Wreck of HIJMS RO-115

 Second World War 1939-1945, military, navy, shipwreck, submarine

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Laid down in early 1943 at Kawasaki's Kobe Yard, HIJMS RO-115 commissioned into active service with Submarine Squadron 11 of the Imperial Japanese Navy's Sixth Fleet in November 1943. Following three months of intensive training, the RO-115 and her crew sailed for their new homeport of Truk in March 1944.

Operating for the next four months out of Truk, the RO-115 and her crew completed several war patrols but had no victories to show for her time at sea. Following a refit period at Yokosuka in July, she was reassigned to Penang and Squadron 8 and ordered to begin operations against American forces in the Philippines and on Allied forces in the Bay of Bengal. Following her fourth war patrol, she shifted homeports to Singapore in late December 1944 where she prepared for operations off Luzon and departed for her fifth patrol on January 22nd.

Assigned to waters West of Luzon, the RO-115 was tasked with assisting downed pilots, screening Japanese transports and warships and hunting American ships as the two sides grappled for control of the Philippines. Nine days out and approximately 125 miles Southwest of Manila, the RO-115 surfaced shortly before sunset at 1955hrs to recharge her batteries and report her position and patrol sightings. Almost immediately, lookouts onboard sighted an American plane flying high overhead and the order was passed to submerge the ship. Thinking they had avoided being seen, the crew of the RO-115 remained in the area and prepared to surface again well after dark. What the crew did not know was that they had been picked up by the surface radars aboard the USS Boise (CL-47) and the USS Bell (DD-587), and the US aircraft had indeed sighted the surfaced RO-115 and reported it to US forces.

Sonar operators on the RO-115 began picking up the sounds of several ships closing on their location as three US Destroyers and one Destroyer Escort raced to the position of the radar contact. With little chance to escape while submerged and knowing that any maneuvers would give away his location, the Captain of the RO-115 went deep and silent in the hopes he could avoid detection. Sonar operators on the US ships quickly picked up a submerged contact and began dropping depth charges, but could not pin down the elusive sub.

Nearly two hours later, the RO-115 was still under sporadic attack, but had remained unscathed until 2122hrs, when a single depth charge ruptured one of her wing fuel tanks. Releasing a tell-tale oil slick, the crew of the RO-115 hoped the US ships would assume the submarine had been sunk and depart, but sonar operators on the Destroyer Escort USS Ulvert M. Moore (DE-442) were not fooled. A further three hours of sporadic depth charge attacks took place when sounds were heard from the deep. Launching 5 separate 24-round 'Hedgehog' ASW mortars onto the confirmed submarine contact at 0015hrs, the USS Moore sank the RO-115 with all hands at this location on February 1st, 1945.

www.combinedfleet.com/RO-115.htm