PICTURES: WWII "Samurai Subs" Found -- Carried Aircraft

nationalgeographic ^ | November 12, 2009

[JoeProBono]

After 60 years in a watery Hawaiian grave, two World War II-era Japanese attack submarines have been discovered near Pearl Harbor, marine archaeologists announced today.

Specifically designed for a stealth attack on the U.S. East Coast--perhaps targeting Washington, D.C., and New York City--the "samurai subs" were fast, far-ranging, and in some cases carried folding-wing aircraft, according to Dik Daso, curator of modern military aircraft at the Smithsonian's Air and Space Museum, speaking in the new National Geographic documentary Hunt for the Samurai Subs.

When World War II ended in 1945, the U.S. Navy seized the Japanese fleet in the Pacific, including five samurai subs, as they're called in the new film. The subs were later sunk, to keep the technology out of the hands of the Soviet Union.The military didn't record where the boats had been laid to rest, thinking no one would want to know.

Since 1992 archaeologist Terry Kerby and colleagues at the Hawaii Undersea Research Laboratory have hunted for the samurai subs in manned submersibles. The crew found the I-401 in 2005 (pictured, a close-up of the submarine's guns). Then, in February of this year, they found two more subs, the I-14 and I-201. The I-400--one of the largest non-nuclear submarines ever built--and the I-203 remain missing.

[JoeProBono]

Two bombers inside the samurai sub I-14's watertight hangar (pictured in a computer-generated cutaway image) could catapult off the deck within minutes of surfacing, say archaeologists who found the wreck of the World War II Japanese submarine off Hawaii in February 2009.

In dry dock the I-14 submarine stood almost four stories high and, at 375 feet (114 meters), was longer than a football field. The Japanese aircraft-carrying submarine held up to three folding-wing float planes armed with 1,800-pound (816-kilogram) bombs.

That a submarine could have bombing capability was an idea well ahead of its time, said NOAA's Van Tilburg. "That concept is so powerful, because essentially that's what we have today," he said, referring to modern submarines armed with guided missiles.

Part of Japan's Sen Taka class--the fastest submarines of World War II--the I-201 could go 22 miles (35 kilometers) an hour underwater.

I-200-class subs could also dive deeper than any other Japanese submarine and stay underwater for up to a month, say archaeologists who rediscovered the I-201 deep off Hawaii in February 2009.

A sleek conning tower, retractable deck guns (pictured extended in a computer image), and retractable diving planes (not pictured), which help pitch the submarine toward the surface or the seafloor, helped streamline the boat for utmost speed.

[amom]

mark

[DonaldC]

Both the Germans and Japanese had futuristic ideas. If their people would have had freedom to move on them more aggressively, we would have had far greater trouble beating them.

[magslinger]

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[pabianice]

Just how were Japanese aircraft launched from the Pacific to get to the East Coast for an attack?

[JoeProBono]

[Snickering Hound]

Sen Taka

http://www.combinedfleet.com/type_sts.htm

I-400’s

http://www.combinedfleet.com/ships/i-400

[Vision]

One of those planes almost dirty bombed San Francisco near the end of WWII.

[Tijeras_Slim]

I-200-class subs could.... stay underwater for up to a month

They underestimated that one by about 65 years.

[DMZFrank]

The Japanese had concocted a plan to launch M6A1 Seiran floatplane bombers from their huge I-400 class subs to drop bombs loaded with biological agents such as plaque and Anthrax on the West Coast of the US. The ships had sailed with a target date of 15 August 1945. Only the end of the war on 14 August occasioned their recall before they reached landfall.

[NEMDF]

Have you been watching the great WWII specials on the History channel this week? I think it is on 2 more nights. Watching the courage and humility of the U.S. soldiers and Marines is inspiring, helps one to appreciate what made America great. Then I keep having thoughts of 0bama and his unworthiness to be CIC.....

[Yo-Yo]

Just how were Japanese aircraft launched from the Pacific to get to the East Coast for an attack?

According to the National Geographic program, the sub had an unrefueled range of 1 1/2 times around the world, so that it would go from the Pacific to the Atlantic, launch it's seaplanes off the East Coast, and bomb either NYC or DC. Then it would recover the seaplanes and return home.

In theory.

[pabianice]

Just how were Japanese aircraft launched from the Pacific to get to the East Coast for an attack? According to the National Geographic program, the sub had an unrefueled range of 1 1/2 times around the world, so that it would go from the Pacific to the Atlantic, launch it's seaplanes off the East Coast, and bomb either NYC or DC. Then it would recover the seaplanes and return home. In theory.

That's insane. In 1945? Pure bullshit. I'm disappointed in them.

[Tijeras_Slim]

I agree, how could they have done that without CAFE standards?

[Yo-Yo]

That's insane. In 1945? Pure bullshit. I'm disappointed in them.

Perhaps. But these Japanese subs were captured and tested by the USN after WWII. According to the article, when the Russians demanded to inspect and test the subs themselves, the USN scuttled these huge subs off the coast of Hawaii in 1946.

Presumably the USN could figure out what the unrefueled range was. Remember, that wasn't submurged range.