Japanese submarine I-52 (1943)
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, code-named was a Type C-3 cargo submarine of the
Imperial Japanese Navy The Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN; Kyūjitai: Shinjitai: ' 'Navy of the Greater Japanese Empire', or ''Nippon Kaigun'', 'Japanese Navy') was the navy of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945, when it was dissolved following Japan's surrend ...
used during
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 opposing ...
for a secret mission to
Lorient Lorient (; ) is a town ('' commune'') and seaport in the Morbihan department of Brittany in western France. History Prehistory and classical antiquity Beginning around 3000 BC, settlements in the area of Lorient are attested by the presen ...
, France, then occupied by Germany, during which she was sunk.


Valuable cargo

She is also known as Japan's "Golden Submarine", because she was carrying a cargo of gold to Germany as payment for matériel and technology. There has been speculation that a peace proposal to the Allies was contained on board the ''I-52'' as well, but this is unlikely on two counts: there is no evidence that the Japanese government was interested in peace proposals or negotiated settlements at that stage in the war; and the Japanese kept an open dialogue with their diplomatic attachés via radio and diplomatic voucher through Russia, and had no need for long and uncertain transfer via a submarine bound for a Nazi-controlled area of western Europe. It is believed that 800 kg (1,760-lbs) of
uranium oxide Uranium oxide is an oxide of the element uranium. The metal uranium forms several oxides: * Uranium dioxide or uranium(IV) oxide (UO2, the mineral uraninite or pitchblende) * Diuranium pentoxide or uranium(V) oxide (U2O5) * Uranium trioxide o ...
awaited ''I-52'' for her return voyage at
Lorient Lorient (; ) is a town ('' commune'') and seaport in the Morbihan department of Brittany in western France. History Prehistory and classical antiquity Beginning around 3000 BC, settlements in the area of Lorient are attested by the presen ...
according to
Ultra adopted by British military intelligence in June 1941 for wartime signals intelligence obtained by breaking high-level encrypted enemy radio and teleprinter communications at the Government Code and Cypher School (GC&CS) at Bletchley Park. ' ...
decrypts. It has been speculated that this was for the Japanese to develop a
radiological weapon Radiological warfare is any form of warfare involving deliberate radiation poisoning or contamination of an area with radiological sources. Radiological weapons are normally classified as weapons of mass destruction (WMDs), although radiologica ...
(a so-called "
dirty bomb A dirty bomb or radiological dispersal device is a radiological weapon that combines radioactive material with conventional explosives. The purpose of the weapon is to contaminate the area around the dispersal agent/conventional explosion with ...
") for use against the United States. (The amount of unenriched uranium oxide would not have been enough to create an atomic bomb, though if used in a
nuclear reactor A nuclear reactor is a device used to initiate and control a fission nuclear chain reaction or nuclear fusion reactions. Nuclear reactors are used at nuclear power plants for electricity generation and in nuclear marine propulsion. Heat fr ...
it could have created poisonous fission products). She was also to be fitted with a snorkel device at Lorient. In addition, 35 to 40 tons of secret documents, drawings, and strategic cargo awaited ''I-52''s return trip to Japan: T-5 acoustic torpedoes, a Jumo 213-A motor used on the long-nosed Focke-Wulf Fw 190D fighter, radar equipment, vacuum tubes, ball bearings, bombsights, chemicals, alloy steel, and optical glass.


Type C-3 submarines

This class of submarines was designed and built by Mitsubishi Corporation, between 1943 and 1944, as cargo carriers. They were quite long and carried a crew of up to 94. They also had a long cruising range at a speed of . The Japanese constructed only three of these submarines during World War II (''I-52'', and ), although twenty were planned. They were the largest submarines ever built at that time, before the enormous ''Sentoku'' subs were built, and were known as the most advanced Japanese submarines of their time. The keel of ''I-52'' was laid on 18 March 1942, and she was commissioned on 28 December 1943 into the 11th submarine squadron. After training in Japan she was selected for a ''Yanagi'' (exchange) mission to Germany.


Yanagi missions

Yanagi missions The , or more formally the , were a series of submarine voyages undertaken by the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) during the Second World War, to exchange technology, skills and materials with Japan's Axis partners, principally Nazi Germany. Thes ...
were enabled under the
Axis Powers The Axis powers, ; it, Potenze dell'Asse ; ja, 枢軸国 ''Sūjikukoku'', group=nb originally called the Rome–Berlin Axis, was a military coalition that initiated World War II and fought against the Allies. Its principal members were ...
'
Tripartite Pact The Tripartite Pact, also known as the Berlin Pact, was an agreement between Germany, Italy, and Japan signed in Berlin on 27 September 1940 by, respectively, Joachim von Ribbentrop, Galeazzo Ciano and Saburō Kurusu. It was a defensive milit ...
to provide for an exchange of strategic materials and manufactured goods between Germany, Italy and Japan. Initially, cargo ships made the exchanges, but when that was no longer possible submarines were used. Only five other submarines had attempted this intercontinental voyage during World War II: (April 1942), (June 1943), (October 1943), (November 1943), and (August 1943). Of these, ''I-30'' was sunk by a
mine Mine, mines, miners or mining may refer to: Extraction or digging * Miner, a person engaged in mining or digging *Mining, extraction of mineral resources from the ground through a mine Grammar *Mine, a first-person English possessive pronoun ...
, ''I-34'' by the British submarine , and ''I-29'' by the United States submarine (assisted by
Ultra adopted by British military intelligence in June 1941 for wartime signals intelligence obtained by breaking high-level encrypted enemy radio and teleprinter communications at the Government Code and Cypher School (GC&CS) at Bletchley Park. ' ...
intelligence).


Fatal voyage

On 10 March 1944, on her maiden voyage, ''I-52'' (Commander Uno Kameo) departed
Kure is a port and major shipbuilding city situated on the Seto Inland Sea in Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan. With a strong industrial and naval heritage, Kure hosts the second-oldest naval dockyard in Japan and remains an important base for the Japan ...
via
Sasebo is a core city located in Nagasaki Prefecture, Japan. It is also the second largest city in Nagasaki Prefecture, after its capital, Nagasaki. On 1 June 2019, the city had an estimated population of 247,739 and a population density of 581 persons p ...
for Singapore. Her cargo from Japan included 9.8 tons of molybdenum, 11 tons of
tungsten Tungsten, or wolfram, is a chemical element with the symbol W and atomic number 74. Tungsten is a rare metal found naturally on Earth almost exclusively as compounds with other elements. It was identified as a new element in 1781 and first isol ...
, 2.2 tons of gold in 146 bars packed in 49 metal boxes, 3 tons of opium and 54 kg of
caffeine Caffeine is a central nervous system (CNS) stimulant of the methylxanthine class. It is mainly used recreationally as a cognitive enhancer, increasing alertness and attentional performance. Caffeine acts by blocking binding of adenosine to ...
. The gold was payment for German optical technology. She also carried 14 passengers, primarily Japanese technicians, who were to study German technology in anti-aircraft guns, and engines for torpedo boats. In Singapore she picked up a further 120 tons of
tin Tin is a chemical element with the symbol Sn (from la, stannum) and atomic number 50. Tin is a silvery-coloured metal. Tin is soft enough to be cut with little force and a bar of tin can be bent by hand with little effort. When bent, t ...
in ingots, 59.8 tons of
caoutchouc Rubber, also called India rubber, latex, Amazonian rubber, ''caucho'', or ''caoutchouc'', as initially produced, consists of polymers of the organic compound isoprene, with minor impurities of other organic compounds. Thailand, Malaysia, and ...
(raw rubber) in bales and 3.3 tons of
quinine Quinine is a medication used to treat malaria and babesiosis. This includes the treatment of malaria due to '' Plasmodium falciparum'' that is resistant to chloroquine when artesunate is not available. While sometimes used for nocturnal le ...
, and headed through the Indian Ocean, to the Atlantic Ocean. On 6 June 1944, the Japanese naval attaché in Berlin, Rear Admiral Kojima Hideo, signaled the submarine that the Allies had landed in Normandy, thus threatening her eventual destination of Lorient on the coast of France. She was advised to prepare for Norway instead. She was also instructed to rendezvous with a German submarine on 22 June 1944 at 21:15 (GMT) at the co-ordinates . ''I-52'' responded with her position, being . The message was intercepted and decoded by US intelligence; ''I-52'' had been closely watched all the way from Singapore. Guided by the F-21 Submarine Tracking Room and F-211 "Secret Room" of the Tenth Fleet which was in charge of the Atlantic section, a hunter-killer task force was targeted towards her. On the night of 22 June 1944 about west of the
Cape Verde Islands , national_anthem = () , official_languages = Portuguese , national_languages = Cape Verdean Creole , capital = Praia , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , demonym ...
off the coast of Africa, ''I-52'' rendezvoused with , a Type IXC/40 U-boat commanded by Kapitänleutnant Kurt Lange. ''U-530'' provided her with fuel, and also transferred a
Naxos Naxos (; el, Νάξος, ) is a Greek island and the largest of the Cyclades. It was the centre of archaic Cycladic culture. The island is famous as a source of emery, a rock rich in corundum, which until modern times was one of the best ab ...
FuMB 7 radar detector, and an
Enigma Enigma may refer to: *Riddle, someone or something that is mysterious or puzzling Biology *ENIGMA, a class of gene in the LIM domain Computing and technology * Enigma (company), a New York-based data-technology startup * Enigma machine, a family ...
coding machine, along with two radar operators, Petty Officers Schulze and Behrendt, and German liaison officer for the trip through the Bay of Biscay.


US task force

A US task force assembled as a submarine hunter-killer group, consisting of the escort carrier USS ''Bogue'' and five destroyer escorts, en route to the United States from Europe, was ordered to find and destroy the Japanese submarine. This task force departed from Casablanca on 15 June 1944, and was commanded by Captain Aurelius B. Vosseller. It also had 9 General Motors FM-2 Wildcats and 12 Grumman TBF-1C Avengers of VC-69 on board. The task force, on its way from Hampton Roads to Casablanca, had sunk another Japanese submarine, the Type IX ''RO-501'' (formerly ''U-1224'') on 13 May 1944. This was a very effective force, sinking 13 German and Japanese submarines between February 1943 and July 1945. The five destroyer escorts were: * , Lieutenant J. E. Johansen. * , Commander T. S. Lank, TF 51 commander. * , Lieutenant R. E. Peek. * , Lieutenant Commander G. R. Atterbury. * , Lieutenant Commander H. E. Cross. Arriving in the area of the meeting on the evening of 23 June, the carrier began launching flights of
Avenger Avenger, Avengers, The Avenger, or The Avengers may refer to: Arts and entertainment In the Marvel Comics universe * Avengers (comics), a team of superheroes ** Avengers (Marvel Cinematic Universe), a central team of protagonist superheroes o ...
s at around 23:00 GMT to search for the submarines. ''U-530'' escaped undetected. At approximately 23:40, Ed Whitlock, the
radar Radar is a detection system that uses radio waves to determine the distance ('' ranging''), angle, and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, we ...
operator in Lieutenant Commander Jesse D. Taylor's Avenger aircraft, detected a surface contact on his malfunctioning radar (only the right half of its sweep was working). Taylor immediately dropped flares, illuminating the area, and attacked. After his first pass, he saw the depth charge explosions just to starboard of the submarine – a near miss – and the submarine dove. Taylor dropped a purple
sonobuoy A sonobuoy (a portmanteau of sonar and buoy) is a relatively small buoy – typically diameter and long – expendable sonar system that is dropped/ejected from aircraft or ships conducting anti-submarine warfare or underwater acoustic rese ...
, a newly developed underwater microphone that floated on the surface to pick up underwater sounds and transmit them to the aircraft. A searching aircraft usually drops these in packs of five, code-named purple, orange, blue, red and yellow (POBRY). The operator is able to monitor each buoy, in turn, to listen for sounds emitted by the enemy craft. Hearing what sounded like submarine propeller sounds, Taylor began a
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, s ...
attack, dropping a Mark 24 "mine". The Mark 24, code-name "Fido" and designated a "mine" for secrecy, was actually the first Allied acoustic torpedo, developed by the Harvard Underwater Sound Lab, which homed in on noises made by the submarine. Fido was designed to be a "mission kill" weapon – to damage the submarine so that it would have to surface and be captured, rather than destroy it. Within minutes of dropping the torpedo, Taylor's sonobuoys detected the sounds of an explosion and a hull breaking up. As Commander Taylor's watch ended, the operators on ''USS Bogue'' and Taylor all thought he had sunk the sub. However, as Taylor's patrol ended, he was relieved by Lieutenant Junior Grade William "Flash" Gordon, accompanied by civilian underwater sound expert Price Fish. They arrived on the scene just after midnight and circled with Taylor for some time. At about 0100 on 24 June 1944, Fish reported hearing some faint propeller noise in the area. Captain Vosseller ordered a second attack; Gordon checked with Taylor about the exact position of the sonobuoy and dropped another "Fido" torpedo where he believed the submarine to be. Taylor departed the area at 0115, but Gordon stayed to circle the area and listen for any sign of activity. He heard nothing and was relieved by Lieutenant (junior grade) Brady, who continued to watch and listen, but no further activity was reported. Next morning, ''USS Janssen'' reached the site () and found
flotsam In maritime law, flotsam'','' jetsam'','' lagan'','' and derelict are specific kinds of shipwreck. The words have specific nautical meanings, with legal consequences in the law of admiralty and marine salvage. A shipwreck is defined as the rema ...
: a ton of raw rubber, a piece of silk, and human flesh. The sonobuoy recording of the last few moments of ''I-52's'' sound still survives in the
US National Archives The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is an " independent federal agency of the United States government within the executive branch", charged with the preservation and documentation of government and historical records. It i ...
in
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in the form of two thin-film canisters marked "Gordon wire No. 1" and "Gordon wire No. 2" dated 24 June 1944. The wire from Taylor's attack has not been found; however, a set of 78 rpm vinyl recordings that include segments of Taylor's wire recordings has been located. These records were produced during the war for training pilots. On the wire and vinyl recordings, Lieutenant Gordon can be heard talking to his crew, along with the sound of a torpedo exploding, and metal twisting. Subsequent to the discovery of the wreck (see below), analysts at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, experts in analyzing modern submarine sounds, studied these recordings and concluded that the ''I-52'' was sunk by Taylor. The propeller sounds heard by Gordon were actually from ''U-530'', nearly away, reaching Gordon's sonobuoys through a "surface duct". This quirk of underwater sound propagation traps sounds in a channel near the surface and can transmit them for many miles. At the time, the Navy credited the sinking of the ''I-52'' to both Gordon and Taylor, as it was uncertain whether the ship was sunk on the first attack.


Aftermath

On 30 August 1944, the Kriegsmarine officially declared ''I-52'' sunk in the Bay of Biscay as of 25 July 1944, with all crew. The Imperial Japanese Navy declared ''I-52'' missing on 2 August 1944, and struck her from service on 10 December 1944 as sunk.


Recent salvage operations

In late 1994, a salvage operation named Project Orca was launched to try to locate the ''I-52'' and retrieve her valuable cargo of gold. Despite the commissioning of the Russian research ship '' Akademik Keldysh'' for the project and an extensive search, by March 1995 the search had proved to be a failure (Hamilton-Paterson 1998). Very shortly afterwards, however, in the spring of 1995, Paul Tidwell, working with the ocean exploration company Meridian Sciences, Inc. (later renamed Nauticos Corp.) located the wreck deep, mostly upright. The vessel was found nearly from the datum quoted by the U.S. Navy at the time of the sinking, but within of the coordinates computed by Meridian. Meridian's analysts used historical ship logs from the U.S. task force as well as from the German U-boat to reconstruct the events of the battle and correct navigation errors using a process called "re-navigation," or RENAV. Her conning tower is intact and her
hull number Hull number is a serial identification number given to a boat or ship. For the military, a lower number implies an older vessel. For civilian use, the HIN is used to trace the boat's history. The precise usage varies by country and type. United ...
is still visible. The bow is broken up, probably due to impact on the bottom, and a large hole, probably caused by one of the torpedoes, is aft of the conning tower. Debris was scattered over a large area. Plans were made to raise the sub and recover the gold. The Japanese government objected, indicating that they considered the wreck site a grave. Tidwell worked on the proper procedures with the Japanese government and received the approval of the war graves authorities in Japan. Tidwell's team took down a Japanese
naval ensign A naval ensign is an ensign (maritime flag) used by naval ships of various countries to denote their nationality. It can be the same or different from a country's civil ensign or state ensign. It can also be known as a war ensign. A large ve ...
and affixed it to the wrecked submarine. A metal box from the debris field was brought to the surface in the hope that it would contain some of the sunken gold (worth US$25 million at that time – US$109,085,000 (~109 millions of US$) in 2020), but when opened, the salvors were disappointed to find not gold, but opium. It was dumped overboard. The plan was to recover the entire conning tower, diplomatic pouches, gold, coding equipment, (Japanese and German) and more. The recovered items would be taken to
New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans
for cleaning, conservation, and corrosion treatment to prepare for an exhibition.
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had offered $20 million for the exhibition. After three years in Las Vegas everything except the gold would be returned to Japan to be placed at the city of
Kure is a port and major shipbuilding city situated on the Seto Inland Sea in Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan. With a strong industrial and naval heritage, Kure hosts the second-oldest naval dockyard in Japan and remains an important base for the Japan ...
in a permanent exhibition. There are no full-size Japanese World War II submarines on display anywhere in the world; however, captured Japanese
midget submarine A midget submarine (also called a mini submarine) is any submarine under 150 tons, typically operated by a crew of one or two but sometimes up to six or nine, with little or no on-board living accommodation. They normally work with mother ships, ...
s are on display at the Admiral Nimitz Museum in Fredericksburg, Texas, at the USS Bowfin Submarine Museum & Park, close to
Pearl Harbor Pearl Harbor is an American lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. It was often visited by the Naval fleet of the United States, before it was acquired from the Hawaiian Kingdom by the U.S. with the signing of the R ...
, Hawaii, and at the Australian War Memorial, Canberra. ''
The Japan Times ''The Japan Times'' is Japan's largest and oldest English-language daily newspaper. It is published by , a subsidiary of News2u Holdings, Inc.. It is headquartered in the in Kioicho, Chiyoda, Tokyo. History ''The Japan Times'' was launched b ...
'' reported that Tidwell intended to return to the site and raise the submarine in November 2005 or May 2006. However, as of March 2021, Tidwell's plans have not been fulfilled.


Media coverage

* In 2000 the
National Geographic Society The National Geographic Society (NGS), headquartered in Washington, D.C., United States, is one of the largest non-profit scientific and educational organizations in the world. Founded in 1888, its interests include geography, archaeology, an ...
commissioned and produced a documentary called, ''Submarine I-52: Search for WWII Gold'', on the ''I-52'' and Tidwell's salvage effort. * The October 1999 issue of the '' National Geographic'' featured an article on the ''I-52'' sinking and salvage.


References

* Boyd, Carl. ''U.S. Navy Radio Intelligence During the Second World War and the Sinking of the Japanese Submarine I-52'', Journal of Military History 63 (2): 339–354, April 1999. * Hamilton-Paterson, James. (1998) Three Miles (5 km) Down: A Hunt for Sunken Treasure, New York: Lyons Press. * Listen to the training record

* Listen to the wire recording from the aircraf


External links


Pictures from various sources related to I-52 (captions in French)

Paul Tidwell's website about the ongoing recovery & salvage operation
{{DEFAULTSORT:I-052 (1942) Type C3 submarines Ships built by Kure Naval Arsenal 1943 ships World War II submarines of Japan World War II shipwrecks in the Atlantic Ocean Submarines sunk by aircraft Japanese submarines lost during World War II Maritime incidents in June 1944 Ships lost with all hands Ships sunk by US aircraft