Japanese submarine I-26
| History | |
|---|---|
 Empire of Japan
|
|
| Name: | I-26 |
| Commissioned: | 6 November 1941 |
| Struck: | 10 March 1945 |
| Fate: | Sunk in action, 26 October 1944 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Type B1 submarine |
| Displacement: |
|
| Length: | 108.7 m (357 ft) |
| Beam: | 9.3 m (31 ft) |
| Draft: | 5.1 m (17 ft) |
| Propulsion: |
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| Speed: |
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| Range: | 14,000 nautical miles (26,000 km; 16,000 mi) at 16 knots (30 km/h; 18 mph) |
| Test depth: | 100 m (330 ft) |
| Complement: | 94 officers and men |
| Armament: |
|
| Aircraft carried: | one seaplane |
I-26 was a Japanese B1 type submarine which saw service in the Imperial Japanese Navy during World War II. She was completed and commissioned at the Kure Dockyard on 6 November 1941, under the command of Commander Yokota Minoru.
On 7 December 1941, I-26 sank the 2140-ton U.S. Army chartered lumber freighter Cynthia Olson 300 nautical miles (560 km; 350 mi) off the coast of California — the first American merchant ship to be sunk by a Japanese submarine in the war. I-26 had orders not to commence hostilities until 0330 8 December (Tokyo time) -- the anticipated time of the attack on Pearl Harbor. I-26 found Cynthia Olson prior to that time, but remained submerged until surfacing near the freighter at 0330 Tokyo time (0800 7 December Hawaiian time or 0900 in the +9 time zone of the sinking.) I-26 fired a warning shell over Cynthia Olson from its 14-cm deck gun. Cynthia Olson stopped and radioed they were being attacked by a submarine. I-26 sunk Cynthia Olson by gunfire after the crew abandoned ship in lifeboats. The steamship Lurline heard the radio message from Cynthia Olson, but the crew of the sunken ship perished at sea while attention was focused on the simultaneous bombing of Pearl Harbor.
After searching unsuccessfully for the aircraft carrier USS Lexington following the attack on Pearl Harbor, I-26 patrolled off the entrance to the Strait of Juan de Fuca. A scheduled bombardment of American coastal cities on Christmas eve of 1941 was canceled because of the frequency of coastal air and surface patrols.I-26 was in Yokosuka drydock number 5 on 18 April 1942 when one of the Doolittle Raid B-25 Mitchell bombers damaged the carrier Ryūhō in the adjacent drydock number 4.
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