Wreck of HIJMS I-64

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

Laid down at the Kure Naval Arsenal as the final member of the Kaidai IV Class of Submarines in March 1928, HIJMS I-64 commissioned into service with the Imperial Japanese Navy in August 1930 assigned to the Sasebo Naval District. Participating in fleet patrols and exercises for her first years of service, the long range of the I-64 found her assigned to Submarine Squadron 5, Division 29 as Japan prepared for war with America and her Allies in the late 1930's.

Beginning her part in the Second World War on November 26th, 1941 the I-64 and her crew departed Sasebo with orders to screen the ships of the Malaya Invasion Force which she performed ably through December and into January as Japanese forces landed at Celebes and Kendari. During her first War Patrol the I-64 found no warships to attack but her crew found ample merchant shipping plying the waters of the former Dutch East Indies and Indian Ocean, and by the time her patrol terminated at Penang in February 1942 the I-64 had notched three merchant ships sunk and one severely damaged. Continuing her operations in Indian Ocean waters through April, the I-64 claimed a fourth merchant ship on her second patrol in March before she returned to Japan for upkeep and rearming on April 12th.

Readied for sea and reassigned to Submarine Squadron 5, Davison 30 the I-64 and her crew stood out of Sasebo on May 16th to support Japanese Forces in the Invasion of Midway scheduled for early June. The following morning the I-64 was conducting diving drills well off Cape Ashizuri to train her crew for the battle ahead and had just resurfaced shortly after 1000hrs to begin a new dive cycle. The entire crew of the I-64 were unaware that they had surfaced directly in front of the submerged American Submarine USS Triton (SS-201) at a distance of 6,200 yards and were likely too busy with their training to notice the single torpedo fired by the Triton as it made its way towards their ship.

As the I-64 continued along the surface at her patrol speed she was suddenly rocked by a tremendous explosion in her Stern, followed by an enormous secondary detonation which sent parts of her hull hundreds of feet into the air. The Triton's torpedo shot had struck the I-64 in her stern torpedo room, where it caused several sympathetic warhead detonations and totally obliterated the I-64's Stern. Quickly slowing to a halt, the I-64's crew began to abandon ship but only a few managed to get off the Veteran Submarine before she reared up and sank Stern-first at this location on May 17th, 1942. None of her crew of 81 survived her loss.

www.combinedfleet.com/I-164.htm