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 4-5^th, 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 10^th Fleet.  And the US had used submarines to resupply beleaguered outposts earlier in the war, particularly at Corregidor in 1942.

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                         THE DISAPPEARANCE OF ADMIRAL KOGA

With the death of ADM Isoruku Yamamoto on 18 April 1943 command of the Imperial Japanese Combined Fleet passed to ADM Mineichi Koga.  In February 1944 Koga was forced by American air raids to move his headquarters from the now untenable forward base at Truk Lagoon to Palau in the Caroline Islands.  The Japanese considered the Carolines and the Marianas Islands to be part of their inner defensive perimeter from which they could not retreat.  Koga sent his remaining carriers under VADM Ozawa to the relative safety of Singapore, and retained only the battleship MUSASHI, a cruiser, and four destroyers in Palau.

Meanwhile, MacArthur was working up the islands of the southern Pacific and by March 1944 was anticipating a landing at Hollandia in New Guinea.  The Japanese base on Palau represented a point from which the enemy could harass MacArthur’s Hollandia operations.  Thus, VADM Marc Mitscher’s Task Force 58 of 11 aircraft carriers and assorted surface escorts was ordered to hit Palau hard enough knock it out of action for at least a month.

Koga was an excellent strategist who anticipated this airstrike and was even more alerted on March 28^th when a lone US Army Air Corps reconnaissance plane was spotted over his headquarters.  Recognizing his strength was no match for Mitscher’s, he ordered his warships and many auxiliaries to disperse to sea.  Thus, when the fighters, bombers, and torpedo planes of TF 58 struck on 30-31 March, most of Koga’s fleet was safely at sea.  That didn’t prevent the Americans from damaging MUSASHI with a single torpedo as she slipped out of Palau, nor from wrecking two destroyers, four escorts, 20 auxiliary ships and 150 aircraft at Palau.  Koga weathered the two days of attacks in his headquarters bunker.  The fury of the American assault left Palau in shambles. 

Koga correctly reasoned that after his landing at Hollandia, MacArthur would next move against the southern Philippines.  In defense, Koga re-drafted Operational Plan “Z” in a manner that united Ozawa’s carriers with Koga’s surface ships in a final battle of annihilation against the Allies.  Koga consolidated his command on the Philippine island of Davao, ordering nearly all the land-based aircraft from the Marianas to Davao and commanding Ozawa to meet him there.  He next ordered two Kawanishi H8K2 “Emily” four-engine flying boats to transport himself and his Chief of Staff, VADM Shigeru Fukudome, to Davao.  In the dark of this night Koga’s “Emily” took off amid the wails of air raid sirens.  He circled the harbor and headed west, never to be seen again.  No trace of survivors or wreckage was ever recovered.  Fukudome, carrying the written Plan “Z” document, got safely airborne in the second “Emily,” but his plane was forced to divert to Cebu when a violent storm was encountered on route. 

Continued tomorrow….

Goralski, Robert.  World War II Almanac, 1931-1945:  A Political and Military Record.  New York, NY: Bonanza Books, 1981, p. 310.

Manson, Frank A.  “Koga’s Last Stand.”  Sea Classics, Vol 33 (8). August 2000, pp. 26-31.

Wilds, Thomas C.  “The Admiral Who Lost his Fleet.”  United States Naval Institute Proceedings, Vol 77 (11), Whole No. 585, November 1951, pp. 1175-81.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  The air raid sirens that were sounding as Koga’s seaplane took off proved to be a false alarm.  Nevertheless, the suggestion of an air raid did cause American authorities to falsely surmise that Koga’s plane had been shot down.  In truth, Koga is now thought to have been lost in the violent storm Fukudome’s plane also encountered.  Koga was one of Japan’s better naval strategists, and his loss was yet another blow to Imperial naval prowess.  News of his death was not released by the Japanese until May, at which time he was replaced by ADM Soemu Toyoda.

          During WWII Time Magazine ran a series of cover art depictions of American, German, and Japanese naval flag officers.  Below is the 8 November 1943 cover depicting Adm Koga.

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