Mass Japanese submarine attack remembered
THE German high command on 27 March 1942 persuaded the Japanese
War Office to sink Allied ships in the Mozambique Channel off Richards Bay during World War Two.
The ultimate objective was to invade the Union of South Africa.
During the period 30 May 1942 to 8 July 1942 - just over 79 years ago - five Japanese submarines, numbers I-1, I-10, I-16, I-18 and I-20, carrying minisubmarines and float planes, sank 23 Allied merchant ships off Zululand.
In 1942, an armada of 62 British war ships with 80 British war planes sailed past Zululand to prevent the Japanese and the Vichy French in Madagascar from invading South Africa
They were under the command of Captain, later Admiral, Ishizaki.
During the night of 29 May 1942, submarine 1-10 launched her flying boat to reconnoitre the harbour of Diego Suarez in northern Madagascar.
The plane spotted ‘HMS Rammilies’, an old 29 150 tonne Royal Sovereign class at anchor in the bay. Also in the harbour were the destroyers ‘HMS Duncan’ and ‘HMS Active’, the corvettes ‘HMS Glenista’ and ‘HMS Thyme’, the troopship ‘Atlantis’, the tanker, ‘British Royalty’, the 10 799 tonne merchant ‘Llandorf Castle’ and an ammunition ship.
During the night of 30 May, captain Ishizaki ordered an attack on Diego Suarez harbour and midget submarines from I-16 and I-20 attacked the ‘Rammilies’.
However, the midget submarine of
I-18 under Lieutenant Ola Masaharu and Tsubokura Daiseiki, had engine failure and could not be launched.
At 8.35pm, the I-20’s midget torpedoes, while under depth charge attack by the British corvettes, heavily damaged the ‘Rammilies’ and then torpedoed and sank the 6 993 tonne ‘British Royalty’ in
shallow water.
On 2 June 1942 a South African commando patrol shot two Japanese midget submarine pilots, Lieutenant Saburo Akieda and the mate, Masami Takemoto, lurking in the bush near Amponkarana in Madagascar.
Later the Japanese Embassy in Pretoria erected a monument in their honour.
Submarine I-10 launched her float plane, E14Y1, piloted by Lt Araki Shushi (67), south of Richards Bay on 20 May 1942 on a reconnaissance flight over Durban, but no targets of importance were sighted.
Araki’s plane was detected from the ground. When challenged, his radioman, Ito Yoshiharu, provided a spurious identification signal and escaped. The plane reached submarine I-10 safely and was hoisted on board.
On 6 July 1942 Japanese submarine I-18, under the command of Captain
Otani Kiyonori, sank the Indian merchant ship ‘Mundra’ very close to the uMhlathuze Lagoon and 155 survivors swam to shore.
They were accommodated free of charge by the management of the
Richards Bay hotel. Sadly, a large number of bodies washed up on Durban beach.
Anti-submarine patrols were flown along the Zululand coast, supplemented by foot patrols.
Sadly, the South African Air Force, as well as the Royal Air Force, never detected a single Japanese submarine off the South African coast.
All the Japanese submarines had simply vanished.