''Yu 24'' was an

Imperial Japanese Army The was the official ground-based armed force of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945. It was controlled by the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff Office and the Ministry of the Army, both of which were nominally subordinate to the Emperor o ...

transport submarine of the ''Yu 1'' subclass of the Yu I type. Constructed for use during the latter stages of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, she served in the waters of the Japanese archipelago.

Construction

In the final two years of

, the

constructed transport submarines — officially the

Type 3 submergence transport vehicle The was a class of transport submarines built for the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA) during World War II. The IJA called them . Design and construction The six-month-long Guadalcanal campaign came to an end in early February 1943, when the last ...

and known to the Japanese Army as the ''Maru Yu'' — with which to supply its isolated island garrisons in the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

. Only submarines of the Yu I type were completed and saw service. The Yu I type was produced in four subclasses, each produced by a different manufacturer and differing primarily in the design of their

conning tower A conning tower is a raised platform on a ship or submarine, often armored, from which an officer in charge can conn the vessel, controlling movements of the ship by giving orders to those responsible for the ship's engine, rudder, lines, and gro ...

s and details of their gun armament. None carried

torpedo A modern torpedo is an underwater ranged weapon launched above or below the water surface, self-propelled towards a target, and with an explosive warhead designed to detonate either on contact with or in proximity to the target. Historically, su ...

es or had

torpedo tube A torpedo tube is a cylindrical device for launching torpedoes. There are two main types of torpedo tube: underwater tubes fitted to submarines and some surface ships, and deck-mounted units (also referred to as torpedo launchers) installed aboa ...

s. ''Yu 24'' was a unit of the ''Yu 1'' subclass.Mühlthaler, p. 329. The

Hitachi () is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate corporation headquartered in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. It is the parent company of the Hitachi Group (''Hitachi Gurūpu'') and had formed part of the Ni ...

Kasado Works (''Hitachi Kasado Seisakujo'') at

Kudamatsu is a city in Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan. , the city has an estimated population of 55,119, with 24,392 households and a population density of 616 persons per km2. The total area is 89.44 km2. The city was founded on November 3, 1939, being ...

, Japan, constructed .IJA Subs, ijnsubsite.com Accessed 14 May 2022
/ref> Records of the details of the construction of ''Yu 24'' have not been discovered, but the earlier Yu I-type submarines were

laid down Laying the keel or laying down is the formal recognition of the start of a ship's construction. It is often marked with a ceremony attended by dignitaries from the shipbuilding company and the ultimate owners of the ship. Keel laying is one o ...

and launched during the latter half of 1943 and entered service at the end of 1943 or early in 1944.Mühlthaler, pp. 329–330.

Service history

''Yu 24'' spent her operational career in Japanese home waters.Mühlthaler, p. 330. Surviving records of the activities of Imperial Japanese Army submarines are fragmentary,Bailey, pp. 55–57, 63. and no records have been discovered describing her specific activities in support of any particular operation. One source claims that she never was commissioned and sank in an accident at

Ibaraki Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Ibaraki Prefecture has a population of 2,871,199 (1 June 2019) and has a geographic area of . Ibaraki Prefecture borders Fukushima Prefecture to the north, ...

sometime in 1945.

References

Footnotes

Bibliography

* * * * * *Rekishi Gunzō, History of Pacific War Extra, ''Perfect guide, The submarines of the Imperial Japanese Forces'', Gakken, Tokyo Japan, 2005, . *Rekishi Gunzō, History of Pacific War Vol.45, ''Truth histories of the Imperial Japanese Naval Vessels'', Gakken, Tokyo Japan, 2004, . *Ships of the World No.506, Kaijinsha, Tokyo Japan, 1996. *The Maru Special, Japanese Naval Vessels No.43 ''Japanese Submarines III'', Ushio Shobō, Tokyo Japan, 1980. *Atsumi Nakashima, ''Army Submarine Fleet, "The secret project !, The men challenged the deep sea"'', Shinjinbutsu Ōraisha, Tokyo Japan, 2006, . *''50 year history of the Japan Steel Works'' (first volume and second volume), Japan Steel Works, 1968. {{DEFAULTSORT:Yu 0024 1940s ships Ships built in Japan Submarines of the Imperial Japanese Army World War II submarines of Japan Lost submarines of Japan Maritime incidents in 1945 Japanese submarine accidents Shipwrecks of Japan