I-1 (submarine)
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 I-1 in 1930 |
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| Overview | |
| Shipyard |
Kobe |
| Keel laying | March 12, 1923 as U-cruiser SS-74 |
| Launch | October 15, 1924, renamed I-1 on November 1, 1924 |
| Commissioning | March 10, 1926 |
| Removed from ship register | April 1, 1943 |
| home port | Yokosuka |
| Whereabouts | Sunk on January 29, 1943 |
| Technical specifications | |
| displacement |
above water: 2135 ts |
| length |
98 meters |
| width |
9.1 meters |
| Draft |
5 meters |
| Diving depth | 80 meters |
| crew |
68 |
| drive |
2 MAN 10 cylinder 4-stroke diesel engines with 6,000 HP, |
| speed |
above water: 18 knots |
| Range |
24,400 nautical miles (45,189 km) at 10 knots |
| Armament |
6 × 533 mm torpedo tubes at the front, |
The U-cruiser I-1 of the type J-1 ( Japanese 伊 一 型 潜水 艦 , I-ichi-gata sensuikan ) was made in 1924 by Kawasaki in Kobe for the Imperial Japanese Navy . At the end of February 1926, I-1 was operational. The acceptance test was carried out at Awaji-shima in the Seto Inland Sea . German submarine designers took part in the tests, as German-made diesel engines ( MAN ) were used in the ship . Thereafter, the ship was put into service on March 10, 1926 under the command of Corvette Captain Kasuga Atsushi.
Mission history
Pre-war period until July 1937
On November 28, 1928, I-1 ran aground while entering the port of Yokosuka due to bad weather and heavy seas. The damage was minor and no water intrusion occurred. As a result, the hull of the ship was inspected in Yokosuka dry dock and the ship's commander was relieved. From November 5, 1929 to November 15, 1930, the ship was modernized and the German diesel engines and the entire battery system replaced. A second modernization took place from November 15, 1935 to February 15, 1936. The tower of the ship was given a hydrodynamically more favorable shape and the previously used US-American sonar was replaced by a Japanese model.
Pacific War
I-1 carried out its first war mission from August 21 to August 23, 1937 in the East China Sea together with I-2, I-3, I-4, I-5 and I-6. The submarines gave escort to Japanese cruisers that transported troops of the Imperial Japanese Army to the mouth of the Huangpu Jiang . (→ Battle of Shanghai ) From 1939 to 1940 I-1 was modernized again.
Attack on Pearl Harbor
In the course of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor , I-1 left the port of Yokosuka for Hawaii on November 23, 1941 and reached its area of operation on December 6, 1941. The mission of the U-cruiser was to attack US ships that might come off left Pearl Harbor. During the following days, I-1 was repeatedly attacked by aircraft. On December 10, I-1 presumably sighted the US aircraft carrier USS Enterprise , but was only able to release the report 12 hours later due to the threat of air strikes. On December 30, 1941, the U-cruiser shelled the port of Hilo Bay . In the course of the attack on Hilo Bay, the seaplane tender USS Hulbert (AVD-6) anchored there was hit by a shell and a fire started near the airfield there. On January 7, 1942, I-1 discovered a transport ship south of the Kauaʻi Canal (between Kauaʻi and Oʻahu ), but could not sink it.
On January 9, 1942, the U-cruiser left its area of activity in the direction of Kwajalein to take part in the search for the US aircraft carrier USS Lexington , which had been sighted by the submarine I-18. On January 22, 1942, the U-cruiser ran into the port of Kwajalein in order to start the return journey to Japan together with the U-cruisers I-2 and I-3. On February 1, 1942, I-1 returned to its home port of Yokusuka.
Indonesian archipelago
I-1 was assigned to the Japanese invasion fleet, whose mission was the occupation of the Dutch East Indies . On February 13, 1942, I-1 left the port of Yokosuka again and arrived in the Timor Sea on February 23, 1942 . There I-1 sank the Dutch cargo ship Siantar with 8,806 GRT on March 3, 1942 . On March 9, I-1 picked up a canoe carrying 5 Dutch soldiers who were fleeing West Timor. On March 27, I-1 returned to its home port of Yokosuka.
Scuttled during the Battle of Guadalcanal
After a less significant operation near the Aleutian Islands, I-1 was converted into a transport submarine, the task of which was to supply Japanese troops with supplies. For this I-1 was relocated to the Rabaul Fortress . During a supply mission for the Japanese troops on Guadalcanal , I-1 was discovered and sunk on January 29, 1943 by the New Zealand bird-class mine sweepers HMNZS Kiwi (T102) and HMNZS Moa (T233). 27 people were killed on board, the remaining 66 survivors were able to swim to Guadalcanal. The US Navy was able to recover Japanese code books, various maps, operating instructions and the log book from I-1.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c U-Boot-Typ J1 ( English ) Retrieved October 23, 2015.