arihanth submarine
arihanth submarine
Australia is such a long way from the rest of the world, that it’s often thought the War didn’t really affect us too much, we had a lot of Australians in battles crossways the world, but how close did the war actually get? In fact, the war non only came right to Australia’s doorstep, it almost came straight into the lounge room.
Hanging in the War Memorial in Canberra is a Japanese midget submarine made out of pieces of two of the three submarines that tried to sneak into Sydney Harbour on May 31, 1942. These tiny submarines travelled to Australia attached to the hulls of ‘mother’ submarines. One of the bigger submarines carried an aircraft instead of a midget sub and the Japanese really flew this plane over Sydney Harbour the night before the attack to see what ships were around. No-one on the Allied side seemed to consider a stray plane from an unknown source any cause for concern… that is until the midget subs turned up in their thick the next day.
These tiny subs had a two-man crew and carried only two torpedoes each. Their batteries couldn’t be recharged unless they returned to their mother submarine and their chances of returning from a mission were slim to say the least. Their aim in Sydney Harbour was to sink the Allied warships that the Japanese spy plane has spotty the day before. Fortunately (or unfortunately depending on which side of the war you were on) they didn’t cause too much damage, relatively speaking. One got caught up in an anti-torpedo net and the crew blew their boat and themselves up, rather than surrender. Another managed to sneak past the net and fired its torpedoes on an American cruiser USS Chicago. They missed the cruiser (and a Dutch submarine K-9) but hit a reborn ferrying HMAS Kuttabul, killing 21 navy sailors. The midget submarine then disappeared and its fate wasn’t known until aqualung divers observed her remains prevarication off Sydney’s northerly beaches in 2006. The third submarine was destroyed by depth charges before it managed to fire any of its torpedoes and its crew committed suicide.
Divers were sent down to investigate both submarines as soon as possible – in fact the subs’ engines were still running when they got there. The hulls were raised and from what remained of the two destroyed submarines the allies actually built one complete sub (well almost) and then put it on a truck and drove it to Canberra. But, deciding that as many Australians as potential should see a Japanese midget submarine, the military went the scenic route… travelling from Sydney, through Canberra, then down to Melbourne, crossways to Adelaide and then back through inland Victoria to finally end up astatine the War Memorial in Canberra. It reached its destination on 23 April, 1943 having travelled just over 4000km (It would only have been 400km if they’d gone directly to Canberra).
The display at the Memorial is haunting. The submarine hangs astatine a 30 degree angle overhead and where the two submarines ar joined to become one is just forward of the conning tower. You can walk underneath and look into the space where the crew would have sat and you can see the two torpedo tubes. I’m still not really sure how two men really managed to fit into the tiny space available. There ar clothes and letters back to parents in Japan, it reminds you that even though these men were enemies, they were also human.
For me, war shipwrecks, whether on land or underwater, whether an friend or an enemy, ar fascinating and humbling places to visit. For each wrecked ship, there ar lives lost and each life has a story. There are acts of bravery that go beyond anything most of us will be faced with in our own lifetimes. Through the wrecks that I’ve seen I’ve come to think that brave is something you can’t set out to be or try to do, bravery just happens under the most awful circumstances… and should ne’er be forgotten.
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