 I-25 launching her E14Y floatplane during the raid on Port Orford, 29 September 1942 | |
| History | |
|---|---|
 Japan | |
| Name | I-25 |
| Builder | Mitsubishi |
| Laid down | 3 February 1939 |
| Launched | 8 June 1940 |
| Commissioned | 15 October 1941 |
| Fate | Sunk by one or more US destroyers on 3 September 1943[1] |
| Service record | |
| Part of |
|
| Commanders |
|
| General characteristics | |
| Class & type | B1 Typesubmarine |
| Displacement |
|
| Length | 108.7 m (356.6 ft) |
| Beam | 9.3 m (30.5 ft) |
| Draught | 5.1 m (16.7 ft) |
| Propulsion |
|
| Speed |
|
| Range | 25,928 km (14,000 nmi; 16,111 mi) at 30 km/h (16.2 kn; 18.6 mph) |
| Test depth | 100 m (330 ft) |
| Complement | 94 officers and men |
| Armament |
|
| Aircraft carried | 1 ×Yokosuka E14Yobservation seaplane |
I-25 (イ-25) was aB1 type (I-15-class)submarine of theImperial Japanese Navy that served inWorld War II, took part in theAttack on Pearl Harbor, and was the onlyAxis submarine to carry out aerial bombing on thecontinental United States in World War II, during the so-calledLookout Air Raids, and theshelling ofFort Stevens, both attacks occurring in the state ofOregon.[4]
I-25, displaced 2584 long tons surfaced and 3654 long tons submerged and was 108 m (354 ft 4 in) long, with a range of 25,928 km (14,000 nmi; 16,111 mi), a maximum surface speed of 43.5 km/h (23.5 kn; 27.0 mph) and a maximum submerged speed of 15 km/h (8 kn; 9 mph). She carried a two-seaterYokosuka E14Yreconnaissancefloatplane, known to theAllies as "Glen". It was disassembled and stowed in a hangar in front of theconning tower.
In World War II,I-25 served under the command ofLieutenant Commander Akiji Tagami who had graduated from Class 51 atEtajima, Hiroshima. 26-year-oldLieutenant Tatsuo Tsukudo was theexecutive officer(XO) onI-25.I-25 departedYokosuka on 21 November 1941 in preparation for hostilities.[5]
I-25 and three other submarines patrolled a line 222 km (120 nmi; 138 mi) north ofOahu during the JapaneseAttack on Pearl Harbor. After the Japaneseaircraft carriers sailed west following the attack,I-25 and eight other submarines sailed eastwards to patrol the west coast of the United States.I-25 patrolled off the mouth of theColumbia River. A scheduled shelling of American coastal cities onChristmas eve of 1941 was canceled because of the frequency of coastal air and surface patrols.[6]
I-25 attackedSSConnecticut 16 km (9 nmi; 10 mi) off the US coast. The damaged tanker managed to escape but ran aground at the mouth of the Columbia River.I-25 then returned toKwajalein, arriving on 11 January 1942 to refuel and be refurbished.
I-25 left Kwajalein atoll in theMarshall Islands on 5 February 1942 for its next operational patrol in the southPacific. Tagami's orders were to reconnoiter theAustralian harbours ofSydney,Melbourne andHobart followed by theNew Zealand harbours ofWellington andAuckland.
I-25 travelled on the surface for nine days, but as she approached the Australian coastline, she only travelled on the surface under the cover of night.
On Saturday 14 February 1942,I-25 was within a few miles of the coast near Sydney. The searchlights in Sydney could clearly be seen from the bridge ofI-25. Tagami then tookI-25 to a position 190 km (100 nmi; 120 mi) south east of Sydney.
A number of days of rough swell prevented an immediate launch of the "Glen" floatplane. They stayed submerged during the day and went back to the surface at night. Finally on Tuesday, 17 February 1942,Warrant Flying OfficerNobuo Fujita took off in the "Glen" for a reconnaissance flight overSydney Harbour.[7] The purpose was to look at Sydney's airbase. By 0730, Fujita had returned toI-25 and disassembled the "Glen" and stowed it in the watertight hangar. Commander Tagami then pointedI-25 southwards on the surface at 26 km/h (14 kn; 16 mph). By midday on Wednesday 18 February, they were nearly 740 km (400 nmi; 460 mi) south east of Sydney still heading southwards.
Their next mission was a similar flight over Melbourne. Tagami decided to launch the aircraft fromCape Wickham at the northern end ofKing Island at the western end ofBass Strait about halfway betweenVictoria andTasmania. The floatplane was launched on 26 February 1942 for its reconnaissance flight to Melbourne overPort Phillip Bay.
Fujita's next reconnaissance flight in Australia was over Hobart on 1 March 1942.I-25 then headed for New Zealand where Fujita flew another reconnaissance flight over Wellington on 8 March. Fujita next flew over Auckland on 13 March, followed byFiji on 17 March.
I-25 returned to its base at Kwajalein on 31 March 1942 and then proceeded to Yokosuka for refit.I-25 was in Yokosuka drydock number 5 on 18 April 1942 when one of theDoolittle RaidB-25 Mitchell bombers damagedJapanese aircraft carrier Ryūhō in adjacent drydock number 4.[8]
While outbound past theAleutian Islands for a third war patrol off the west coast of North America,I-25's Glen seaplane overflew United States military installations onKodiak Island. The surveillance on 21 May 1942 was in preparation for the northern diversion of theBattle of Midway.[9]
Shortly after midnight on 20 June 1942,I-25 torpedoed the new, coal-burning Canadian freighter SSFort Camosun off the coast ofWashington. The freighter was bound for England with a cargo of war production materials including zinc, lead, and plywood. One torpedo struck the port side below the bridge and flooded the 2nd and 3rd cargo holds. CanadiancorvettesQuesnel andEdmundston reached the stricken freighter after dawn and rescued the crew from lifeboats.Fort Camosun was towed back intoPuget Sound for repairs, and later survived a second torpedo attack byI-27 in theGulf of Aden in the fall of 1943.[10][11]
On the evening of 21 June 1942,I-25 followed a fleet of fishing vessels to avoid minefields near the mouth of the Columbia River, in Oregon.I-25fired seventeen 14-cm (5.5-inch) shells at Battery Russell, a small coastal army installation withinFort Stevens which was later decommissioned. Fort Stevens was equipped with two 10-inchdisappearing guns, some 12-inch mortars, 75 mm field guns, .50-caliber machine guns, and associated searchlights, observation posts, and secretradar capability. Damage was minimal. In fact, the only items of significance damaged on the fort were a baseball backstop and some power and telephone lines.
The incoming shell fire had a highly stimulative effect on the personnel at Battery Russell. Men leaped out of bed, crashing into things in the dark—turning on a light would be unthinkable—as they scrambled to battle stations in their underwear.
"We looked like hell," Capt. Jack R. Wood, commander of the battery, told historian Bert Webber later. "But we were ready to shoot back in a couple of minutes."[12]
But when gunners requested permission to open fire, they were firmly refused. In part, this was because the submarine's location remained uncertain because of difficulties evaluating reports from different observation points; it was, after all, 10 miles (16 km) from shore. Furthermore, authorities later stated they wished to avoid revealing the locations of their guns to what they believed to be a reconnaissance mission. The sub may also have been out of range of Battery Russell's artillery; the mechanism used with the 10-inch disappearing guns limited their upward travel, which limited their effective range to less than 10 miles (16 km). If the guns opened fire, the sub would be able to report back to Tokyo that a fleet of surface ships could simply heave to, 10 miles (16 km) from shore, and pound Battery Russell with impunity, then sail right on into the Columbia—where, among other valuable targets, upstream atPortland,Oregon Shipbuilding Corporation, one ofHenry Kaiser's shipyards, was cranking outLiberty ships at a rate of more than one a week.[13] This, obviously, was not something the Navy could take a chance on.[14]
In the end, Battery Russell sat there and absorbed the fire without a single shot in reply. It was a turning point for Americancoastal artillery, and the failure to respond caused re-evaluation of men and artillery allocated to coastal defense.[15]
Following his successful observation flights on the second and third patrols, Warrant Officer Nubuo Fujita was specifically chosen for a special incendiary bombing mission to create forest fires in North America.I-25 left Yokosuka on 15 August 1942 carrying six 76-kilogram (168 lb)incendiary bombs. On 9 September, the crew again deployed the "Glen", which dropped two bombs over forest land nearBrookings, Oregon. This attack by an enemy airplane was later called the "Lookout Air Raids", and was theonly time that the mainland United States was ever bombed by enemy aircraft and the second continental territory to be bombed as such during wartime, after thebombing of Dutch Harbor inUnalaska, Alaska.
Warrant Officer Fujita's mission had been to triggerwildfires across the coast; at the time, theTillamook Burn incidents of 1933 and 1939 were well known, as was the destruction of the city ofBandon, Oregon by a smaller out-of-control wildfire in 1936.[16] But light winds, wet weather conditions and two quick-actingfire lookouts kept the fires under control.[17] In fact, had the winds been sufficiently brisk to stoke widespread forest fires, the lightweight Glen may have had difficulty navigating through the bad weather. Shortly after the Glen seaplane had landed and been disassembled for storage,I-25 was bombed at42°22′N125°12′W / 42.367°N 125.200°W /42.367; -125.200 by a United States ArmyA-29 Hudson piloted by Captain Jean H. Daugherty fromMcChord Field[18] nearTacoma, Washington. The Hudson carried 300-pound (140 kg) general-purpose demolition bombs with delayed fuzes rather than depth charges. The bombs caused minor damage, but quick response by aCoast Guard cutter and three more aircraft causedI-25 to be more cautious on a second bombing raid on 29 September 1942. The Glen seaplane was assembled and launched in pre-dawn darkness usingCape Blanco Light as a reference. The plane was heard at 0522 by a work crew at the Grassy Knob Lookout 7 miles (11 km) east ofPort Orford, Oregon; but fire crews from theGold Beach Ranger Station were unable to locate any evidence of the two incendiary bombs dropped.[19] The Glen seaplane was again recovered, butI-25 decided not to risk a third flight with the two remaining incendiary bombs.[17][20] Captain Tagami took I-25 to rest "...on the bottom [of the harbor ofPort Orford ] until night time.[21][22]
At 0415 4 October 1942I-25 torpedoed the 6,706 tonnes (6,600 long tons) tankerCamden en route fromSan Pedro, California, to Puget Sound with a cargo of 76,000 barrels (12,100 m3) of gasoline. The damaged tanker was towed to the mouth of the Columbia River. When its draft was discovered to be too great to reach repair facilities in Portland, Oregon, another tow was arranged to Puget Sound; but the tanker was destroyed on 10 October by a fire of unknown origin during the second tow.[23]
On the evening of 5 October 1942I-25 torpedoed theRichfield Oil Company tankerLarry Doheny, which sank the next day. The cargo of 66,000 barrels (10,500 m3) of oil was lost with 2 of the tanker's crew and 4 members of theUnited States Navy Armed Guard.[24] Survivors reachedPort Orford, Oregon on the evening of 6 October.[25]
Two submarines were sighted on 11 October 1942 about 800 miles (1,300 km) off the coast of Washington asI-25 was returning to Japan.I-25 fired its last torpedo at the lead submarine, which sank in 20 seconds with the loss of all hands.I-25 reported sinking a U.S. submarine, but the submarine was actually SovietL-16 which was sailing withL-15 en route fromVladivostok to thePanama Canal viaUnalaska, Alaska, andSan Francisco. United States Navy Chief Photographer's Mate Sergi Andreevich Mihailoff ofArcadia, California, was aboardL-16 as a liaison officer and interpreter, and was killed with the remainder of the submarine crew. The United States NavyWestern Sea Frontier denied loss of any submarine and withheld information about the Soviet loss because, at the time, theSoviet Union was officially neutral in the war between Japan and the United States.[26][27][28]
SSH.M. Storey was bringingfuel oil fromNoumea,New Caledonia, in theSouth Pacific Ocean toLos Angeles. On May 17, 1943,I-25 torpedoed and fired shells at the ship. The attack killed two of the crew; 63 of the crew made it in to the ship'slifeboats before she sank. USdestroyerUSSFletcher rescued the crew in the lifeboats and took them toPort VilaEfate,Vanuatu, in the South Pacific.[29][30][31][32][33]
| Date[34] | Attack type/location | Vessel/weapon | Commander |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20 June | SS Fort Camosun, torpedoed, survived, off North American west coast | I-25 torpedo | Akiji Tagami |
| 21 June | Fort Stevens,Oregon shelled | I-25 5.5-inch (140 mm) deck gun | |
| 9 September | 1st aircraft bombing onWheeler Ridge, 8 miles (13 km) east ofBrookings,Oregon[35] | I-25 launched two-man aircraft/pilot Fujita/navigator Okuda | |
| 29 September | 2nd aircraft bombing near "Grassy Knob" east ofPort Orford, Oregon | I-25 same aircraft, same crewmen | |
| 4 October | SS Camden sunk | Torpedoed off west coast byI-25 | |
| 5 October | SS Larry Doheny sunk off west coast | I-25 torpedo | |
| 10 October | Soviet submarine L-16 sunk off North American west coast | I-25 torpedo, misidentified as American by sub commander |
I-25 was sunk less than a year later by one or more of thedestroyersUSS Ellet,USS Patterson,[36]USS Wadsworth orUSS Saufley which were involved in a series of naval engagements from late August to mid September 1943 off theNew Hebrides islands, approximately 150 miles (240 km) northeast ofEspiritu Santo. Which American ship sank theI-25 (or any of the other IJN submarines in the vicinity) remains unknown.[1] On 24 October 1943, the Imperial Japanese Navy announced thatI-25 was presumed lost with all 100 men on board in the Fiji area, and it was struck from the Navy List on 1 December 1943.[2]
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