by Mark Felton
The I-21 continued with her mission along the Australian coast well into June 1942. On 12 June the submarine was forty miles off Sydney when the lookouts spotted an eight-ship, lightly defended, coastal convoy. The convoy was proceeding from Newcastle to Whyalla. At 1.14 a.m. Commander Matsumura fired four torpedoes at the convoy, the spread designed to strike two of the eight ships making their way slowly along the coast. One of the torpedoes struck the 5,967-ton Guatemala, a Panamanian registered coke carrier that had been chartered by the Australian government. Within an hour the crew had taken to the boats and the Guatemala had sunk. Thereafter, the I-21 headed for base, arriving at Kwajalein on 25 June before cruising to Japan for a major overhaul.
In all, the Eastern Advance Detachment sank six merchantmen during this operation, but the yield of these actions was disappointing. Too much effort had been expended at the outset in launching the unorthodox midget attacks. Also, many of the torpedoes had malfunctioned during the many attacks launched on merchant shipping. The Detachment failed in its most important mission of cutting the supply lines between Australia and its British and American allies. Once again, the Japanese submarine force had only partially succeeded in its allotted tasks, and had lost a great many well-trained and committed officers and men in the process.
Notes
1 Peggy Warner & Sadao Seno, The Coffin Boats: Japanese Midget Submarine Operations in the Second World War, (London: Leo Cooper), 1986, p. 129
2 H. Tanaka, ‘The Japanese Navy’s operations against Australia in the Second World War, with a commentary on Japanese sources,’ Journal of the Australian War Memorial, Issue 30, April 1997
3 Colin Smith, Singapore Burning: Heroism and Surrender in World War II, (London: Penguin Books Ltd.), 2005, p.43
4 Tanaka, op. cit.
5 ibid.
6 Japanese Midget Submarine Attack on Sydney Harbour, night of 31 May/1 June 1942. Reconstruction of events from Japanese and Australian Sources by G. Hermon Gill, AWM54/622/5/8, (Australian War Memorial, Canberra)
7 ibid.
8 Midget Submarine Attack on Sydney Harbour – Signals, B6121/16IK, (National Archives of Australia, Canberra)
9 Gill, op. cit.
10 ibid.
11 ibid.
12 Midget submarine attack on Sydney Harbour, MP1049/5, 2026/21/79, (National Archives of Australia, Canberra)
13 Gill, op. cit.
14 ibid.
15 ibid.
16 Peggy Warner & Sadao Seno, The Coffin Boats: Japanese Midget Submarine Operations in the Second World War, (London: Leo Cooper), 1986, p.128
17 Andrew Mollo, The Armed Forces of World War II, (London: MacDonald & Co (Publishers) Ltd), 1981, p.252
18 Data derived from Bob Hackett & Sander Kingsepp’s http://www.combinedfleet.com/I-24.htm
19 ibid.
20 Data derived from Bob Hackett & Sander Kingsepp’s http://www.combinedfleet.com/I-27.htm
21 Sydney Morning Herald, 8 June 1942, front page
22 ibid.
23 ibid.
24 ibid.
25 Address by His Excellency Major General Michael Jeffrey AC CVO MC, Governor-General of the Commonwealth of Australia on the occasion of Warringah Australia Remembers Trust Commemorative Service to mark the 62nd anniversary of the defence of Sydney: Manly, New South Wales, 28 May 2004
26 Warner and Seno, op. cit., p. 159
27 Sydney Morning Herald, 8 June 1942, front page
28 ibid.
29 ibid.
30 ibid.
31 ibid.
32 ibid.
33 Address by His Excellency Major General Michael Jeffrey AC CVO MC, Governor-General of the Commonwealth of Australia on the occasion of Warringah Australia Remembers Trust Commemorative Service to mark the 62nd anniversary of the defence of Sydney: Manly, New South Wales, 28 May 2004
34 Sydney Morning Herald, 8 June 1942, front page
35 The Hon. Danna Vale MP, Minister for Veterans’ Affairs, Minister Assisting the Minister for Defence, at the Fort Scratchley Dedication Dinner at City Hall, Newcastle, 2002
36 Newcastle Morning Herald, 9 June 1942, front page
37 ibid.
38 ibid.
Chapter 7
Air Raid Oregon
In just a few more minutes you’11 make history. You will be first person ever to bomb the mainland of America! If all goes well, Fujita, you will not be the last!
Lieutenant-Commander Meiji Tagami, I-26, 9 September 1942
Chief Warrant Officer (Flying) Nobuo Fujita was responsible for one of the truly audacious and risky plans of the Second World War. His plan demonstrated an awareness of the great potential Japanese submarines had over all the other submersibles in both Allied and Axis service. Japanese submarines were unique in that many carried an aircraft onboard. It was Fujita who turned the reconnaissance role of the Japanese submarine-based aircraft on its head and dreamed up a novel way to strike directly at the mainland of the United States.
Fujita had been conscripted into the Imperial Japanese Navy in 1932. In 1933, at the age of twenty-two, he had been selected for training as a naval aviator and was evidently a natural flier for he was employed before hostilities in the dangerous occupation of test pilot. During the attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941 Fujita was serving as a pilot aboard the Junsen Type-Bl submarine I-25. This class of submarine was equipped with an E14Y1 reconnaissance floatplane, a rather flimsy but extremely useful contraption. The careful design of the floatplane, keeping size, speed and weight to a minimum, meant that the E14Y1 made an extremely useful addition to Japan’s scouting submarine fleet. The aircraft, codenamed the ‘Glen’ by the Allies, was powered by a nine-cylinder, 340-horsepower Haitachi Tempu 12 radial engine generating a cruising speed of only eighty-five miles per hour. The aircraft was light, as it only weighed 3,500 pounds because it was constructed from a composite airframe of fabric-covered metal and wood.1 If the aircraft was flown at the optimum cruising speed of eighty-five miles per hour the two-man crew could stay airborne for five hours and operate up to 200 miles from their ‘mother’ ship. The E14Y1, although primarily designed for reconnaissance work, could carry a maximum of 340-lbs of ordnance, consisting of incendiary and anti-personnel bombs, and it was this small bomb load capacity that interested Fujita. For defence against other aircraft the little floatplane was armed with a single 7.7mm machine gun operated by the observer from his position in the rear cockpit.
Fujita was supposed to have taken to the skies over Hawaii on 7 December, providing the fleet with additional reporting on the progress of the operation against the US Pacific Fleet, but due to the delicate nature of the E14Y1, he had to scrub his sortie because of slight damage to his aircraft when it was still aboard the I-25. Although Fujita was frustrated at not being able to take part in the operation against Pearl Harbor, whilst sitting out his enforced ‘unemployment’ as a pilot aboard the I-25 an idea had sprung into his head regarding an offensive use for the E14Y1 floatplane. Fujita also had on his side the fact that he was an experienced pilot, and although not an officer, he was listened to within the confines of the I-25.
Fujita was required to pass his idea up through the chain of command, beginning with his executive officer aboard the I-25, Lieutenant Tatsuo Tsukudo. Tsukudo was impressed immediately by Fujita’s suggestion, and he told him ‘You ought to put your ideas in writing, Fujita, and forward them to the High Command’.2 Inspired by this vote of confidence, Fujita duly sat down and wrote out a plan entirely of his own invention designed to strike directly at the mainland of the United States. The plan was developed around the use of a Type-Bl submarine, such as the I-25, and her onboard Yokosuka E14Y1 reconnaissance aircraft. Fujita planned to use the aircraft, suitably armed with bombs, to attack the vital Panama Canal, US Navy bases along the west coast, and aircraft production facilities, such as the giant Boeing plant in Seattle. The submarine would also attack enemy shipping as the aerial operations were underway, extending the striking capability of t
he mission into a dual purpose offensive from the air and beneath the waves.
The skipper of the I-25, Lieutenant-Commander Meiji Tagami, endorsed Fujita’s letter to headquarters, which meant that the ‘Fujita Plan’ would now reach the desks of senior officers able to divert the necessary resources to make it all a reality. Fujita was forced to wait for some time, and to continue with his duties aboard the I-25 as the submarine patrolled off Australia and New Zealand during February and March 1942. Fujita’s daring and flying skills were put to great use, as he took the E14Y1 up on reconnaissance flights over Sydney, Melbourne and Hobart in Australia, and Wellington and Auckland in New Zealand, demonstrating how easy it would be to drop bombs instead of taking photographs. By June the I-25 was back off the American west coast, and as recounted in Chapter 5, the I-25 had launched a deck-gun bombardment of Fort Stevens, on the coast of Oregon, on 21 June. Fujita had still not received word regarding his plan. But, by July 1942 the I-25 had arrived back in Yokosuka, and Fujita found there was a message waiting for him on his arrival. He was ordered to report forthwith to the Naval General Staff’s First Bureau (Operations) in Tokyo to attend a meeting.
After the discussion was wound up, Fujita was sworn to secrecy about the plan and told to report back to the I-25, which would be the designated submarine to undertake the mission. Commander Tagami was later briefed in secret, the priority being to get Fujita close enough to the enemy shore for the floatplane to make an impact. Fujita left navy headquarters stunned at the realization that his superiors had accepted a version of his own plan, and absolutely determined that the plan would be a success. With his tiny floatplane Chief Warrant Officer Fujita would set out to bring the long arm of Japanese destruction to Oregon, and, if all went well, reinforce in the American public’s mind the fear that Japan was capable of striking at the mainland of the United States at will.
On 7 September the I-25 arrived off the coast of Oregon, but Commander Tagami found the area unwelcoming with high seas and driving rain. He quickly realized that conditions were completely unsuitable for the launch of the floatplane and decided instead to wait out the bad weather. Stowed aboard the submarine were six 76-kg thermite aerial incendiary bombs, and Fujita planned to make three sorties to the American coast, dropping a brace of bombs on each occasion. When detonated, each bomb would scatter 520 incendiary pellets that burned at 2,700 degrees Fahrenheit, spreading over an area of 100 square yards. It was expected that if the six bombs were dropped at different points across the coastal forests, major conflagrations would be started that would soon burn out of control threatening property and lives, and spreading panic in their wake. The Japanese knew that September was considered a time of high fire risk in Oregon, though this year’s weather turned out to be very different from most preceding years.
Eventually, on the early morning of 9 September, the sea conditions were right for the safe launch and recovery of the floatplane. The I-25 was twenty-five miles west of the United States coast. Tagami requested Fujita’s presence in the submarine’s control room. He gestured towards the raised periscope and asked Fujita to take a look. ‘Tell me what you think,’ asked Tagami as Fujita peered intently through the eye-piece. Fujita turned away from the periscope and nodded his head, ‘Captain,’ he said, ‘it looks good. I think we can do it today.’ Tagami nodded in reply and a broad smile broke across his face. ‘Fine,’ a grinning Tagami replied, and then added to the already charged atmosphere inside the boat with a few well-chosen words. ‘In just a few more minutes you’ll make history. You will be first person ever to bomb the mainland of America! If all goes well, Fujita, you will not be the last!’ Fujita bowed deeply and requested permission to prepare. Meeting Petty Officer Okuda, Fujita and his observer once again donned their flying suits, helmets and goggles, adjusting their automatic pistols carried on their belts in brown leather holsters. Fujita would also carry a samurai sword topside that would accompany him on the historic mission he was about to commence.
The I-25 surfaced in the pre-dawn darkness, mechanics clattering topside to begin the familiar routine of assembling the floatplane. On this occasion armourers carefully positioned a pair of thermite incendiaries beneath the aircraft’s wing pylons, arming them shortly before takeoff. The aircraft’s radial engine roared into life, shattering the offshore silence, and with a wave of his hand Fujita, Okuda and the Yokosuka floatplane shot down the catapult runway along the submarine’s deck and rose gracefully into the sky as the sun broke over the horizon. It appeared as a good omen to Fujita, as the Land of the Rising Sun sent two of its young men to bomb the United States. The time was 5.35 a.m. and history was indeed about to be made.
Fujita would once again use lighthouses as convenient navigational markers on his trip to the Oregon coast, as he had done during his reconnaissance missions over Australia earlier in the year, turning the aircraft north-east towards the light at Cape Blanco. On reaching the lighthouse Fujita banked towards the south-east and prepared to commence bombing.
At the Port Orford Coast Guard Station Seaman Second Class Ezra Ross was on duty. Ross heard the Japanese aircraft pass overhead and thought the sound of the engine strange and unfamiliar. The engine certainly did not sound like any American aircraft he had heard over the area before. Unable visually to identify the strange intruder, Ross informed the US Army Air Corp’s IV Fighter Command of his suspicions, and they began to track the unidentified aircraft on radar while also informing 4th Air Force headquarters in San Francisco. Fujita was on a course that would take the two Japanese airmen to Mount Emily, inside Siskiyou National Forest. US Forest Service personnel manned a series of towers across the area, where many acted as fire wardens and others had been retrained as air defence observers to assist the army in protecting the coastal areas in the seemingly unlikely event of enemy aerial incursion. These civil defence personnel relied on the visual identification of aircraft, and were able to communicate any sightings to IV Fighter Command to investigate.
Mount Emily is about fifty miles from the coast, and as the little Japanese floatplane headed towards its target it was spotted and reported several times by civil defence workers. Fujita flew close to the Mount Emily lookout, the noise of the aircraft’s engine causing fire warden Howard Gardner to step outside and peer skyward. A thin fog hung over the forest, but Gardner was able to make out a small aircraft gently circling the area. Thinking it was suspicious, Gardner went back inside and radioed the ranger headquarters at Gold Beach, thirty-miles north of the small town of Brookings. Another firewatcher, a university student named Keith Johnson, was busy clearing forest trails close to another tower located at Bear Wallow, seven miles east of Mount Emily. His attention was also drawn to the unfamiliar engine noise in the sky, but the fog prevented him seeing anything and he soon forgot about it and returned to his work. At Long Ridge, thirty miles from Brookings, husband and wife air defence observers Ed and Esther Conley were manning their tower in the forest when they clearly discerned Fujita’s aircraft. The Conley’s report was passed to IV Fighter Command, which was beginning to realize that something unusual was occurring. Indeed, the Conleys’ prompt report later brought them an official commendation from Brigadier General Barney M. Giles, commander of the 4th Air Force.3
As Fujita circled just above the light fog in the early morning light, he judged himself to be over the target, fifty miles inland in an area of dense forest. He released one of his two bombs, and both Okuda and he peered intently over the side of their aircraft to observe the result. The bomb impacted the forest floor and exploded in a brilliant white flash, and before Fujita flew on both men observed flames flickering through the trees below them. In Fujita’s mind his plan was working, and he flew on to deposit his second bomb five miles from the first, observing another successful impact detonation as the bomb showered the surrounding woodland with hundreds of incendiary pellets. Gardner, from his position at Mount Emily, had observed the Japanese aircraft at 6.24 a.m. Around noon, and long after the Japanese airc
raft had left the scene, Gardner, from the top of his tower, noticed a thin column of smoke rising from the forest to the south-east. He reported this to Gold Beach, and his superiors immediately ordered him to strike out on foot and investigate the suspected fire. Keith Johnson had, by noon, returned to his observation tower from his morning’s work, and ranger headquarters radioed him with instructions to conduct a careful binocular observation of the surrounding forest. Johnson soon discovered the same plume of black smoke rising into the still midday air and, on confirming Gardner’s report to headquarters, Johnson was ordered out on foot to assist him. When Gardner and Johnson arrived at the source of the smoke they discovered a sixty-foot wide circle of forest had been incinerated, and at its centre was a small crater. Strewn about the scorched forest floor were metal fragments and strange pellet-shaped objects. The two wardens began to gather up some of this material, and at 4.20 p.m. Gold Beach received a report from the two men of suspected bomb damage in the forest at Mount Emily.
Fujita, believing that his first attack on the United States had been successful, now headed back at low level for the I-25. On the return flight Fujita and Okuda spotted two merchant ships steaming in company north up the coast, and to avoid being seen Fujita changed his course to north-north-east before relocating the submarine. He landed the aircraft in the sea and taxied alongside the submarine where crew and plane were winched safely aboard by crane. Mechanics busily completed the disassembly and stowage of the E14Y1 and the submarine submerged.
