Excerpts from
"History of Army 56th Infantry Regiment".
<Excerpts>
IJA 56th Infantry Regiment
Landing Operation of Kota Bharu
Boarding Detail
1. Awajisan-maru
Headquarters of Kota Bharu Landing Detachment, 56th Infantry Regimental 1st Battalion with 5th Company, Artillery Regiment and Engineer Detachment. Totally 1,653 personnels.
2. Ayatosan-maru
56th Infantry Regimental Headquarters, 3rd Battalion, Regimental Rapid-fire Artillery Squadron, Engineer Detachment. Totally 1,700.
3. Sakura-maru
56th Infantry Regimental 2nd Battalion and Engineer Detachment. Totally 2,100.
In addition to above, as a part of 14th Independent Engineer Regiment, 402 personnels boarded 3 ships separately.
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After 04:00 on December 8, 2 Lockheed Hudson bomber reconnaissance aircrafts attacked these 3 cargo ships.
One of the bombs hit near the 2nd bow hatch of Awajisan-maru to explode.
Gasoline drum cans stacked near the hatch were ignited. Front deck became a sea of fire in a moment.
A bomb dropped near the portside of another ship Ayatosan-maru became a close hit.
2 lifeboats and steel wire rope of a derrick boom for 4th hold were destroyed.
It had made it impossible for her to lift cargos from the hold. After 10 minutes, she received additional hits from 2 bombers at near the hatch-coaming of 5th and 6th holds in rear deck.
At 18:30 on 8th December, the convoy decided to leave the burning Awajisan-maru and to evacuate once to Pattani in Thailand which was located about 150km north of Kota Bharu.
Even during this evacuation, they received intermittent attacks from the Lockheed Hudsons.
Ayatosan-maru received 2 direct hits while Sakura-maru also received 2 direct hits of small bomb.
Past 00:00 on 9th December, after repair, they weighed anchor and headed to the coast of Kota Bharu again.
Past 07:00, they arrived in Kota Bharu coast.
Collected those abandoned boats scattering around the beach, they began to unload cargos.
Landing Operation of Kota Bharu was ostensibly supposed to be ended successfully at the time of 9th December but actual loss was as enormous as 1 best merchant ship, 25 landing boats which occupied more than half they had and as many as 1,100 casualties unexpectedly.
Burned-out hull of Awajisan-maru was left as it was but sunk by torpedo of a Dutch submarine which came into Kota Bharu lurking offshore on 12th December. Awajisan-maru became the first merchant ship lost in the Pacific War.