WWII Japanese Submarine Aircraft Carrier found off Oahu

[Queasy]

Link

The submarine is from the I-400 Sensuikan Toku class of subs, the largest built before the nuclear-ballistic-missile submarines of the 1960s.

They were 400 feet long and nearly 40 feet high and could carry a crew of 144. The submarines were designed to carry three "fold-up" bombers that could quickly be assembled....

The [submarine's] mission, which was never completed, reportedly was to use the aircraft to drop rats and insects infected with bubonic plague, cholera, typhus and other diseases on U.S. cities [ed note: presumably along our West Coast].

When the bacteriological bombs could not be prepared in time, the mission reportedly was changed to bomb the Panama Canal. Both submarines were ordered to sail to Pearl Harbor and were deliberately sunk later, partly because Russian scientists were demanding access to them.

I'm surprised that this has never been on the History or Discovery Channel (at least not that I've seen). Sounds really interesting.

 

[iamwiz82]

Wow, two in one day, that's amazing!


😉

 

[Schadenfreude]

R

 

[Accipiter22]

my grandparents lived on long island sound, in old saybrook CT...my grandmother was walkin around one summer yelling about a german u-boat in long-island sound...they thought she was crazy till they found one that had sunk from a mechanical problem....

 

[Queasy]

Alright..I did a search for submarine and it brought up one completely unrelated post. WTF

 

[Ramma2]

I think it was on the History Channel once, I remember seeing it. But I can't search their site for some reason.

 

[Atomicus]

Actually, info about the WWII Japanese plan to use these subs to disperse biological weapons on the US's West Coast was talked about on the History channel. I think the episode was something like "Japanese Secrets of WWII" , something about their secret developing technology which couldn't turned the tides during the war.

 

[StageLeft]

This could have been interesting except that it was not found, because it was never lost. It was deliberately scuttled by the US after the war, so it's not really news.

 

[Queasy]

Hmmm. Guess I missed that one. I've seen all the German Secret of WWII but not the Japanese ones.

 

[StrangerGuy]

Originally posted by: Jehovah
R

BBQ

 

[Ramma2]

Check out the types with Aircraft section.

http://www.combinedfleet.com/ss.htm

 

[Ramma2]

Funny about the "discovered" part. Says this on that site:

On 26 July 1945, I-400 and I-401 set out on a combat mission to launch their aircraft in Kamikaze attacks on the American fleet anchorage at Ulithi. In coordination with a Kaiten attack, they were scheduled to launch early on 17 August, but by then hostilities had ceased. Both boats therefore returned to Japan and were surrendered to the Allies. After the war, these two were taken to the United States, examined, and finally scuttled in the Pacific in 1946.

 

[Triumph]

An I-400 and I-401 were captured at sea a week after the Japanese surrendered in 1945. Their mission, which was never completed, reportedly was to use the aircraft to drop rats and insects infected with bubonic plague, cholera, typhus and other diseases on U.S. cities.

Doesn't that violate some sort of international law?

 

[jadinolf]

Thanks for the link.

 

[Queasy]

Originally posted by: Triumph

An I-400 and I-401 were captured at sea a week after the Japanese surrendered in 1945. Their mission, which was never completed, reportedly was to use the aircraft to drop rats and insects infected with bubonic plague, cholera, typhus and other diseases on U.S. cities.

Doesn't that violate some sort of international law?

Japan didn't have a problem breaking international laws/treaties back then. Neither did Germany. Though, Germany was better at treating POWs than Japan.

 

[ElFenix]

Originally posted by: iamwiz82
Wow, two in one day, that's amazing!


😉

*snort*