I-29 (submarine)
|
|
|---|---|
| I-29 | |
| I-15 class | |
 The picture shows the structurally identical boat I-26 (around 1942). |
|
| Overview | |
| Shipyard |
Yokosuka naval shipyard |
| Keel laying | September 29, 1940 |
| period of service |
1942-1944 |
| Commissioning | February 27, 1942 |
| Whereabouts | Sunk on July 26, 1944 |
| Technical specifications | |
| length |
108.5 m |
| width |
9.3 m |
| Diving depth | 100 m |
| crew |
101 men |
| drive |
2 diesel engines |
| speed |
over water: 23 kn |
| Range |
over water: 14,000 nm |
| Armament |
17 torpedoes |
| Seaplane | |
I-29 ( Japanese 伊 29 , short for:伊 号 第二 十九 潜水 艦 I-gō dai-nijūkyū sensuikan ), tower identification イ 29 , was a submarine of the I-15 class ( U-cruiser ) of the Imperial Japanese Marine . His code name was " Kiefer " (松 matsu ), also called "U-Kiefer" by the German Navy .
It was used during the Second World War and made two trips as part of the Yanagi missions in 1943 and 1944, the second to German-occupied France . On the way back to Japan , it was discovered near the Philippines by Allied forces and sunk shortly afterwards.
Operations in the Pacific
After keel was laid on 20 September 1939 on the Marine shipyard in Yokosuka the launch on September 29, 1940 was still under the name I-33 instead of that in the November 1, 1941 I-29 has been changed. On February 27, 1942 the boat was completed and put into service under the commandant Izu Juichi (伊豆 壽 市).
On April 18, 1942 was I-29 along with the submarines I-21 , I-22 , I-24 , I-27 and I-28 from Kure to transfer to Truk from the former Japanese naval base in the Pacific Ocean approximately halfway between the Philippines and Hawaii . On the same day, American bombers attacked the Japanese cities of Tokyo , Yokohama , Osaka , Nagoya and Kobe for the first time (see also: Doolittle Raid ). They were from the US - aircraft carrier Hornet started, the Task Force 16 belonged to one of Vice Admiral William F. Halsey led Association of yet another aircraft carrier, the Enterprise , four cruisers and several destroyers and tankers .
On April 19, just east of the Bonin Islands , the submarine group was assigned to attack the retreating task force, but could not discover them. I-29 reached Truk Naval Base on April 24 and left on April 29. Together with I-28 , it undertook its first patrol and set out for Australia . To expand their air superiority, the Japanese armed forces planned to build an air base in Port Moresby on the southeast coast of New Guinea as part of Operation MO . The submarines should have a supportive effect here. In the Battle of the Coral Sea on May 7 and 8, 1942, however, the Allies were able to thwart these plans. On May 13, I-29 reached the sea area off Sydney , patrolled there and carried out reconnaissance campaigns with the aid of his seaplane. At the beginning of June it slowly retreated north and reached the base on Kwajalein , an atoll in the Marshall Islands in the southern Pacific , in the middle of the month . It then drove back from Kwajalein to the Yokosuka Home Shipyard, which it reached on July 21. After repair and maintenance work, it set out on July 29 for Penang , an island in the Strait of Malacca . The trip went smoothly.
Operations in the Indian Ocean
On August 8, 1942, the second patrol of I-29 began, leaving Penang . The order was to disrupt enemy shipping routes in the Indian Ocean and to spy out Diego Suárez , a city in northern Madagascar , the Seychelles , Zanzibar , Mombasa and Socotra . In the further course of August and September this was carried out and on September 2 in the Gulf of Aden , west of Socotra, the 4131 GRT British freighter Gazcon was torpedoed and sunk ( location ) . On September 10, before Socotra, I-29 sank the British 5299 GRT freighter Haresfield ( Lage ) . On September 16, the British 7147 GRT armed freighter Ocean Honor ( Lage ) was hit west of Socotra . 20 people were killed, 26 were able to save themselves on a small island and were later rescued there by RAF aircraft .
On September 22nd, I-29 torpedoed the 6579 GRT armed American steamer Paul Luckenbach ( Lage ) . While the 61-strong crew escaped in four lifeboats, the ship and cargo were lost, including 18 tanks and 10 B-25 bombers . On October 5, 1942, I-29 returned to Singapore for repair and maintenance .
It ran out on November 11, again with the task of disrupting enemy trade in the Indian Ocean. On November 23, it torpedoed and sank the 10,006 GRT armed British ship Tilawa northwest of the Maldives, destroying 6,472 t of general cargo ( Lage ) . 280 people died. The British cruiser Birmingham saved 678 people. On December 3, in the Gulf of Aden, southeast of Socotra, it torpedoed the Norwegian 6323 GRT armed tanker Belita . The crew was able to leave the ship. Then I-29 sank the ship with its on-board gun ( location ) . It returned to Singapore and was overhauled by February 1943. On February 14, 1943, it ran out with the objective of the Gulf of Bengal . After a month of uneventful driving, it returned to Penang.
First Yanagi Mission
On April 5, 1943, I-29 took off on a special Yanagi mission . The order was to bring passengers and 11 tons of valuable cargo to Europe. They were Japanese naval officers Emi Tetsushiro, a member of the fleet's technical department, and Tomonaga Hideo, a submarine engineer. You should acquire knowledge about modern submarine construction in Germany . The cargo in return for the Navy consisted of 2 tons of gold, various Japanese torpedoes, a miniature submarine of type A and drawings of the aircraft carrier Akagi , which were supposed to help the Germans build their own, known as the Graf Zeppelin .
On April 26, still in the Indian Ocean, about 350 nm east of Madagascar, I-29 met with the German U-boat U 180 in Kriegsmarine square KR 5276 ( location ) . Due to rough seas and the weather, the exchange of passengers and more than 10 tons of freight took two days. Subhash Chandra Bose , leader of the Azad Hind , India's anti-British independence movement, and his adjutant , Habib Hassan, got off the German boat on I-29 . Conversely, the two Japanese officers switched to U 180 . The Germans handed in cargo, such as HHL 3 hollow charges , quinine samples for future Japanese shipments, torpedoes and decoys as well as documents and mail for the German embassy in Tokyo . Finally, the next day U 180 set course for the Cape of Good Hope with destination Bordeaux , while I-29 drove east and on May 6, 1943 deposited its passengers safely in the port of Sabang in the far north of Sumatra . From here, the Indian guests traveled by plane via Penang, Manila , Saigon and Formosa to Tokyo, which they reached on May 16. Here Bose was received by Prime Minister Tōjō Hideki and a little later by Tennō , Emperor Hirohito . Meanwhile, I-29 continued to Singapore, which it reached on May 14th.
On June 8, 1943, I-29 left Penang to operate on its fifth patrol on the east coast of Africa and in the Gulf of Aden. There it sank the British freighter Rahmani ( Lage ) on July 12 and returned to Penang on August 2. From there it left for Japan on August 9th and reached Kure on August 19th. After repair and maintenance, it ran under its new commander Kinashi Takakazu (木 梨 鷹 一) on November 5 back to Singapore, which it reached on November 14. There it was modernized. The anti-aircraft armament was reinforced and it received improved range finders. The submarine I-8 arriving here from Brest on December 5th handed over its German radio measurement observation device (FuMB) of the type FuMB 1 “ Metox ” to I-29 . In addition, it was loaded with 80 tons of raw rubber , 30 tons of tungsten , 50 tons of tin , 2 tons of zinc , 3 tons of quinine as well as opium and coffee .
Second Yanagi mission
On December 16, 1943, I-29 left Singapore for its second Yanagi mission to France. 16 passengers were on board, including naval officers such as Rear Admiral Kojima Hideo, who was supposed to replace Yokoi Tadao , who was recalled from Berlin, as naval attaché , as well as interpreters, engineers and weapons experts. In the early morning of December 23, I-29 picked up 120 tons of diesel oil and fresh food from the German utility Bogota . After having passed Madagascar south on January 8, 1944, it again circled the Cape of Good Hope on January 16, thus reaching the Atlantic again. On February 4, I-29 received a German radio telegram informing it that it was to meet with a German submarine on February 13 to obtain a new radar detector. The meeting with U 518 then took place on February 14 about 60 nm southwest of the Azores . Three German technicians crossed over and installed a radio monitoring device FuMB 7 “ Naxos ” and a FuMB 9 “Wanze” on the bridge . While the German boat set off for the Caribbean , I-29 continued towards Biscay . On March 4, it was discovered by an RAF patrol aircraft off Cape Finisterre and detected by its searchlight ( Leigh light ) , but was able to escape unharmed. On the morning of March 10th, off the coast of Gijón , it received air protection from five Junkers Ju 88s of the German Air Force . In the afternoon the German destroyers Z 23 and ZH 1 as well as the torpedo boats T 27 and T 29 joined them and gave escorts. In fact, shortly thereafter , I-29 and its escort were attacked by more than ten Allied aircraft, including the Bristol Beaufighter and Consolidated B-24 Liberator bombers . All the bombs missed their target.
One day later, on March 11, it entered the Lorient base undamaged and initially anchored next to the U 190 . It was greeted enthusiastically and a little later safely housed in the massive Keroman submarine bunker . The Japanese submarine drivers were received and entertained by their German hosts. Commander Kinashi traveled to Berlin, where he received the Iron Cross 2nd Class from the highest authority . In the meantime, the boat was modernized and then loaded. New anti-aircraft guns were installed, including 2 cm anti-aircraft quadruplets and a 3.7 cm anti-aircraft gun . The new charge consisted of a Walter HWK 109-509 rocket engine , as used for the Me 163 "Komet" interceptor , and a Junkers Jumo 004 jet engine. It was the first jet engine in the world ready for series production , which was used in the Me 262 jet fighter , among other things . For freight further raw materials included as bauxite and mercury radium amalgam , 20 cipher type Enigma-T , to design plans of the Fieseler Fi 103 "V1" , a torpedo boat motor, a gliding bomb acoustic mines and radio measurement monitoring devices.
On June 11, I-29 in the South Atlantic encountered I- 52 , another Yanagi submarine, which was on the opposite course. However, the boats kept radio silence. On June 29th the Cape of Good Hope was bypassed again, then the Indian Ocean was crossed and Singapore reached on July 14th. The passengers disembarked and some of the documents were safely transported to Japan by plane. The Allies managed to intercept a number of radio messages, including an encrypted message from Berlin to Tokyo listing the strategically important cargo and another radio message from I-29 describing its planned route to Japan. Allied code breakers were able to decipher both messages . It was then decided to intercept I-29 in Luzon Strait if possible , and the submarines USS Tilefish , USS Rock and USS Sawfish were dispatched there.
On July 22nd, I-29 made its way from Singapore to Kure and on July 26th, surfacing from the west, reached Luzon Strait. There it was sighted by the Sawfish , which shot down four torpedoes on I-29 . Three hit and I-29 quickly sank ( location ) . Only one survivor managed to save himself on land and report the loss. The commandant was posthumously promoted to rear admiral.
literature
- Eiji Takebayashi: Secret missions of the Japanese and German submarines in World War II. PDF; 1 MB .
- Frode Weierud : TIRPITZ and the Japanese-German Naval War Communication Agreement. PDF; 30 kB .
Web links
- Film report on the drive of U 180 , the meeting with I-29 and the transport of Subhash Chandra Bose on YouTube (4'04 ″).
- Photos of a model of I-29 in scale 1:48.
- IJN Submarine I-29 - Tabular Record of Movement Chronology (English).
Individual evidence
- ^ IJN Submarine I-29 - Tabular Record of Movement Chronologie (English), accessed on December 10, 2020.
