times and was three times the size of other submarines of the time. It had a crew of 144, displacement of 5,223 tons and a maximum operating depth of 330ft.
Each of the Aichi Seiran bombers whose existence was unknown to Allied intelligence was able to carry an 800kg bomb over a distance of 650 miles at a speed of 295mph. A crew of four could ready the aircraft in 45 minutes after it emerged from the hangar on the deck and before it was launched from a 120-foot catapult on the deck.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/wor...arines-designed-to-carry-bomber-aircraft.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I-400_class_submarine
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aichi_M6A
maximus otter
