U-Boats in the Pacific (1 Viewer)

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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.
 
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.
 
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.
 

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