I-400-class submarien

Last crawled date: 1 year, 6 months ago

L:120m H:21m B:13 Propulsion:4 diesels Speed: 18.75 knots, surf 6.5 knots, subm Range: 37,500 nmi. Men: 144 officers+men Armament: 3 M6A1 Seiran sea-planes 8×533 mm torpedo tubes1×140 mm 40 caliber gun 3×25 mm machine gun 1×25 mm machine gun A fleet of 18 boats was planned in 1942, and work started on the first in January 1943 at the Kure, Hiroshima arsenal. Within a year the plan was scaled back to five, of which only three (I-400 at Kure, and I-401 and I-402 at Sasebo) were completed. They where made to do secret submarine attacks. The first attack that newer took plase was to destroy the locks of the Panama Canal in an attempt to cut American supply lines to the Pacific Ocean and hamper the transfer of U.S. ships. The next one was Ulithi atoll where fifteen American aircraft carriers had assembled. However, Japan surrendered before the attack was launched, and on August 22, 1945 the crews of the submarines were ordered to destroy all their weapons. The torpedoes were fired without arming and the aircraft were launched without unfolding the wings and stabilizers. When I-400 surrendered to an American destroyer, the U.S. crew was astounded at its size. Upon completion of the inspections, the submarines were scuttled in the waters off Kalaeloa near Oahu in Hawaii by torpedoes from US submarine USS Trumpetfish (SS-425) on June 4, 1946, apparently because Soviet scientists were again demanding access to them. #aircraft_carriers #I400 #I400class #IJN #Imperial_Japanese_Navy #sub #submarien #U_boat #Uboat