Japanese WWII super-submarine found scuttled off Hawaii


  • Scientists plumbing the Pacific Ocean off the Hawaii coast have discovered a Second World War era Japanese submarine, a technological marvel that had been preparing to attack the Panama Canal before being scuttled by U.S. forces.

    The 122-metre “Sen-Toku” class vessel — among the largest pre-nuclear submarines ever built — was found in August off the southwest coast of Oahu and had been missing since 1946, scientists at the University of Hawaii at Manoa said.

    The I-400 and its sister ship, the I-401, which was found off Oahu in 2005, were able to travel one and a half times around the world without refueling and could hold up to three folding-wing bombers that could be launched minutes after resurfacing, the scientists said.

    http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/japan-s-wwii-super-submarine-found-scuttled-off-hawaii-1.2448985


  • @CWO:

    Scientists plumbing the Pacific Ocean off the Hawaii coast have discovered a Second World War era Japanese submarine, a technological marvel that had been preparing to attack the Panama Canal before being scuttled by U.S. forces.

    The 122-metre “Sen-Toku” class vessel — among the largest pre-nuclear submarines ever built — was found in August off the southwest coast of Oahu and had been missing since 1946, scientists at the University of Hawaii at Manoa said.

    The I-400 and its sister ship, the I-401, which was found off Oahu in 2005, were able to travel one and a half times around the world without refueling and could hold up to three folding-wing bombers that could be launched minutes after resurfacing, the scientists said.

    http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/japan-s-wwii-super-submarine-found-scuttled-off-hawaii-1.2448985

    Thank you for the post.


  • Definitely of interest to us here. Thank you Marc.
    Do you think the planes were dive bombers or torpedo bombers?


  • @wittmann:

    Definitely of interest to us here. Thank you Marc.
    Do you think the planes were dive bombers or torpedo bombers?

    These boats would have been a great tool for the Japanese had they been available in the first two years of the war.


  • @wittmann:

    Do you think the planes were dive bombers or torpedo bombers?

    The news story gives insufficient data – but I’d say it would be more useful for a sub to carry dive bombers than torpedo bombers.  Subs already carry their own torpedoes (and larger ones than aerial torpedoes, for that matter), so a torpedo bomber would strike me as being somewhat redundant.


  • I thought Dive Bombers made more sense too, but wondered if storage for torpedoes would have been easier, not realising plane and Subs had different sized ones. Thank you for that comment.

  • Customizer

    Guys,

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    Operation Storm" by John Geoghegan. I would give this book 5 of 5 stars possible. Check it out! Amazon even has it in “Kindle” form so you can read it on your tablet.

    “Tall Paul”

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