Why Did Japan Send Its Navy To British Malta In 1917? [13:33]

YouTube ^ | August 27, 2026 | The History Chap

[SunkenCiv]

The Anglo-Japanese Alliance of 1902 had bound the two island empires together against a common rival, but it was the German U-boat war that finally brought the Imperial Japanese Navy to the Mediterranean. 

As Royal Navy escorts were stretched to breaking point, Britain turned to its ally in the East. Eight Japanese destroyers, commanded by Admiral Soto Kozo, sailed for Malta -- and over the months that followed, they escorted nearly eight hundred troopships through submarine-infested waters and clashed with enemy submarines on more than thirty occasions. 

Why Did Japan Send Its Navy To British Malta In 1917? | 13:33 
The History Chap | 273K subscribers | 131,529 views | August 27, 2026

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TOPICS: History; Science; Travel
KEYWORDS: 1917; austria; boats; germany; godsgravesglyphs; historychap; japan; japanesenavy; malta; oakisland; royalnavy; sakaki; sotokozo; submarines; templars; thegreatwar; uk; unitedkingdom; ww1; wwi

[SunkenCiv]

Chapters

0:00 History Chap In Malta
0:49 Japan - Britain's Ally
1:23 World War 1
3:45 Japanese At Malta
5:07 Sinking of Troopship Transylvania
7:27 Sinking of the Sakaki
9:22 Allies To Enemies
12:12 100 Years Later

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YouTube transcript reformatted at textformatter.ai *may* follow.

[SunkenCiv]

[excerpt from transcript] A month later, the Sakaki was patrolling in the Aegean Sea between Crete and the Greek mainland when she was torpedoed by an Austro-Hungarian submarine. With Austria and Hungary landlocked nowadays, most people are surprised to know that back in the First World War the Hapsburg Empire actually had a coastline (in modern-day Croatia) and possessed a navy, including submarines. Indeed, their most successful submarine commander, with 11 merchant ships sunk, along with an Italian submarine and a French cruiser, was a certain Captain Georg von Trapp - yes, Captain von Trapp from "The Sound of Music." I bet you'll never think of Christopher Plummer in the same light again! Anyway, the U-boat that attacked the Sakaki was not commanded by von Trapp but by Robert von Fernland. The resulting explosion on the Japanese destroyer tore off her bow killing her commander and most of the forward crew.

[BenLurkin]

bttt

[SunkenCiv]

[Oscar in Batangas]

I was on a Med-deployed carrier twice the 1960s. Japan’s reasoning could have been “it’s a great place to pull liberty”.