Wreck of HIJMS I-17

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

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Laid down at the Yokosuka Navy Yard as the second member of the B-1 Class of Submarines, HIJMS I-17 commissioned into Imperial Japanese Navy service in January 1941 and was assigned to the Yokosuka Naval District for her initial shakedown and crew training period. Spending much of the next year engaged in intensive exercises to familiarize her crew with the operation of the enormous 356ft, 2,584 ton Submarine and its embarked floatplane, I-17 was formally assigned to Submarine Squadron 1, Division 1 in the IJN 6th Fleet in November 1941.

Putting to sea on her first War Patrol on November 21st, 1941, the I-17 took up station to the North of Oahu Island to monitor and attack American Naval Vessels which put to sea following the Surprise Attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7th, but finding no contacts after the highly successful raid I-17 continued Eastward towards the US West Coast. Sailing with orders to shell military and industrial installations as well as hunt merchant shipping, the I-17 attacked and damaged two merchant ships and sunk a third before depleting her fuel reserves and departing for Kwajalein Atoll where she refueled and returned to the US West Coast in late February 1942. Initially operating off San Diego but finding no easy targets, I-17’s Commander Nishino Kozo recalled that there was a large oil refinery further up the coast at Elwood which he had visited as a prewar Captain of an oil tanker. Surfacing off the Elwood refinery after sundown on February 25th, Nishino sent his gun crew topside to man the I-17’s 140mm gun and at 1915hrs conducted the first direct Axis attack on the US mainland of the Second World War. Firing 17 rounds over the next twenty minutes I-17’s gun crews’ poor aim resulted in light damage to a pier and a single oil derrick, but as I-17 withdrew from the area she had ensured that most of the US West Coast would be gripped by fears of a Japanese invasion.

Returning to Yokosuka for voyage repairs following her two successful war patrols, I-17’s third patrol took her North to the Aleutian Islands where she reconnoitered landing beaches in advance of the Japanese Invasion, then covered the Japanese assault force as it made its unopposed landing on Kiska before returning to Japan in July. Slated for a full overhaul and upgrade while at Yokosuka, the American Invasion of Guadalcanal in August 1942 cut I-17’s yard period short and she was dispatched to the Solomon Islands first to hunt down Allied Naval and merchant shipping, and eventually to serve as a cargo and troop transport as part of the “Tokyo Express” Heavily involved with the Guadalcanal campaign through the Japanese withdrawal in February 1943, the I-17 resumed her typical war patrol pattern in March, taking part in the aftermath of the Battle of the Bismarck Sea and patrolling around the Fijian Islands through July when she put into Truk for voyage repairs.

Paired with three of her sisterships and assigned to reconnoiter the Allied Naval Base at Espiritu Santo Island using their embarked floatplanes, I-17, I-11, I-19 & I-25 all put to sea from Truk on July 25th and separately made their way South towards their destination, with I-17 taking her position and launching her aircraft on the 10th of August. After reporting her pilot’s sighting of several Battleships and Aircraft Carriers in harbor at Espiritu Santo, the sub proceeded South on her own towards Noumea, where her scout plane sighted a large Allied convoy departing the harbor and promptly returned to the sub to report its sighting. Moving quickly to stow the aircraft and plot an intercepting course, I-17 was running submerged roughly 40 miles Southeast of Noumea when she was picked up by ASDIC operators aboard the Royal New Zealand Navy Armed Trawler HMNZS Tui (T234) and promptly depth charged. Going silent and heading for deeper water, I-17’s sonar crew identified the Tui’s engine noises roughly 4000 yards away, prompting her Captain to risk a positive buoyancy surface in an attempt to attack the distant enemy ship, which at the time had ceased maneuvering and dropping depth charges.

Topside, crews aboard the Tui were relaying their sonar contact details to the crew aboard a pair of American OS2U Kingfisher aircraft on anti-submarine patrol. As the Tui resumed her anti-submarine search pattern, both Kingfishers maintained an alert lookout for any signs of the sub from above, finally spotting I-17’s periscope as the sub’s Commander established visual contact with the distant Tui. Immediately diving onto the unsuspecting submarine both aircraft dropped their depth charges ahead of the sub’s periscope, with two of the four bombs exploding on either side of the target and causing moderate damage and heavy leaks aboard I-17. Marking the contact at 1629hrs with smoke flares, the Kingfishers watched as I-17 went deep and provided vectors to the crew aboard Tui as she closed in to make a second depth charge attack.

Aboard I-17 the leaks caused by battle damage were soon overwhelming the sub’s onboard pumps and threatening to flood her battery compartments, which would not only rob the ship of power but produce a deadly cloud of Chlorine gas. With few good options to pursue, I-17’s Commander ordered the sub to battle surface but the damage to her control systems meant the ship broached at an uneven angle and stayed low in the water, preventing her gun crews from safely going topside to man her guns. Spotted by crew aboard the Tui, I-17 was taken under long-range fire and struck in her bow by several 4-inch shells before she had a chance to defend herself, forcing the sub back below the surface. Barely able to be controlled, the I-17 came under renewed depth charge attack by the Kingfishers which were following the long stream of oil and bubbles trailing out of the battered Sub, causing further damage and finally an uncontrolled plunge into deep water which forced her Captain to order an emergency surface. Breaching the surface with her bow at almost a 45-degree angle, I-17 eventually settled onto an even keel allowing her crew to race topside and man their guns in a final attempt to defend their ship. Firing on the swarm of Allied floatplanes overhead with enough intensity to drive off most of her attackers, I-17’s gunners struggled to maintain their footing on the oil-slicked deck as her Captain maneuvered the lumbering boat to her limits, bending on 18 knots as American planes made strafing runs on her decks.

As the running battle continued more American aircraft arrived onscene and easily overwhelmed I-17’s AA gunners, allowing a pair of Kingfishers to approach I-17 from the Stern and drop a full spread of four depth charges in two attacks. While only two of the four exploded, the fourth detonated on contact with the surface alongside I-17’s Starboard quarter and blew out a large portion of the sub’s hull. Immediately going down by the Stern, HIJMS I-17 went nearly vertical before plunging beneath the surface and spilling her gun crews into the oily water. Of the 103 men aboard ship, only six of I-17’s crew survived her sinking at this location on August 19, 1943.

www.combinedfleet.com/I-17.htm