Japanese submarine I-34

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I-34 was a Kaidai Junsen Type B1 submarine of the Imperial Japanese Navy. During World War II, while on a Yanagi mission between Japan and Germany carrying strategic raw materials and information, she was sunk by the British submarine Template:HMS using Ultra intelligence.

Service history

Commissioning

Her keel was laid down at the Sasebo Dockyard on 1 January 1941; she was launched on 24 September. She was commissioned and assigned to the Kure Naval District on 31 August 1942, with Commander Tonozuka Kinzo in command. Commander Tatsushi Irie (入江達) took command in March 1943.

During early 1943, she took part in supply missions and the eventual evacuation of the garrison of Kiska in the Aleutian Islands.

On 15 September 1943, she was assigned to a Yanagi (exchange) mission to Lorient, France. She arrived in Singapore on 22 October 1943 to take on passengers and cargo for her mission.

I-34 loaded a cargo of raw rubber, tungsten, tin, quinine, medicinal opium and samples of Japanese weapons. She departed for Penang to load passengers on 11 November 1943. Due to a delay in loading the cargo, her passengers opted to meet her at Penang, thus saving them from death.

Unknown to Commander Irie or the crew, her movements were being tracked by Ultra intelligence, and a British submarine was sent to sink her.

Sinking

She was spotted running on the surface in a rain squall by HMS Taurus (commanded by veteran Captain Mervyn R. G. "Dillinger" Wingfield, DSO, DSC), on 13 November 1943 in the Malacca Straits, Template:Convert off the coast of Penang at 07:30.

Taurus fired a salvo of six torpedoes of which one struck I-34 below the conning tower, she sank in Template:Convert of water at Template:Coord. Of her 94 crew, only 14 survived to be picked up by a local junk. Following the loss of I-34, the IJN rerouted all Europe-bound submarines away from Penang.

I-34 was removed from the Imperial Japanese Navy list in January 1944. Her wreck was salvaged on 4 December 1962 by the Singaporean Great Eastern Salvage Company. Over 50 bodies were found in the wreck and were cremated in a specially erected shrine in Penang. Her bell is on display at the local Mariners Club and some of the recovered documents ("code books") are on display at the Royal Navy Submarine Museum in Gosport.

Bibliography

• HIJMS I 34

Further reading

• Miller, Vernon J. Analysis of Japanese Submarine Losses to Allied Submarines in World War II, Merriam Press, 36pgs, Template:ISBN
• Gibson, Lt John F., RNVR. Dark Seas Above, Gloucester:Tempus Publishing, 2000, Template:ISBN (Author was the Navigation Officer of HMS Taurus)