[keltos01]

Europe :

Only the I-8 commanded by commander Shinji Uchino successfully completed the treacherous journey. She left Penang on 6 July 1943 with quinine and an extra crew of 48 sailors as the germans were to give the U 1224 to the japanese. She went round the cape of Good Hope, and crossed the equator on 2 AUgust. The ship had a weird twin deck-gun and rendez-voused with U-161 near the Azores.

She arrived at Brest 61 days after leaving Penang. She left again on 5 October and arrived 5 December in Singapore then sailed to Kure where she arrived 21 December.


I 29 did the same trip leaving SIngapore on December 16th 1943 arriving at Lorient March 10th 1944. She left France 16 April and arrived at Singapore on 14 July. She was then ambushed by 3 US subs and sunk by 3 torpedoes from USS Sawfish.

I-52 was the last to attempt such a voyage. She sortied from Singapore on 23 April 1944. It was sunk in mid-June by aircrafts from USS Bogue (CVE-9) on 24 JUne 1944.

U-1224 was a German submarine Type 1XC/40. Served as RO 501 in Japanese service from 15 Feb, 1944. Sunk 13 May, 1944 in the mid-Atlantic north-west of Cape Verde Islands, in position 18.08N, 33.13W, by depth charges from the US destroyer escort USS Francis M. Robinson. Her crew had arrived safely in France with I-8 the previous year.