[keltos01]

IO and Australia :

Submarines of Unit A and the Eastern Unit continued to patrol their respective areas after the special
attacks on Sidney harbor.

The results were considerable.

The I boats of unit A operated mainly in the Mozambique Channel and off the eastern coast of Madagascar until mid-July.

The I 10 sank 8 cargo ships !
The I 16 sank four, the I 18 sank 3, and the I 20 sank 7 cargo vessels of various sizes.

At the same time two japanese armed merchant cruisers (Aikoku maru 10437 tons and Hokoku maru 10438 tons were operating
in the central and western parts of the IO.

Japanese submarines in the Australian waters were also reasonably successful at this time.Five submarines
of the Eastern Unit patrolled off the New South Wales coast.

I 21 sank 3 cargo vessels and bombarded Newcastle on 8 June. I 24 and I 27 each sank one ship, I 29 dammaged a similar vessel.
However, australian records suggest that japanese caused more dammage than official japanese accounts seem to claim :
ships attacked by japanese submarines between 16 May and 3 August totaled eight.

Thirty cargo vessels were sunk (150 000 tons !), two captured, and many dammaged, was not without significance, however,
the mounting pressure of war, especially with the coming struggle for Guadalcanal, would not permit the submarine forces to
continue operations aimed mainly at the destruction of enemy shipping.