IJN U-Boote

[GerritJ9]

To be quite honest, I don't know whether the IJN even used any of them operationally. Given the IJN's state at that time (May 1945), I doubt it. First of all, they would have to compile crews for them. And then, they would have to work up before departing on ops- and by the time they might have been ready, the Emperor had signed on the dotted line.
As a footnote to history, I wonder what happened to the German crews after Germany's surrender- were they interned by the Japanese, repatriated through neutrals..........?????????

[Torplexed]

Originally Posted by GerritJ9

To be quite honest, I don't know whether the IJN even used any of them operationally. Given the IJN's state at that time (May 1945), I doubt it. First of all, they would have to compile crews for them. And then, they would have to work up before departing on ops- and by the time they might have been ready, the Emperor had signed on the dotted line.
As a footnote to history, I wonder what happened to the German crews after Germany's surrender- were they interned by the Japanese, repatriated through neutrals..........?????????

The combined fleet site gives this summary of U-181 /I-501 final weeks. I imagine the other interned German crews pretty much went through the same routine.

6 May 1945: The Surrender of Germany:

Vice Admiral Fukudome Shigeru (former CO of NAGATO), Commander, 13th Area Fleet, three other admirals and staff officers arrive by automobile alongside Freiwald's U-181 and KK Heinrich Timm's U-862. Fukudome informs Freiwald, Dommes and Timm they are being interned since Germany capitulated. The German officers are invited to a festive dinner, "in European style", where Fukudome thanks them for their war effort.

At about 1600, trucks arrive and disembark armed Japanese troops alongside the U-boats. The DKM's swastika ensigns are lowered from the U-Boats and replaced by the IJN's battle flags. During four patrols, the U-181 sank 27 ships for a total of 138,779-tons. Later, she is overhauled by the No. 101 Navy Repair Unit at Seletar.

June 1945:
The U-boats' crews and base personnel are trucked to an ex-British rubber plantation at Batu Pahat in southern Malaya for internment.

15 July 1945:
Seletar. The U-181 is commissioned in the IJN as the I-501 and assigned to Fukudome's 13th Area Fleet. I-501 is operationally capable of conducting war patrols. The submarine's former German crew is divided into two 30-man strong parties tasked with teaching handling of the U-boat to the Japanese.

The Japanese plan to use the I-501 for training in late August, then for a transportation run to the Andaman Islands and later send her to Japan to have her torpedo tubes remodeled to accommodate IJN torpedoes. The Japanese crew of the I-501 starts a working-up course under German supervision.

16 August 1945: The Surrender of Japan:
Seletar. The Japanese surrender to the Royal Navy. The I-501 and the I-502 are moored next to the damaged cruiser MYOKO in the Johore Strait.

30 November 1945:
Removed from the Navy List. Under British supervision, her former German crew strips the I-501 of all her valuable parts.

http://www.combinedfleet.com/I-501.htm

[GerritJ9]

This small mod adds the IXD2 to the Japanese roster: http://files.filefront.com/IJN+type+.../fileinfo.html

Have fun!

Torplexed: thanks for the info, pretty much what I expected- but it won't stop us making a single mission, will it?

[AkbarGulag]

Originally Posted by GerritJ9

Torplexed: thanks for the info, pretty much what I expected- but it won't stop us making a single mission, will it?

You could make a mission out of just that, say, while being trained up, you detect enemy vessels? You could even accomodate for some lack of japanese voices by leaving a few german ones in there. After all, the germans are on board training you aren't they

Historical what if, but has enough truth to be worth a mission.

[Torplexed]

Originally Posted by GerritJ9

Torplexed: thanks for the info, pretty much what I expected- but it won't stop us making a single mission, will it?

Oh by all means mod it if possible. Has to be more realistic than those people who mod SH3 so they've gotta a sleek Type XXI in 1939. I was just trying to clear up the fate of the interned crews. I'm sure they got repatriated to Germany eventually.

[scrag]

There is enough information to model pretty much any Sub in the IJN. Sure the interior detail might be sketchy but the external look would be no issue. What is sweet is the Japanese Submarine version of the BEST torpedo in the war the Long Lance. It would also be very cool to pilot a midget into Pearl or to launch Kaitans. A book called I Boat Captain is very informative about Japanese Submarine operations and just how effective our ASW (Particularly Radar aided gunfire) against there Submarine operations. Frankly the Japanese wasted a creditable and capable component away due to arrogance and incompetance (on the part of short visioned skimmer/aviation admirals). Shows you the huge difference from Nimitz (a bubblehead) and Yamamoto.

[GerritJ9]

The fault lay mainly with pre-war IJN doctrine, in which all arms were dedicated to the concept of the "One Big Fleet Battle" One result was an almost complete neglect of minesweeping and antisubmarine warfare; this cost both the IJN and the Japanese Merchant Navy dearly. The other result was that the IJN submarine arm concentrated on hunting and sinking enemy warships rather than systematically attacking Allied merchant shipping. The only REAL attempt to systematically destroy Allied merchant shipping was in March 1942, when Java fell and IJN submarines were active in the Indian Ocean. But even in this instance, one gets the feeling that the subs were mainly there to destroy the remaining Allied warships and Allied merchantmen were attacked because "There are no warships around around so we might as well sink that tanker/cargo ship that's creeping up on the horizon".
A systematic assault on merchant traffic off the US Pacific coast starting on Dec. 7th would have paid dividends- witness the slaughter operation "Paukenschlag" caused off the US Atlantic coast. But the idea didn't occur to ANY senior IJN admiral- they were, to a man, wedded to the "One Big Battle" concept and fortunately for the Allies remained so until the very end.

[Torplexed]

Yeah, the large Japanese submarine fleet was badly misused. In their defense a sustained assault on the US West Coast would have been difficult considering the distance from Kwajalein (the nearest I-Boat base) to the West Coast. However, they did something no other nation in WW2 did. They bombed the continental United States . On September 9 1942, Warrant officer Nobuo Fujita flew his float plane from the I-25, and conducted the only wartime aircraft-dropped bombing on the United States. Using incendiary bombs, his mission was to start massive forest fires in the Pacific Northwest outside the town of Brookings, Oregon, with the ultimate objective of tying up U.S. military resources to the defense of the mainland, away from the Pacific Theater. It was also meant to be payback for Doolittle's Raid. The bombs did no serious damage tho. The forest was too wet.

When passing through the town last summer I took pictures of his 400-year samurai sword now on display at the Brookings library. It was presented to the town in a gesture of peace in the 1960s.



Here's the road up the mountain to the bomb site.