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BuffaloJack
Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy
Joined: 10 Aug 2004
Posts: 1637
Location: Buffalo, New York
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 Posted: Thu Mar 15, 2007 6:22 pm Post subject: WW II Sub Found Off Hawaii |
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| Quote: | WW II Sub Found Off Hawaii
HONOLULU — The wreckage of a large World War II-era Japanese submarine has been found by researchers in waters off Hawaii (search).
A research team from the University of Hawaii (search) discovered the I-401 submarine Thursday during test dives off Oahu.
"We thought it was rocks at first, it was so huge," said Terry Kerby, pilot of the research craft that found the vessel. "But the sides of it kept going up and up and up, three and four stories tall. It's a leviathan down there, a monster."
The submarine is from the I-400 Sensuikan Toku (search) 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 be assembled for flight within minutes.
Kerby said the main hull is sitting upright and is in good shape. The I-401 numbers are clearly visible on the sides, and the anti-aircraft guns are in almost perfect condition, he said.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,150986,00.html |
How kewl is that? A sub so big that it could hold 3 fold-up bombers.
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Me#1You#10
Site Admin
Joined: 06 May 2004
Posts: 6503
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| Posted: Thu Mar 15, 2007 7:18 pm Post subject: |
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Amazing find...here's some pics...
http://www.combinedfleet.com/sen_toku.htm
http://www.soest.hawaii.edu/HURL/I-401.html
...and a bit more from the Star-Bulletin article...
| Quote: | Their first mission was called "Operation PX," a plan to use the aircraft to drop infected rats and insects with bubonic plague, cholera, dengue fever, typhus and other diseases on American West Coast cities. When the bacteriological bombs could not be prepared in time, the target was changed to the Panama Canal.
I-400 and I-401 were captured at sea a week after the Japanese surrendered in 1945. The commander committed suicide and the huge submarines' mission was never completed.
I-400, I-401 and I-14 were ordered to sail to Pearl Harbor in late 1945 with an American prize crew, who smuggled Japanese war souvenirs in the aircraft hangars. Also along to be evaluated were I-201 and I-203, two top-secret Imperial Navy submarines that were twice as fast as American designs.
The submarines were greeted with ceremonial brass bands in early 1946, but within a few months it was decided to scuttle the Japanese designs, partly because Russians scientists were demanding access to them. On May 31, 1946, I-401 and the other four top-secret Japanese submarines were sunk by torpedoes from the American submarine USS Cabezon. I-401 was last seen sinking by the stern, vanishing until last week.
Honolulu Star-Bulletin |
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USAFE5
PO2
Joined: 23 Aug 2004
Posts: 362
Location: Reno Nevada
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| Posted: Fri Mar 16, 2007 12:08 am Post subject: |
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Clive Custler wrote a story around these subs - Khan's Treasure. He has lots of historical background in and among the fiction.
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