Wreck of HIJMS I-185

 Second World War 1939-1945, shipwreck

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Laid down at the Yokosuka Navy Yard in September 1942 as a Kaidai VII Class Submarine, the HIJMS I-185 commissioned into Imperial Japanese Navy service in September 1942 as a member of Submarine Division 11, Squadron 11, IJN First Fleet. Following two months of training duty in home waters, the I-185 and her crew were reassigned to Submarine Division 22, Squadron 3 in the IJN Sixth Fleet and commenced their first War Patrol from Sasebo on January 25th, 1944.

Based at Truk, the I-185 stood out for Rabaul and duty as a supply and troop transport ship but engine problems forced her return to Truk where she was under repair for two days. Finally reaching the Japanese base in February, she made one troop transport run to Green Island before an onboard fire in her battery compartment sent her back to Truk for a period alongside a Sub Tender for 5 days while the onboard damage was repaired. Standing out of Turk on her second War Patrol on March 22nd, a breakdown in her gyrocompass aborted her second voyage after one day and she was soon steaming for Japan for full repairs.

Spending two months at Yokosuka under refit the troubled I-185 departed Kure on June 11th on her third War Patrol with a deck load of supply drums bound for Wewak New Guinea lashed to her decks. The hard-luck sub was soon being battered by heavy seas and quickly lost her topside cargo, rendering her mission moot and prompting her redirection to the waters off the Marianas where she took up station some 300 miles East of Saipan on June 16th, the day after American forces Invaded the island.

In the second-to-Northernmost picket station of five submarines in a North-South line, the I-185 and her crew patrolled for any evidence of American ships in their area for six days before the sonar operator picked up sounds of numerous inbound ships approaching their position. Recon from periscope depth confirmed numerous inbound American troopships heading for Saipan under heavy escort and the I-185 hastily moved into position to make an attack. As the American ships drew closer the I-185 remained in deep water, hoping to elude detection by the escort ships long enough to rise to firing depth and attack the heavily laden troop transports, however she was soon being actively 'pinged' by the USS Newcomb (DD-586), an American Destroyer serving as the Flagship of the screen force built around the convoy.

Running silent and heading for deep water to shake the attention of the surface ships, the I-185 was downbound when the first depth charges from the USS Newcomb and the WWI-era Destroyer-turned Minesweeper USS Chandler (DMS-9) hit the water. With the two American ships combining their sonar systems to precisely echolocate the still-diving I-185, the rain of depth charges from above became increasingly accurate and within half an hour of the first charge hitting the water a large debris filled oil slick reached the surface, indicating the loss of HIJMS I-185 at this location with all 95 of her crew on June 22nd, 1944.


www.combinedfleet.com/I-185.htm