In mid-June 1942 I-30 was sent on a Yanagi mission to Europe, rounding the Cape of Good Hope and entering the Atlantic en route to France. Its two crewmen were discovered by Royal Marines, and in the ensuing firefight both were killed. The I-16 's midget submarine went missing, presumed sunk, while the I-20 's beached further along the coast. ![]() The corvettes counter-attacked with depth charges, but at 21:20 the midget from I-20 torpedoed and sank the British Loyalty. At 20:25, one torpedoed and damaged the Ramillies. The next night the Type C submarines I-16 and I-20 launched their Ko-hyoteki midget submarines about 10 miles from the harbour. The aircraft sighted the battleship HMS Ramillies at anchor in the bay, along with the destroyers Duncan and Active, corvettes Genista and Thyme, troopship Karanja, hospital ship Atlantis, tanker British Loyalty, merchant ship Llandaff Castle, and an ammunition ship. On the night of 29 May I-30 she sent her aircraft to the harbour of Diego Suarez at the northern tip of Madagascar, which was occupied by the British. In May I-30 sailed along the coast of Africa, launching its Yokosuka E14Y floatplane on a series of reconnaissance flights over Aden, Zanzibar, Dar es Salaam, and Durban, East London, Port Elizabeth and Simon's Town in South Africa searching for targets. Two days later she sailed from Penang accompanied by the auxiliary cruiser and supply ship Aikoku Maru to reconnoitre selected points on the East African coast for possible attack. On 11 April, I-30 departed Kure for Penang, Malaya, arriving on the 20th. Submarine Squadron 8's 1st Division was withdrawn from its base at Kwajalein in the Marshall Islands and assigned the task. On 27 March 1942 the German Kriegsmarine naval staff requested that the Imperial Navy launch operations against Allied convoys in the Indian Ocean, and on 8 April the Japanese agreed to dispatch a detachment of submarines to the East Coast of Africa. The submarine was laid down at the Kure Naval Arsenal on 7 June 1939, launched on 17 September 1940, completed on 28 February 1942, and commissioned with Commander Endo Shinobu in command. I-30 returned to Singapore loaded with military technology and information, but hit a mine outside the harbour and sank. She was the first Japanese submarine to reach Europe, arriving at Lorient, France in August 1942. After operating in the Indian Ocean she participated in a Yanagi mission, aimed at connecting Japan and Nazi Germany by submarine. I-30 was a Type B1 submarine of the Imperial Japanese Navy during World War II. ![]() 1 × 14 cm/40 11th Year Type naval gun.I-52 ( (52) I G Dai Gojni Sensuikan (I Gojni)?, I-52 submarine (I-52)), code-named Momi (?, 'abies firma') was a Type C-3 cargo submarine of the Imperial Japanese Navy used during World War II for a secret mission to Lorient, France, then occupied by Germany, during which she was sunk.Sunk by mine, 13 October 1942, later salvaged and scrapped, 1959-1960 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. She was also to be fitted with a snorkel device at Lorient. (The amount of unenriched uranium oxide would not have been enough to create an atomic bomb, though if used in a nuclear reactor it could have created poisonous fission products). ![]() It has been speculated that this was for the Japanese to develop a radiological weapon (a so-called 'dirty bomb') for use against the United States. ![]() It is believed that 800 kg (1,000-lbs) of uranium oxide awaited I-52 for her return voyage at Lorient according to Ultra decrypts. 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 attachs 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. She is also known as Japan's 'Golden Submarine', because she was carrying a cargo of gold to Germany as payment for matriel and technology. Detailed: I-52 Japanese Submarine made to specificīulkhead shape.
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