Japanese submarine I-29
| History | |
|---|---|
 Japan
|
|
| Name: | I-29 |
| Laid down: | September 29, 1940 |
| Commissioned: | February 27, 1942 |
| Nickname(s): | Matsu |
| Fate: | Sunk by USS Sawfish, July 26, 1944 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Type B1 submarine |
| Displacement: |
|
| Length: | 108.5 m (356 ft) |
| Beam: | 9.3 m (31 ft) |
| Draught: | 5.12 m (16.8 ft) |
| Propulsion: | 2-shaft diesel (12,400 hp (9,200 kW)) and electric motor (2,000 hp (1,500 kW)) |
| Speed: | 23 knots (43 km/h) surface, 8 knots (15 km/h) submerged |
| Range: | 14,000 nautical miles (26,000 km) at 16 knots (30 km/h) |
| Test depth: | 100 m (330 ft) |
| Complement: | 101 officers and men |
| Armament: | 6 × 533 mm torpedo tubes forward (17 Torpedoes) + 1 × 14 cm/40 11th Year Type naval gun |
| Aircraft carried: | one Yokosuka E14Y "Glen"'Type 0' reconnaissance seaplane (零式小型水上偵察機) |
I-29, code-named Matsu (松, Japanese for "pine tree"), was a B1 type submarine of the Imperial Japanese Navy used during World War II on two secret missions with Germany. She was sunk while coming back from the second mission.
This was the most numerous class of Japanese submarines - almost 20 were built, of which only one (I-36) survived. These boats were fast, had a long range, and carried a seaplane, launched via a forward catapult.
The keel of I-29 was laid on 29 September 1940 at the Yokosuka Naval Yard, and she was commissioned on 27 February 1942, into the 14th submarine squadron under the command of Lieutenant Commander (later Captain) Izu Juichi (伊豆壽市).
These were missions enabled under the Axis Powers' Tripartite Pact to provide for an exchange of personnel, 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 trans-oceanic voyage during World War II: I-30 (April 1942), I-8 (June 1943), I-34 (October 1943) and the German submarines U-511 (August 1943) and U-234 (May 1945). Of these, I-30 was sunk by a mine and I-34 by the British submarine HMS Taurus. Later, the famous Japanese submarine I-52 would also share their fate. In 1945 the German U-234 had completed part of the voyage to Japan when news of Germany's surrender to the Allies was announced, and the submarine subsequently was intercepted and boarded off Newfoundland; this marked the end of the German-Japanese submarine exchanges.
...
Wikipedia