Submarine aircraft carrier unknown history.

[red750]

I started this thread on Social Australia, but thought it should be shared to the wider audience on this forum.

 

It started when my brother asked if I  had heard of the Japanese  reconnaissance flight over Melbourne in February 1942. He sent me this link: 

Japanese Reconnaissance flight over Melbourne and Port Phillip Bay on 26 February 1942

OZATWAR.COM

 

This has opened up a much larger discussion regarding the Japanese I-400 class submarine which has been kept secret all these years. Here is the Wikipedia article on the I-400.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I-400-class_submarine.

 

 

I doubt that many on this forum have heard of this, either.

 

[rgmwa]

It's an ingenious concept and design but with some significant performance drawbacks as both a submarine and an aircraft carrier. Apart from reconnaissance, the planes would be next to useless. Any bombs they might carry would have made no difference to the war. You have to admire the audacity and bravery of the pilots though. Imagine having to find your submarine again after several hours flying in hostile airspace, and then having to land and recover the plane. 

[turboplanner]

I've seen the story on this somewhere; maybe at the AWM.

They weren't used to bomb; they were reconnaisance aircraft and from memory there were several of them and they were seen flying over Australian cities.

[turboplanner]

Plenty on it including this:

Fujita flew north across Bass Strait headed for Cape Otway where he banked to the north east and followed the coastline to the Point Lonsdale lighthouse near the narrow entrance to Port Phillip Bay. He then headed north east towards the city of Melbourne. Fujita struck a few heavy banks of cloud. He flew across the Bellarine Peninsula towards Portarlington. The city of Geelong was 16 kms away to the left of his aircraft on the other side of Lake Connewarre.

He was flying NNE as he flew over Portarlington. He then flew another 24 km along the western edge of Port Phillip Bay. He continued to encounter heavy cloud and was unsure of his position. They eventually dropped down from 1,500 metres into a gap in the clouds. At about 6.45 a.m. Fujita cleared the base of the clouds when he reached 300 metres. They had exited the clouds directly above the RAAF's Laverton airfield. There were about 12 Wirraways based at Laverton along with some Lockheed Hudsons and some Avro Ansons.

About nine RAAF personnel at Laverton reported sighting the Japanese aircraft. Two RAAF aircraft were scrambled to try to locate the intruder. They found nothing. Three Wirraways were sent to Bairnsdale.

Fujita climbed back into the relative safety of the clouds and headed for Melbourne. He passed over Altona. He used a tactic of dropping down out of the clouds every now and then to make some observations and then climbing back into the clouds for safety. His unexpected descent above RAAF Laverton had made him very nervous about the rest of their flight.

The crews of the 4 ack ack guns at Williamstown beside the rifle range were in the middle of a routine inspection of their guns when the telescope person spotted the aircraft identifying it as a Japanese aircraft. Aubrey Auton from Melbourne, spotted the prominent red roundel. The roundel was easy to spot as the aircraft was flying so slow and was very low.

The Lieutenant in charge of the gun battery unfortunately did not give the order to open fire. Instead he got on the phone to headquarters to obtain permission. By that time it was too late. Fujita turned right and headed across the rifle range butts towards Port Phillip Bay.

Fujita continued his charmed journey across Melbourne at a height of 300 metres obtaining a birds eye view of the Yarra River, the central business district of Melbourne and the docks at the mouth of the Yarra River. He spotted a number of docks along the river used to repair ships. The other thing that struck him was the red, green and yellow roof tiles on all the houses and the beautiful countryside and the large flocks of sheep.

Fujita continued southwards over St. Kilda, Brighton and Sandringham. He then turned towards Frankstown. Okuda, with the canopy back, spotted 19 vessels anchored in the harbour through his binoculars. He also spotted 6 warships headed in single file towards the Port Melbourne dock area. Fujita confirmed through his binoculars that the leading ship was a light cruiser, and the others were all destroyers.

Fujita crossed the shore again near Dromona and continued on towards Cape Schanck where he was able to re-establish his position via the Cape Schanck lighthouse. He then set a direct 175 km course for the Cape Wickham lighthouse. He spotted the submarine only 6 nautical miles east of the lighthouse. It had drifted 4 nautical miles closer to the lighthouse since they first took off.

Fujita and the crew of the submarine were concerned that the large submarine would be sighted by the lighthouse keepers at the Cape Wickham lighthouse. Little did they know that "downsizing" was alive and well in the 1940's. The superintendent and his 3 assistants had been withdrawn from the island when the original kerosene wick lamps were replaced by an acetylene flasher way back in 1918. Despite this, Fujita reported sighting 3 or 4 men dressed in white running around the lighthouse. He was sure they had been spotted. The aircraft was disassembled and as it was being stowed I-25 speed away from the area doing 14 knots.

Tagami set a course back down the west coast of Tasmania. He travelled on the surface.

[rgmwa]

They did bomb the US, although not much more than nuisance raids:

"The two attacks on Oregon in September 1942 were the only enemy aircraft bombings on the contiguous United States and were the second time the continental United States was attacked by such aircraft during World War II, following the bombing of Dutch Harbor in Unalaska, Alaska three months earlier."

 

Nobuo Fujita - Wikipedia

EN.WIKIPEDIA.ORG