The Deadly Deep: The Definitive History of Submarine Warfare by Iain Ballantyne & Iain Ballantyne

Author:Iain Ballantyne & Iain Ballantyne
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pegasus Books
Published: 2018-12-04T00:00:00+00:00

23 With all Battle Flags Flying

Having only ‘seriously damaged the tools of a past war’, as one US Navy historical analysis has termed it,1 the Japanese hungered to sink the aircraft carriers they had failed to eliminate at Pearl Harbor.

To achieve that they aimed to force a major fleet battle, and part of it involved utilising submarine ambush techniques used without success at Jutland (and its near sequel) in 1916.

In early May 1942, during the Battle of the Coral Sea – historic for neither side’s warships exchanging fire, with the engagement fought entirely with carrier-based aircraft – Lexington was sunk but the Japanese lost a carrier too, and another was damaged. The stage was set for an epic fight, with Yorktown, Enterprise and Hornet going up against a five-strong enemy carrier strike group and battle fleet (with n capital ships) accompanying an invasion force headed for Midway Island and the Aleutians.

American and Australian intelligence analysts had correctly assessed in mid-May that the Japanese would make this move in early June. US Pacific Fleet boss Admiral Chester Nimitz was a former submariner, so recognised his boats might take the edge off the enemy, provide early warning and even pull off something notable.

One of the first moves was to have the submarine Gudgeon on a patrol line to the north-west of the island, while a further two dozen submarines were positioned in the approaches to Midway

The Japanese, meanwhile, aimed to put their own picket lines of submarines across the anticipated route of USN carriers responding to the attack. The Americans had already placed their carriers off Midway, so by the time Japanese submarines reached their allocated areas their targets had long gone. The IJN attempted to reconfigure submarine patrol lines, with boats surfacing to make fast surface transits, but failed to catch the enemy carriers, though Yorktown suffered serious damage due to air attack that left her a sitting duck.

Aboard submarine I-1682 Lt Cdr Yahachi Tanabe was grateful for new orders. When aircraft earlier pounded Midway Island as a precursor to the planned invasion, I-168’s 35-year-old captain had watched through his periscope, giving reports of fuel tanks exploding to his excitable crew.3 Subsequently carrying out a shore bombardment of Midway’s defences, I-168 was for a while subjected to air attack and depth-charging.

When the submarine’s radio mast was extended it picked up wireless signals about four Japanese carriers being sunk and a sighting report from a reconnaissance aircraft. An enemy carrier appeared to be dead in the water and I-168 received a direct order to locate and destroy . . .’4

It was the Yorktown, which had been abandoned but had not sunk as expected and efforts were being made to salvage her. I-168 proceeded swiftly on the surface but not at top speed, for Tanabe was wary of missing his target in the darkness. He was mightily relieved when, at 5.30 a.m. on 6 June, a lookout sighted a black lump darker than the surrounding night, n miles away. ‘It was the easiest intercept a submarine commander ever made’ said Tanabe.

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