 The salvaged wreck ofI-33 on 30 August 1953. | |
| History | |
|---|---|
 Japan | |
| Name | Submarine No. 146 |
| Builder | Mitsubishi |
| Laid down | 21 February 1940 |
| Renamed | I-41 on 25 March 1941 |
| Launched | 1 May 1941 |
| Renamed | I-33 on 1 November 1941 |
| Completed | 10 June 1942 |
| Commissioned | 10 June 1942 |
| Fate |
|
| General characteristics | |
| Class & type | Type B1 submarine |
| Displacement |
|
| Length | 108.7 m (357 ft) |
| Beam | 9.3 m (31 ft) |
| Draft | 5.14 m (16.9 ft) |
| Propulsion |
|
| Speed |
|
| Range | 14,000 nautical miles (26,000 km) at 16 knots (30 km/h) |
| Test depth | 100 m (330 ft) |
| Complement | 94 |
| Armament |
|
| Aircraft carried | 1Yokosuka E14Y seaplane |
I-33 was anImperial Japanese NavyB1 type submarine. Completed and commissioned in 1942, she served inWorld War II, making one war patrol that included theBattle of the Eastern Solomons, before sinking accidentally in September 1942. Refloated and repaired, she sank again in a diving accident during post-repairsea trials in June 1944.
I-33 waslaid down on 21 February 1940 byMitsubishi with the nameSubmarine No. 152.[2] RenamedI-41 on 25 March 1941, she waslaunched on 1 May 1941.[2] RenamedI-33 on 1 November 1941,[2] she was completed andcommissioned on 10 June 1942.[2]
Upon commissioning,I-33 was attached to theKure Naval District and assigned to Submarine Division 15 in Submarine Squadron 1 along with the submarinesI-31 andI-32.[2]
TheGuadalcanal campaign began on 7 August 1942 with U.S. amphibious landings onGuadalcanal,Tulagi,Florida Island,Gavutu, andTanambogo in the southeasternSolomon Islands.[2]I-33 got underway from Kure on 15 August 1942 bound for a war patrol in the Solomons area, where she took up a position as part of submarine picket line south ofSan Cristobal.[2] The two-dayBattle of the Eastern Solomons began on 24 August 1942, and she was on the surface that day heading for a new position when aUnited States NavySBD-3 Dauntlessdive bomber from theaircraft carrierUSS Enterprise (CV-6) attacked her at 11:05 at09°21′S163°35′E / 9.350°S 163.583°E /-9.350; 163.583, but she crash-dived and avoided damage.[2]
On 26 August 1942, the commander of the Advance Force orderedI-33 and the submarinesI-11,I-15,I-17,I-19,I-26,I-174, andI-175 to deploy to the south and east of San Cristobal to interdict American supplies and reinforcements bound for Guadalcanal.[3] At around midnight on 28 August,I-15 sighted what she identified as an American aircraft carrier east of San Cristobal heading south.[3]I-15,I-17, andI-33 received orders to pursue the aircraft carrier, but failed to make contact with it.[3]I-33 sighted a U.S.task force on 30 August 1942 but was unable to get into a position to attack it.[2]
On 10 September 1942,I-15,I-17,I-19,I-33, and the submarinesI-9,I-21,I-24, andI-26 took up patrol stations betweenNdeni in theSanta Cruz Islands and San Cristobal.[3] At 0930 on 13 September, an Imperial Japanese NavyKawanishi H8K (Allied reporting name "Emily")flying boat reported anAllied task force 345nautical miles (639 km; 397 mi) south-southeast of Tulagi, andI-9,I-15,I-17,I-21,I-24,I-26,I-33, and the submarineI-31 received orders to form a patrol line in the area in an attempt to intercept it.[3]I-33 departed her patrol area on 20 September 1942 bound forTruk, which she reached on 25 September 1942.[2]
On 26 September 1942,I-33 was at Truk tied up alongside the6th Fleetrepair shipUrakami Maru with herstern moored to awharf onDublon.[2] Half of her crew was ashore on leave, hercommanding officer was aboardUrakami Maru, and hernavigation officer was the senior officer on board.[2] Early in the morning,I-33 crew members and three engineers fromUrakami Maru began repairs toI-33′s No. 6torpedo tube, one of the lowermost tubes.[2] At 09:21 the navigation officer allowed the crew to open the drain cock of the aft mainballast tank in an attempt to make the repairs easier by reducing the effect ofswells in thelagoon onI-33 and by raising herbow.[2] This so badly compromised the partially floodedI-33′sbuoyancy that thehawsers securing her stern to the wharf broke, her forward torpedo hatch flooded, and she sank in two minutes with the loss of 33 members of her crew.[2]
A rescue operation began immediately.[2] Adiver foundI-33 on the bottom in 120 feet (37 m) of water and reported that some crewmen were still alive aboard the submarine.[2] Lacking the equipment necessary to try to save the crew, the 6th Fleet abandoned rescue attempts on 27 September 1942,[2] and an investigation of the sinking began that day.
On 30 September 1942, theMinistry of the Navy ordered thesalvage ofI-33, and, without proper equipment available at Truk, theCombined Fleet passed this order to the4th Fleet on 2 October 1942.[2] Eventually, a salvage attempt began and on 19 December 1942I-33′shull was pressurized and her bow came to the surface, but three minutes later the pressure blew a hatch open and she sank again.[2] Thesubmarine rescue shipMie Maru andtankerNippo Maru began another salvage attempt on 25 December 1942 and this time succeeded, refloatingI-33 on 29 December 1942.[2]
Nippo Maru departed Truk withI-33 undertow on 2 March 1943 bound for Japan.[2] During the voyage, the auxiliarygunboatsChou Maru andHeijo Maru joined them, and on 9 March 1943 thedestroyerYūnagi also joined theconvoy.[2] On 17 March 1943, the ships reachedSaeki, Japan,[2] andI-33 arrived at Kure on 18 March 1943 to undergo repairs at theKure Naval Arsenal.[2]
On 1 April 1944,I-33 was assigned to the Kure Guard Unit.[2] Work on her — including the installation ofradar and aradar detector — continued until early May 1944.I-33′s repairs were declared officially complete on 1 June 1944, and she was assigned to Submarine Squadron 11 in the 6th Fleet that day for work-ups.[2]
I-33 got underway from Kure at 07:00 on 13 June 1944 to complete heracceptance trials by making a series of dives in theIyo-nada in theSeto Inland Sea.[2] When she conducted her second crash-dive of the morning at 08:40, herstarboard main induction valve did not close, and all compartments aft of her control room flooded.[2] Her crew managed to blow her main ballast tanks partially, and 10 minutes after submerging her bow broke the surface.[2] Flooding continued, however, and a few seconds later she sank, settling on the bottom at a depth of 180 feet (55 m).[2]
I-33′s commanding officer and nine other men were trapped in the control room. With water rising in the control room, the commanding officer decided to remain aboard the submarine and drown, but he ordered the men with him to escape via theconning tower.[2] Eight reached the surface, where they drifted apart in two groups that made for shore separately.[2] Most became exhausted and drowned, only two of them reaching shore alive.[2] Thirteen other men were trapped in the forward crew compartment.[2] The lower hatch of the escape trunk jammed, preventing them from escaping.[2] After 12 of the men suffocated, the last surviving sailor committed suicide.[2] In all, 102 men lost their lives.[2]
A few hours afterI-33 sank, fishermen found the two men from the control room who had made it to shore alive and took them toMitohama, where they contacted naval authorities.[2] Thesubmarine tenderChōgei soon arrived, picked upI-33′s two survivors, and headed for the scene of the disaster.[2]
On 14 June 1944, search aircraft found adiesel oil slick in theIyo-nada and guidedChōgei to it.[2] Divers fromChōgei found the wreck ofI-33 on 15 June 1944 and brought the bodies of two men found entangled in the bridge enclosure to the surface.[2] The divers also determined the cause of the disaster, finding a piece of woodenscaffolding 2 inches (5.1 cm) in diameter which had slipped into the air-induction line during the repairs at Kure and jammed the valve, causing disastrous flooding.[2]
A salvagebarge equipped with acrane arrived on the scene on 16 June 1944, but an approachingtyphoon forced the Japanese to abandon all rescue and salvage efforts that evening.[2] No inquiry into the sinking took place because most of the officers assigned to the investigation werekilled in action duringfighting in theMariana Islands in the summer of 1944.[2] The Imperial Japanese Navy struckI-33 from the Navy list on 10 August 1944.[2]
AfterI-33 had lain on the bottom of the Seto Inland Sea for nine years, the Hokusei Sempaku salvage firm began work to refloat her in June 1953.[2] Her wreck was refloated between 23 July and 18 August 1953, the salvors discovering that her forward compartments were not flooded.[2] The wreck wasscrapped at theHitachi yard atInnoshima, Japan.[2]
Shipwrecks and maritime incidents in September 1942 | |
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| Shipwrecks |
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| Other incidents |
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