June 1942 (3)

Sydney Harbour attack

1-8 June – Three type A midget submarines pulled away from their I-class “mother” submarines about 15 km from Sydney, Australia with the mission to sink the Allied shipping in the harbour.  The first two-man sub, commanded by Lt. Chuma Kenshi, entered the harbour at 8pm.  There was only the central section of the anti-torpedo netting stretched from Georges Head to Green Point, but Chuma’s boat became entangled.

Midget submarine crews

It was detected by a harbour worker and located by defense craft an hour later.  Before it could be attacked, the Japanese sailors, who had made repeated but unsuccessful attempts to break free, destroyed themselves and their submarine by detonating its 35-kilogram scuttling charge.

Sydney Harbour

Meanwhile, the second submarine, commanded by Lt. Ban Katsuhisa, had slipped past the boom net and made its way to a position off Potts Point.  It was seen and fired upon around 11 pm by the US heavy cruiser USS Chicago and the RAN corvette, Geelong.  The third submarine, commanded by Lt. Matsuo Keiu, was at this time already spotted and being subjected to a depth charge attack from the harbour defense.

HMAS Kuttabul

Ban Katsuhisa took this opportunity to fire his 2 torpedoes at the Chicago, which stood out against the illuminated flood-lights of Garden Island.  Both weapons missed their target: one ran aground on Garden Island and failed to explode, the other passed under the Dutch submarine K-9 and struck the sea wall where the converted harbour ferry HMAS Kuttabul was moored.  The blasted damaged the K-9 and sank the Kuttabul, resulting in the deaths of 19 Australian and 2 British naval personnel; 10 others were wounded.

retrieval of Midget No. 21 after depth charge attack

The Allied warships started to leave the port as the harbour defense began a full-scale search for the enemy submarines.  The third midget [Matsuo’s] was finally located at 5 am in Taylors Bay and attacked with depth charges.  The two crew members shot themselves to avoid capture.

Reconstructed midget sub on tour

The remaining midget submarine [Katsuhisa’s], was thought to have left the harbour at 1:58 am, according to an electronic indicator loop, but was not located until 12 November 2006 by amateur divers off of Sydney’s norther beaches.  Pictures and the story by the crew that located sub M-24 can be located HERE!

Japanese Type A midget submarine, identical to the 3 that attacked Sydney in 1942, located near Pearl Harbor by the Hawaii Undersea Research Lab, 2002, according to Navy News.

2 June – The United States and China signed a lend-lease agreement.  Immediately afterward, the US began to channel large amounts of military equipment to China by way of Indian ports.  Chiang Kai shek would end up using most of the matérial to fight the Chinese Communist forces rather than Japan.

house bombed at Bellevue Hill

unexploded torpedo, Sydney

 

 

 

 

 

 

8 June – Sydney, in the early hours received 10 high explosive shells from Japanese submarine I-24 for 10 minutes.  Enemy sub I-21 fired an unknown amount of shells for a period of 16 minutes at Newcastle.  Although it has been estimated at 15 high explosive and 6 star shells, many of which failed to explode.

Click on images to enlarge.

Data about Australia retrieved from the NSW State Records and the Australian National Archives,

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Aussie Humour – 

 

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Farewell Salutes – 

Ronald Allan – Toowoomba, AUS; RA Air Force # 434610

Alexander Ashley – Sydney, AUS; RA Air Force # 424012

Theresa Carter – Portland, AUS; RA Air Force # 174164

Jack Chalker – UK & AUS; British Royal Field Artillery/ RA Army, CBI, POW (Changi)

Patricia Hawkins – Wellington, NZ; Indian Wing of British Army, WWII, CBI

Rangi Ryan – Albany, NZ; RNZEF # 274451, WWII

Tom Swalm – Plano, TX; US Air Force, MGen (Ret. 31 years) Vietnam

John Wells – Louisville, KY; US Army, WWII, ETO

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