# U-Boats in the Pacific



## Wildcat (Oct 13, 2008)

Can anyone tell me what U-boats operated in the Pacific in WWII. I recently read that an RAAF Beaufort attacked a submarine with a swastika painted on its conning tower in Saint George's Channel which is between New Britain and New Ireland. Although only scoring near misses with its bombs, it was claimed damaged due to the fact it didn't submerge which enabled several strafing runs to be made silencing it deck guns.
Was this a U-boat or did the crew simply mis-identify a Japanese symbol to be a German swastika?


----------



## Wildcat (Oct 13, 2008)

Sorry, forgot to add the attack took place on the 18th of October 1943.


----------



## GrauGeist (Oct 13, 2008)

Wildcat, I think the only U-Boat that ever "officially" operated in Pacific waters was the U-862, but that was in late '44 and was pretty much a one-time deal.

I can double-check that, but I'm pretty sure. I do know that it was part of the Indian Ocean (Monsun) operations, based out of Penang/Jakarta in concert with the Imperial Japanese Navy.


----------



## Erich (Oct 14, 2008)

check the uboat.net site out


----------



## Njaco (Oct 14, 2008)

Wildcat, check this site ...

18 October 1943

its day by day but I don't see any U-Boat in the Pacific. The U-Boats that are mentioned have links to U-Boat.net with more info.


----------



## comiso90 (Oct 14, 2008)

There was definitely UBoat action in the pacific during WW1.....


----------



## Njaco (Oct 15, 2008)

Sorry, Cosimo, I meant for that day.


----------



## GrauGeist (Oct 15, 2008)

Here's a link to U-862 uboat.net - Boats - U-862 at uboat.net and gives some basic info.

A better link would be German U-Boat attacks off the Australian Coast, and has a great timeline of U-862's Ops.

Two notable events, one was that U-862 was attacked by a British Catalina on 20 August 1944, it being shot down by the submarine in the process and the other is that it wreaked havoc in Australian waters during the winter of 1944/1945.

Otherwise, I couldn't seem to find anything closer to the info you were looking for, Wildcat...sorry


----------



## comiso90 (Oct 15, 2008)

Njaco said:


> Sorry, Cosimo, I meant for that day.



Gottcha NJ.. I was tossing in a bit of a non-sequetir by bringing up *WW1*.


----------



## Wildcat (Oct 15, 2008)

Appreciate the help guys. GrauGeist, I was aware of U-862 but wasn't sure if there were other U-boats kicking around Australia/the Pacific at this time. It seems it was simply a case of mistaken identity.
Again thanks for the help.


----------



## Njaco (Oct 15, 2008)

> Gottcha NJ.. I was tossing in a bit of a *non-sequetir *by bringing up WW1.



Don't you dare toss $20 words at me! It causes me to go on a Burger King binge!


----------



## Erich (Oct 15, 2008)

hey guys there were at least 6 U-booten in the Pacific, a couple of things to mention and of importance. 

shipping agents right and left-military hierarchy for the Germans as well as the Japanese.

shipping of precious commodities hardware and soft-goods to Japan - A/C parts, new designs, etc.

U-boot Milch Cows to aid other U-boots on long journeys with necessary fuel and food/arms...... one of the biggest and longest journeys of these U-boots was to supply the Auxillary Cruisers that were sailing and sinking Allied shipping in the Pacific in the early 1940's


----------



## JoeB (Oct 15, 2008)

German subs operated a good deal in the Indian Ocean, and reached and operated from Malaya (Penang) and ports in Dutch East Indies. U-862 definitely operated technically in the Pacific, going east of the east coast of Australia to near NZ. For some other operations by U-boats, it depends where exactly you draw the boundary between Indian and Pacific.

Three U-boats were sunk in the Java Sea: U-168 by the Dutch sub Zwaardfisch Oct 1944, U-537 by USS Bashaw in Nov 1944 and U-183 by USS Besugo in April 1945. On some maps the Java Sea is part of the Indian Ocean. Others consider the boundary to be the main Indonesian islands themselves, so Java Sea, to the north of the islands, is part of the Pacific.

German cruisers and merchant raiders operated in the broad Pacific in WWI, and some in WWII (the merchant raider Michel was sunk by USS Tarpon near Japan in Oct 1943 on a dual raiding/blockade running cargo mission). No U-boats operated there in WWI though. Only a relative few even went far into the Atlantic in that war, a few off US east coast for example. The great majority of U-boat combat ops in WWI were North Sea, Channel, Irish Sea, Western Approachs ie. pretty near the British Isles, or in the Med. or on the way there.

Joe


----------



## Watanbe (Oct 25, 2008)

Did the U-Boats operate from Japanese held ports in the Pacific, or were they only on specific missions? What I mean is, were they based in the Pacific or merely on specific missions to japan?


----------



## Messy1 (Oct 27, 2008)

Any listings of U-boats delivering secret weapons or information to the IJN? Maybe I read something, or saw something in a movie, but something comes to mind of German U-boats delivering weapons or secret info pertaining to a A-bomb, or jet info to Japan? Any truth to this?


----------



## comiso90 (Oct 27, 2008)

How about Japanese in the Atlantic??


_View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EP6HxVXa6RE_

Japanese submarine I-8 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

.


----------



## SoD Stitch (Oct 27, 2008)

Messy1 said:


> Any listings of U-boats delivering secret weapons or information to the IJN? Maybe I read something, or saw something in a movie, but something comes to mind of German U-boats delivering weapons or secret info pertaining to a A-bomb, or jet info to Japan? Any truth to this?



I remember hearing something about this, also, but I believe they were plans for the Me-262, which is where the Japanese got their own Nakajima _Kikka_.


----------



## Messy1 (Oct 28, 2008)

That must have been what I was trying to remember SOD. Thanks for putting my mind at ease!


----------



## RATHED (Oct 29, 2008)

I read somewhere that a german "cargo sub" delivered a bunch ( 800?) of MG 151/20's to Japan, and those where used in the firts batch of Ki-61 Hein. Any truth to that? Another tale is that a me-109e was also delivered the same way, and test flown by Japan to comparison against it own fighters...


----------



## Orion2012 (Nov 24, 2008)

RATHED said:


> I read somewhere that a german "cargo sub" delivered a bunch ( 800?) of MG 151/20's to Japan, and those where used in the firts batch of Ki-61 Hein. Any truth to that? Another tale is that a me-109e was also delivered the same way, and test flown by Japan to comparison against it own fighters...



U-234 was on a journey to Japan when the war ended, her cargo included "three crated Messerschmidt aircraft (two Me-262 jet fighters, ME-163 rocket-propelled fighter), Henschel HS-293 glider-bomb, extra Junkers jet engines, 10 canisters of uranium oxide, a ton of diplomatic mail, and over 3 tons of technical drawings, plus other technology, torpedo, fuses, armour piercing shells, etc. Passengers were 9 high technical officers, one general, and civilian scientists. Destination: Japan. Two returning Japanese Navy Lt. Commanders, one air and one submarine, were returning, having observed Nazi technology and techniques." I know that seems like a lot of material for a u-boat boat this boat was originally a mine laying "u-flak" boat capable of holding several tons of supplies and mines. Given the small crew I'd say food stores wouldn't take anymore space then for a full crew.

While at sea u-234 learned of surrender, but continued for some time, until finally surrendering. The Americans knew of her journey but not of her cargo. The 2 Japanese men committed suicide before surrender.
Some of that uranium oxide was sent to Los Alamos, guess it made it to Japan anyway.

Also U-boats operated from Singapore, and Java. Generally large type IX or IXD-2 submarines.

U-234: Hitler's Last U-Boat (U234)


----------



## Kiwikid (Jan 22, 2009)

> Originally Posted by RATHED
> 
> I read somewhere that a german "cargo sub" delivered a bunch ( 800?) of MG 151/20's to Japan, and those where used in the firts batch of Ki-61 Hein. Any truth to that? Another tale is that a me-109e was also delivered the same way, and test flown by Japan to comparison against it own fighters...



The Me-109 was shipped quite early in the war by one of the surface blockade runners such as Pietro Orseolo, Rio Grande, Wesserland, or Silvaplana etc. The last of these surface runners expired in early 1944. 



> Any listings of U-boats delivering secret weapons or information to the IJN? Maybe I read something, or saw something in a movie, but something comes to mind of German U-boats delivering weapons or secret info pertaining to a A-bomb, or jet info to Japan? Any truth to this?



Messy1 according to ULTRA decrypts released under the Freedom of Information Act to NARA Maryland, General Touransouke Kawashima (Japan's equivalent to the Manhatten Project's Gen Leslie Groves) requested shipment of German Uranium-oxide (ex Czechoslovakia) in a signal dated 7 July 1943.

The Nazis were skeptical and demanded explanation what it was required for. Not until the message of 19 November 1943, did Kawashima admit that it was needed for Japan's A-bomb project. 

Shipments however were unlikely to have commenced before 1944. From various accounts both Japanese and German, it appears loads of approx 500kg were shipped in the keel boxes of U-boats or Japanese I-boats. 

U-boats arriving at Penang (before Oct 1944) were slipped at Singapore to empty their keel boxes. After October 1944 most arrived at Djakarta. The cargoes of several U-boats were aggregated to make a decent load for former Italian subs UIT-24 or UIT-25. 



> Did the U-Boats operate from Japanese held ports in the Pacific, or were they only on specific missions? What I mean is, were they based in the Pacific or merely on specific missions to japan?



Penang, Malaya was an official base for U-flotte 33. 

UIT-23 and UIT-24 were at Sebang in July 1943. UIT-25 was at Singapore in August 1943. U-532 was at Penang early November 1943. U-188 was at Penang in late October 1943. U-178 was at Penang from late August 1943. U-168 was at Penang mid November 1943. 

A strong candidate was U-511 which sailed from Penang in July 1943 to Kure in August 1943 and may then have voyaged south from Kure in October 1943 renamed as the RO500 ? 

Former Italian UIT boats (UIT-23/24/25) made repeated cargo runs to Japan from Singapore and evaded US submarines by following different practices. Japanese submarines surfaced every day at midday Tokyo time to report their positions. A practice not followed by the Germans. 

The story recounted has some plausibility, simply in the sense that all German U-boats in the far East were required to display a big swastika on their conning towers. It's also not uncommon for U-boats to remain on the surface to duke it out with Allied patrol aircraft. 

The wreck of U-196 has allegedly turned up on a West coast beach north of Auckland New Zealand and been kept quiet since it snagged a net in 1981. Recently in January 2006 it was rediscovered by Noel Hilliam, so anything is possible.


----------



## Messy1 (Jan 22, 2009)

Kiwikid, Thanks for the info!


----------



## Njaco (Jan 23, 2009)

Charles just added this thread....

http://www.ww2aircraft.net/forum/ww2-general/story-u-234-a-16225.html


----------



## HerrKaleut (May 25, 2009)

In my references there were only about13 or 14 boats that carried a swastika and the only boat I can find with a reference to carrying one in far eastern waters was U-181. Does that help. Regards.


----------



## vikingBerserker (May 25, 2009)

I just looked up that date in "U-Boat Movements 1939-1945" (2,491 pages) and it states the dates of 10/16/43 - 10/31/43 are missing fromthe book, however the unphotographed originals are in Bundesarchiv-Abt. Militararchiv. Some boats around that time period were turned over to Japan and Japan is mentioned 134 times in this book.

I know they operated in the Pacific and even had established basis/repair facilities - Penang being one. Dec 43 mentioned some boats heading to there.


----------



## HerrKaleut (May 27, 2009)

I have misunderstood. I thought the question was pertaining to swastikas as part of the boats regular insignia.


----------

