by Jim Haynes
The damage done around our coast by German raiders was minor in the big scheme of things in World War II, but the sense of vulnerability unsettled Australians, so long used to living safely on their island nation at the bottom of the world.
When Japan entered the war Australia was also exposed to a calculated onslaught on coastal shipping by Japanese submarines which, had all the facts been known at the time, would have added considerably to the justifiable paranoia felt by the nation.
At the start of the Pacific War, the Japanese navy had 63 submarines. Those built after 1942 were the large ‘I Class’ vessels, massive 400-foot (120-metre) long vessels of 2900 tons with crews of 100 or more. After entering the war in late 1941, the Japanese built 126 more submarines, bringing their total to 189, of which 131 were lost in action.
At least 28 Japanese submarines plied Australian waters. A total of 40 patrols were undertaken around our coastline from the Japanese naval base on the island of Truk, north of the Solomon Islands. Each patrol lasted several months.
‘I Class’ submarines were all-purpose vessels that could stay at sea for months at a time. They laid mines, reconnoitred enemy ports, collected weather and shipping data, attacked merchant shipping and bombarded shore installations. Some carried float-planes or midget submarines secured to the outer deck, which were used for reconnaissance of enemy ports and shipping.
The two-man submarines we refer to as ‘midget’ were actually 80 feet (25 metres) long and weighed almost 50 tonnes. Each carried two torpedoes and could attack enemy ships and installations, as happened in Sydney Harbour in May 1942. When you realise that these ‘midget’ subs were carried strapped to the deck of the later ‘I Class’ submarines, you get some idea of just how big the ‘I Class’ subs were.
The 28 Japanese submarines known to have operated around Australia in 1942, 1943 and 1944 attacked at least 50 merchant vessels. The Japanese hoped to cut off supply lines to the war zones in New Guinea and the north, and separate Australia from the rest of the Pacific.
Losses were often not reported due to military censorship, but there was also uncertainty as to the definite cause of sinking in many cases. Over 20 sinkings were officially confirmed by the Allies to be the result of Japanese submarine attacks; another dozen or more were claimed by the Japanese submarine commanders, but unconfirmed by the Allies. More than 150,000 tons of merchant shipping was sunk, and it is believed that 467 people died in the attacks—including those killed when HMAS Kuttabul was sunk in the ‘midget’ attack in Sydney Harbour.
The three ‘midget’ submarines that caused terror and chaos in Sydney Harbour were from a fleet of five ‘I Class’ submarines operating off the coast of Sydney in May 1942. Two of these carried float-planes that made reconnaissance flights around Sydney Harbour on 23 and 30 May. The first flight was undetected, but the second was seen by many and assumed to be a plane from the visiting warship USS Chicago.
The targets for the three midget subs that all entered the harbour undetected on the night of 31 May 1942 were the Chicago and battle-cruiser HMAS Canberra. One of the midgets reversed into a submarine net after hitting a harbour light support, and was spotted by harbour patrol boats and destroyed by depth charges. Another self-destructed after her torpedoes became jammed in the tubes. The third fired her two torpedoes at USS Chicago and then escaped back out to sea.
Neither torpedo reached its target. One ran up into Garden Island and failed to detonate. The other hit the sea wall beneath the converted ferry HMAS Kuttabul and exploded, sinking the ship and killing the 21 sailors who were using the vessel as accommodation.
The whole affair was a comedy of errors on the Australian side.
The submarines were spotted and fired at by a variety of small patrol boats manned by enthusiastic ‘Dad’s Army’ types, who reported the presence of the subs as early as 8.15 p.m. No official response was made until almost 10 p.m. and the harbour’s submarine action plan wasn’t activated until 10.27 p.m.
At least one of the submarines registered on the defensive magnetic detection loop as it entered the harbour. Although the device was manned, it was so often faulty that no-one ever took any notice of it. When it registered a vessel crossing just before 2 a.m. it was thought another submarine had entered the harbour and more panic ensued. What registered on the loop at 2 a.m. was almost certainly the submarine that sank the Kuttabul leaving the harbour!
The man in charge of the harbour’s defences, Rear-Admiral Gerald Muirhead-Gould, was at a dinner with the captain of the USS Chicago, and both were reported to be noticeably drunk later in the evening when attempting to deal with the situation.
Several ships opened fire on what they thought was one of the submarines near the Harbour Bridge, and shells from the Chicago managed to hit parts of the North Shore.
Scared by the idea of submarines inside the harbour, four warships—including the prime targets USS Chicago and HMAS Canberra—fled out to sea, where five massive Japanese submarines waited. Japanese fleet commander Captain Hankyu Sasaki thus missed a perfect opportunity to sink the very vessels he had sent three small and rather ineffective submarines to find. (The midget submarines had poor handling capability and their torpedoes and diving apparatus often malfunctioned.)
M-24, the submarine that sank the Kuttabul, left the harbour and headed north to a pick-up point near Broken Bay. It was found resting on the seabed off the northern beaches of Sydney in 2006. It is assumed the crew of two died from fumes or lack of oxygen when it malfunctioned and sank.
Two of the ‘I-Class’ submarines returned a few nights later and shelled parts of Sydney from a few miles offshore, causing panic in the city, and a fall in real estate prices in the eastern suburbs.
Further north, Newcastle was also shelled, and a number of merchant ships were torpedoed and sunk off the New South Wales coast in the following weeks.
Few civilians at the time were aware how many vessels were lost in Australian waters to enemy submarines during World War II. A probable list, as accurate as can be compiled from Japanese accounts by individual submarine commanders, reads as follows:
20/1/42 Eidsvold 4184 tonnes—near Christmas Island
1/3/42 Modjokerto 8806 tonnes—S of Christmas Island
1/3/42 Parigi 1172 tonnes—off Fremantle
1/3/42 Siantar 8867 tonnes—200 nm* NW of Shark Bay, WA
4/3/42 Le Maire 3271 tonnes—NW of Cocos Islands
5/5/42 John Adams 7180 tonnes—120 nm SW of Noumea
7/5/42 Chloe 4641 tonnes—35 nm from Noumea
31/5/42 HMAS Kuttabul 448 tonnes—Sydney Harbour
3/6/42 Iron Chieftain 4812 tonnes—27 nm east of Sydney
4/6/42 Iron Crown 3353 tonnes—40 nm SW of Gabo Island, Victoria
12/6/42 Guatemala 5527 tonnes—40 nm NE of Sydney
20/7/42 George S. Livanos 4883 tonnes—15 nm E of Jervis Bay
21/7/42 Coast Farmer 3290 tonnes—25 nm E of Jervis Bay
22/7/42 William Dawes 7176 tonnes—off Tathra Head, NSW
25/7/42 Cagou 2795 tonnes—NE of Sydney
25/7/42 Tjinegara 9227 tonnes—92 nm SE of Noumea
30/8/42 Trawler Dureenbee 233 tonnes—off Moruya, NSW
18/1/43 Kalingo 2047 tonnes—110 nm E of Sydney
18/1/43 Tanker Mobilube 10,222 tonnes—60 nm E of Sydney
22/1/43 Peter H. Burnett 7176 tonnes—420 nm E of Sydney
29/1/43 Samuel Gompers 7176 tonnes—500 nm NE of Brisbane
30/1/43 Giang Ann unknown tonnage—30 nm E of Newcastle
8/2/43 Iron Knight 4812 tonnes—21 nm off Montagu Island (sunk while sailing in an escorted convoy)
10/2/43 Starr King 7176 tonnes—150 nm E of Sydney
11/4/43 Recina 4732 tonnes—20 nm off Cape Howe, WA (sunk while sailing in an escorted convoy)
24/4/43 Kowarra 2125 tonnes—160 nm N of Brisbane
26/4/43 Limerick 8724 tonnes—20 nm SE of Cape Byron, NSW
27/4/43 Lydia M. Childs 7176 tonnes—90 nm E of New
castle
29/4/43 Wollongbar 2239 tonnes—off Crescent Head, NSW
5/5/43 Fingal 2137 tonnes—off Nambucca Heads, NSW
14/5/43 AHS Centaur 3222 tonnes—30 nm E of Moreton Island, Qld
16/6/43 I 174 Portmar 5551 tonnes—250 nm NE of Sydney (sunk while sailing in an escorted convoy)
22/6/43 Stanvac Manila 10,245 tonnes—off Noumea
22/6/43 two PT boats (each approx. 50 tonnes)—off Noumea
*(nm = nautical miles)
Coastal shipping convoys were introduced early in the war, and only six ships were reported lost while in a convoy or having fallen behind due to engine problems. All other ships lost to submarine activity were travelling independently, including the one ship Australians remember as being sunk by a Japanese submarine, the AHS Centaur.
The best-known and most infamous submarine attack occurred at 4 a.m. on 14 May 1943, when the hospital ship AHS Centaur—a converted merchant vessel travelling just north of Brisbane with her markings fully lit, as per the Geneva and Hague Conventions—was torpedoed by the Japanese KD7 class submarine I-177, captained by Lieutenant Commander Hajime Nakagawa.
Although the Centaur should have been in normal merchant shipping lanes further out to sea, her captain decided to travel closer to land, which made the hospital ship a perfect target. She was fully lit; there was land on the portside, deep open sea (perfect for submarine operations) to starboard; and a convenient island for a submarine to hide behind.
A torpedo from I-177 hit a fuel tank below the Centaur’s waterline, causing an explosion, which instantly killed many on board. The explosion started a fire, which then killed many others. Most on board were asleep, but in any case the Centaur sank too quickly for lifeboats to be put to use. Although probably half of the 332 on board lived through the explosion and fire, only 64 survived.
The survivors stayed afloat on wreckage and barrels and gathered on two lifeboats that had broken free as the ship went down. They were picked up two days later.
Of the twelve female nurses on board the Centaur, only one, Sister Ellen Savage, survived. She was awarded the George Medal for providing medical care, supervising the distribution of rations, boosting morale and leading the survivors in prayer and song, despite her jaw being badly broken when she jumped from the burning ship and was sucked under as the vessel sank.
Survivors heard and saw a submarine surface and then submerge amidst the wreckage.
After denying any involvement for decades, a Japanese official history finally admitted, in 1979, that IJN Submarine I-177, commanded by Hajime Nakagawa, sank the Centaur. Nakagawa was never convicted of the crime, but served time as a war criminal for other atrocities—including machine-gunning survivors of the ships he sank and murdering prisoners of war.
The sinking of the AHS Centaur outraged Australians and fuelled hatred of the Japanese. Prime Minister Curtin called it ‘an entirely inexcusable act’, while General Douglas MacArthur said it demonstrated the ‘limitless savagery’ of the Japanese.
The incident was used to boost the war effort and silence pacifists. Posters showing the sinking were used to encourage enlistment in the armed services; the slogan was ‘Avenge the Nurses’.
Not all the Axis submarines operating in Australian waters were Japanese. The 1800-ton German U-boat U862 gained the rare distinction of being the only German submarine to sink a vessel in the Pacific Ocean in World War II, when it torpedoed the 7180-tonne SS Robert J. Walker on Christmas Eve 1944, off the New South Wales coastal town of Moruya. (Indeed, the U862 was the only German submarine known to operate in the Pacific at all!)
U862 was part of a U-boat fleet based in Penang, in Japanese-controlled Malaya. She had made a successful sortie to the African coast in July and August 1944, sinking five Allied merchant ships and shooting down a Catalina aircraft before returning to base in Penang.
U862 has been described in some histories as a ‘rogue’ U-boat whose captain, Heinrich Timm, apparently decided he would cruise around Australia on the way back to Europe on a whim because he had sailed in Australian waters before the war as an officer on a merchant ship.
It is far more likely that he was assigned to the task by the fleet command in Penang, although he may well have suggested the idea. The U862 moved its base to Batavia (now Jakarta) in preparartion for the voyage. U862 left there in November 1944 and headed down the Western Australian coast. Timm then turned east across the Great Australian Bight and fired on the Greek tanker SS Illisos 130 miles southeast of Adelaide. Illisos returned fire with her 4-inch gun and the U862 submerged and headed south.
A search was mounted by three corvettes—HMAS Lismore, Burnie and Maryborough—as well as Beaufort aircraft flying from a base near Sale in Victoria, but the U862 escaped, went round the bottom of Tasmania and then turned north. Proceeding up the New South Wales coast, she encountered the Robert J. Walker off Montague Island and used six torpedoes to sink her.
U862 then headed east, sailed around New Zealand and entered the harbour at Napier undetected at night, before recrossing the Tasman and retracing her course back to Jakarta.
On 6 February 1945, 700 miles southwest of Fremantle, U862 sank the liberty ship SS Peter Sylvester, which was heading from Melbourne to Colombo with US Army supplies, 107 troops and 317 mules. The U862 once again used six torpedoes to complete the sinking. Thirty-three lives were lost. Some survivors drifted on rafts for 38 days before being picked up by Allied ships.
U862 was at sea testing radar equipment when Germany surrendered in May 1945. On arriving at Singapore, the crew were arrested by the Japanese as ‘enemy personnel’ and the submarine was seized and became the IJN I-502. It was surrendered to the Allies at the end of the war and scuttled by the British in the Strait of Malacca in February 1946.
The crew of the U862 were repatriated home in 1947. They were lucky: being a submariner in World War II did not do a lot for one’s life expectancy. Not one of the five ‘I-Class’ submarines off the coast of New South Wales in May and June 1942 survived the war, and only about a third of Axis submarines survived. Japan lost 131 of her 189 submarines, while Germany lost 785 of her 1152 subs.
There is an interesting sidelight to the Australasian cruise of the U862.
For decades after World War II there were stories of enemy troops on Australian soil. Most of these stories were fanciful, paranoid conspiracy theories at best—all part of the fear generated by the ‘ring of menace’. However, there were enemy troops on Australian soil. It did happen, and it happened several times.
After the war an ex-crewmember of the U862 visited his brother who lived, like so many German–Australians, in South Australia. While fishing with his brother’s mates on the Coorong, southeast of Adelaide, he commented that the area had not changed since he and other crew members of U862 had gone ashore there looking for fresh water in 1944.
It has also been reported, and is quite probable, that German sailors went ashore from the Passat/Storstad near Wilsons Promontory looking for fresh water in November 1941.
Japanese troops landed on the mainland on at least one occasion, and Murray Islanders in Torres Strait gave accounts of landing parties from a Japanese submarine coming ashore in 1942 to collect fruit and vegetables from the islanders’ gardens. The submarine apparently surfaced beside Dauar, one of the three volcanic islets that make up Murray Island. The crew also took fresh water from the wells at the sardine factory and obtained information about the area.
Evidently one crew member had been a beche-de-mer boat skipper in Torres Strait before the war and knew quite a few of the islanders well. There are accounts of the submarine making quite a few visits to Murray Island. It was almost certainly the RO-33—a small but well-armed submarine of 940 tons, with a crew of 42 officers and men—that regularly visited Murray Island and put landing parties ashore during July and August 1942. It was sunk on 29 August 1942. There were no survivors.
Eighteen months later, in January 1944, a Japanese army reconnaissance p
arty, led by Lieutenant Susuhiko Mizuno, left Timor in a fishing vessel, the Hiyoshi Maru, to investigate reports that the US Navy was building a base at Admiralty Gulf in Western Australia.
The Hiyoshi Maru reached Browse Island on 18 January, and next morning entered an inlet on the Western Australian coast. The Japanese anchored near shore and camouflaged the ship with tree branches. Three landing parties led by Lieutenant Mizuno and two sergeants explored different areas of the coast for about two hours. They went ashore again next day, then returned to Timor with 8 mm movie footage of what they saw.
The area they explored was only 25 kilometres from the site of the proposed RAAF Truscott Airfield, which started being built several weeks later.
Australia was totally unprepared to protect its enormous coastline during World War II. Axis submarines and German raiders operated with relative impunity all around our coasts—laying mines, sinking merchant ships and even coming ashore to find fresh water and explore the countryside.
The Australia we know today is a result of the shock realisation, brought home to us by the events of World War II, that we are indeed ‘girt by sea’—which can so easily lead to being ‘ringed with menace’.
‘Lost With All Hands’
Peter Mace
Her hull was laid down on a far distant shore,
When the threat to world peace was too great to ignore,
Designed for a purpose, and that purpose was war,
The dockyards were building the Sydney.
Launched when the great depression held sway,
In action to keep the Italians at bay,
By blockading the ports in the Med, far away,
From her namesake, the city of Sydney.
With the world now at war the real work has begun,
Against Germany now, soon Japan’s rising sun,
The Bartollomeo felt her twin six-inch guns,
The day she was sunk by the Sydney.