Fatal Accident
2 APRIL 1944
FATAL ACCIDENT
The Caroline Island lagoon of Chuuk (formerly Truk), ringed by a 40-mile-wide coral reef, was a key forward naval base for the Japanese in WWII. With the Allied advance across the Pacific, Truk became the target of 35 separate US carrier airstrikes between 17 February and 29 April 1944. During a lull in these attacks this morning, the Japanese submarine I-169 rested gently at anchor in the Lagoon, having just delivering desperately needed supplies to this outpost under siege. Her employment in surreptitious resupply was a function of her size. At 331 feet and 1400 tons she and her two sisters were the largest submarines in any navy of that day.
Shortly before 1100, deck hands preparing to make a boat run to nearby Dublon Island were interrupted by the panicked cry, “Hikaku!” (aircraft). Sailors dove for the hatches, and the black hull fell quickly from view. But in his haste to seek shelter, a crewman had neglected to close the storm ventilation pipe atop the conning tower. Salt water poured into the control room, short circuiting all the electrical switchboards. The added weight of inrushing water drove I-169 onto the sandy bottom 120 feet below. Helpless to correct the problem from inside, the control room personnel watched the water rise until, short minutes later, the compartment completely flooded. The sailors fore and aft now lay trapped behind watertight bulkheads.
Topside, port commanders scrambled to assess the damage from this latest air raid. I-169 did not resurface and a search was mobilized. Incredibly, hard hat diver Takashi Machuga located the stricken sub on his first dive. Tapping at 60-foot intervals along her hull revealed the presence of survivors in her forward and after sections.
An ambitious rescue was attempted before the 72 hours of breathable air in the stricken sub was exhausted. Small holes were drilled through the pressure hull allowing air hoses to be passed into the ballast tanks. Cables were then coursed under the hull and linked to a massive crane topside. But the cables parted, and confused survivors inside the sub never attempted to access the air in the ballast tanks. Shortly before midnight on April 4-5th, replies to tapping on the hull ceased. Orders were passed to open the sub’s hatches to flood the remaining compartments and begin removing bodies. Many were found with last notes to loved ones clipped to their clothing.
I-169 was later depth charged to prevent salvage by the Americans. Her twisted wreckage off the island of Fefan lay undiscovered for 28 years. It is one of several dozen wrecks in Truk Lagoon that is accessible today to sport divers.
Watch for more “Today in Naval History” 7 APR 24
CAPT James Bloom, Ret.
Lindemann, Klaus P. Hailstorm over Truk Lagoon. Singapore: Maruzen Asia, 1982, pp. 265-67.
Murphy, Geri. “Dateline Micronesia, Truk’s Gallant Warrior.” Skin Diver, Vol 38 (5), pp. 144-45, 152-58, May 1989.
Site visit. Chuuk, Federated States of Micronesia, February 1989.
Stewart, William H. Ghost Fleet of the Truk Lagoon, Japanese Mandated Islands. Pictorial Histories Pub Co., Missoula, MT, pp. 59-64, 1985.
ADDITIONAL NOTES: The Japanese have been criticized for using submarines as supply vessels when they might have been more effective as combatants. Though this criticism is in part justified, in fairness, US air and submarine destruction of Japanese surface shipping was so complete by 1944 that resupply by submarine was one of only a few options for distant Japanese commands. In fact, other navies used submarines for this purpose. Both Japanese and German submarines ran rubber, metal ore, and other raw materials from Indochina to Germany under the American North Atlantic 10th Fleet. And the US had used submarines to resupply beleaguered outposts earlier in the war, particularly at Corregidor in 1942.
