Wreck of HIJMS RO-113

 Second World War 1939-1945, crash site

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Laid down in mid-1942 at the Kawasaki's Shipyard in Kobe as a RO-100 Class Submarine, the HIJMS RO-113 commissioned into active service with the Imperial Japanese Navy in October 1943 and was assigned to Submarine Squadron 30, IJN 6th Fleet. Undertaking training and exercises, the RO-113 accidentally collided with the Battleship Nagato in the Inland Sea which put her back into the shipyard for three months of repairs at Kure before she departed for war in February 1944.

Operating for the first half of 1944 out of Truk, the RO-113 and her crew were reassigned to the Indian Ocean based out of Malaya in September 1944 where she scored her first kill on the British freighter SS Marion Moller in November 1944. Claiming two more ships sunk on her third war patrol in December 1944, the RO-113 sustained minor damage when she was attacked by the submarine HMS Thule off Penang in late December, then shifted to Singapore for repairs and rearmament in January 1945.

With the American Invasion of the Philippines at Luzon on January 9th, the RO-113 was reassigned to the Advance Patrol Unit based at Takao, Formosa and prepared for operations in the Philippine Islands. Joining with her sister-sub the RO-112, the RO-113 received orders to sail at once for Aparri on Luzon's North coast where she was to pick up Japanese pilots stranded on the island. Departing Takao of February 9th and one day behind her sistership, the RO-113 made her approach to her destination three days later from due North through the Babuyan Islands, maintain strict radio silence.

Running on the surface during the night of February 12th at top speed, the RO-113 entered the Babuyan archipelago and was picked up by the radar on the American submarine USS Batfish (SS-310) just East of Calayan Island. Both subs were running on the surface, but the RO-113 lacked the radar equipment installed on the Batfish, and remained unaware she was in any danger. The Batfish turned to follow her radar contact, only to lose it as the RO-113 dove beneath the surface as she passed close to the shore of Calayan at 0241hrs.

Resurfacing at 0310, the RO-113 was again picked up by the radar aboard the Batfish at a distance of 9,800 yards and heading due South. The Batfish began closing the distance between the two ships over the next hour, and after outflanking and closing to within 6,800 yards of the submarine, the Batfish again submerged and closed in to intercept the course of the still-unaware RO-113. Running just beneath the surface and using her radar to track the RO-113's movements, the Batfish waited until the RO-113 was only 1,500 yards away before her Captain fired a spread of three torpedoes from the Sub's Stern tubes at the RO-113 at 0448hrs.

The RO-113 was struck by the first torpedo in the rear of her forward torpedo room which detonated on contact with the hull and caused the RO-113's entire forward torpedo magazine to explode. In less than three seconds, the RO-113 was reduced to shrapnel and sank so quickly that the other two torpedoes passed over her hull without hitting her. All 59 members of her crew were lost with the ship when she sank at this location at 0449hrs on February 13th, 1945.

www.combinedfleet.com/RO-113.htm