Wreck of HIJMS I-373

 Second World War 1939-1945, military, navy, shipwreck, submarine, draw only border

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Laid down in August 1944 at the Yokosuka Navy Yard as the lead ship in her subclass of Submarines for the Imperial Japanese Navy, HIJMS I-373 commissioned into service with the IJN 6th Fleet in April 1945.

Initially assigned to the Yokosuka Guard District for training, I-373 and her crew were nearing the end of their training period in June 1945 when orders came to report to Sasebo Navy Yard, where I-373 was stripped of her torpedo battery and refitted to carry several fuel bladders. Assigned to Submarine Division 15 as a fuel transport, I-373 loaded her first cargo of Aviation fuel and departed Sasebo on her maiden patrol in August 1945, bound for Japanese Formosa. Forced into a circuitous and lengthy route to avoid the large number of Allied ships, submarines and aircraft operating on her course, I-373 was running on the surface roughly 250 miles Southeast of Shanghai on a zigzagging course when she was picked up by the onboard radar systems of the USS Spikefish (SS-404), a patrolling American Submarine.

Unaware they were being followed due to their lack of an onboard radar systems, I-373's crew continued their routine operations into the night of August 13th and early morning hours of August 14th and were preparing to submerge before the break of dawn when lookouts sighted the six inbound torpedoes fired by the Spikefish closing on I-373's Starboard side. Left with only enough time to ring down for flank speed and turn the Submarine into the path of the incoming torpedoes in the hopes of combing the shots, I-373's Captain managed to evade four of the six shots fired by Spikefish, but the final two torpedoes found their mark.

Struck twice on her Stern, I-373's hull was blown in two pieces by the torpedo detonations and then by a third larger detonation of her Aviation Fuel cargo, which mixed with the heavy fuel oil spilling from I-373's shattered tanks to form an enormous burning slick that wreathed the Submarine in fire as she quickly sank Stern-first at this location. Casualties to I-373's crew of 55 were heavy, as only those stationed topside were able to get off the Submarine as she sank, and of those men only one survived the inferno coating the sea to be rescued by the crew of the Spikefish.

The loss of HIJMS I-373 on August 14th marked the final loss of a Japanese Submarine during the Second World War, which ended later that day with Japan's acceptance of the terms of the Potsdam Declaration.

www.combinedfleet.com/I-373.htm