Japanese Super-Sub Wreck Found Virtually Intact

"No, I don't thank you for the fish at all" (notindetroit) 12/03/2013 at 12:48 • Filed to: Underwater Wrecks, Aircraft Carrier Submarine, I-400, Imperial Japanese Navy

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The Germans may have had the U-Boot reputation during WWII, but the largest submarines built until the nuclear era were from Japan. These boats were large because they carried and launched sea planes - yes, they were underwater aircraft carriers, an idea pulled straight out of anime (well before anime popularized the idea). The envisioned plan was to use the seaplanes to bomb the locks of the Panama Canal, despite doubts about the single-engined M6A Seiran planes having enough of a bomb load to do any real damage. Depending on who you talk to, the Imperial Japanese Navy even planned to use the planes to drop radioactive "dirty bombs" across Oregon and Washington. Whatever the plan, any attack against U.S. targets on home turf was a plan of desperation, hoping to sew panic and show that the Japanese weren't out of the fight yet, but still far short of stopping the inevitable American victory.

At any rate no canal locks were bombed, no radioactive material was spread and although the three subs did see combat patrols as overgrown versions of their more conventional sister ships, they were quietly surrendered to the U.S. Navy after the armistice. Having little use for the alien boats that had fallen into disrepair, they were sunk for target practice and then largely forgotten - until now.

On August 1st, a possible I-400 class boat was !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! practically intact by an underwater research team funded by the NOAA. Even if it turns out not to be the case, the wreck found had an aircraft hangar and a launching ramp, still making it a unique and exciting discovery (the Japanese, as the Germans, also had a few subs with light reconnaissance aircraft for spotting merchant shipping, an idea that convinced them that actual sub-launched bombers were feasible). The area (and by "area," the term is defined rather loosely - by hundreds of miles) is a hotbed for wrecks lost in combat or expended in target practice, so it's possible other exciting wrecks could be discovered as well, including another I-400 class boat.

Velocity- Peuguette Connoisseur > No, I don't thank you for the fish at all 12/03/2013 at 12:52

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I love stuff like this. Cool story, bro

Jeff-God-of-Biscuits > No, I don't thank you for the fish at all 12/03/2013 at 12:59

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They have one of the planes at the Udvar Hazy site of the Air and Space.

Aichi M6A1 Seiran

Thunder-Lips > No, I don't thank you for the fish at all 12/03/2013 at 13:00

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Love the history lesson, I actually built a model of this very sub when I was a child. The Japanese had all kinds of insane Ideas. For example. I grew up in Omaha nebraska, and in 1947 (I believe it was 47 I don't have the information in front of me) an explosion occured at the intersection of 50th and underwood. It was discovered that a japanese balloon bomb had delivered its pay load a little too late. Nobody was hurt in the incident.

Vizzini > No, I don't thank you for the fish at all 12/03/2013 at 13:01

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If you think landing on a carrier deck is hard, try landing on a submarine.

Chairman Kaga > No, I don't thank you for the fish at all 12/03/2013 at 13:14

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Amazing! I was obsessed with WWII subs when I was in high school. I owned a copy of Admiral Lockwood's biography, for god's sake!

MR2_FTW - Group J's resident Stig > Vizzini 12/03/2013 at 15:18

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I think they would actually land in the water, then be recovered by that crane on the deck.

Vizzini > MR2_FTW - Group J's resident Stig 12/03/2013 at 16:17

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Well, yeah, but where's the fun in that? (Other than the terrifying crash landing in the pitching sea.) Maverick would have found a way to land on that deck!

rabidpenguin > Jeff-God-of-Biscuits 12/04/2013 at 12:36

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That is FANTASTIC museum, if you enjoy anything that flies, you have to go there.