page_title: 8th Submarine Squadron (Imperial Japanese Navy)
section_title: 1942
hierarchical_section_title: 8th Submarine Squadron (Imperial Japanese Navy) / Operations / 1942
caption_attribution_description: War in the Pacific National Historical Park (T. Stell Newman Visitor Center), Guam, USA.
context_page_description: The 8th Submarine Squadron of the Imperial Japanese Navy was based at Swettenham Pier, Penang, Malaya, until late 1944 during World War II. Its mission was to disrupt Allied supply lines in aid of Nazi Germany.
context_section_description: The squadron's first operation was a sweep by its 1st Division from Aden down the coast of East Africa to Madagascar. The auxiliary cruisers Aikoku Maru and Hōkoku Maru accompanied the Division. During the sweep the cruisers captured the Dutch tanker Genora 480 miles SSE of Diego Suarez on May 9.
  Submarine I-10's seaplane overflew Diego Suarez on May 29 after the Allied landings. As a result, submarines I-16, I-18, and I-20 were ordered by Ishizaki to use their midget submarines to attack the ships in the harbour. HMS Ramillies and the tanker British Loyalty were damaged in the attack. I-20's midget submarine crew of Lieutenant Saburo Akieda and Petty Officer Masami Takemoto were located and killed in a firefight with a Royal marines' patrol on the island near Anijabe; I-18's did not participate in the attack due to a malfunction, and I-16's midget sub never returned.
  Also in May I-27 under Lieutenant Commander T. Fukumara participated in the unsuccessful midget submarine raid on Sydney. Her midget submarine, M-14, was lost in this raid.  Through June the submarines focused their patrols on the Mozambique Channel, sinking 20 merchant ships (120,000 tons of shipping in total). I-30 sailed around the Cape of Good Hope to Lorient, arriving there on August 5 and thereby became the first Japanese submarine to sail into German territory during the war. On October 13 she was returning from Europe to Japan when she struck a mine and sank 3 miles east of Keppel Harbour.
  From September to November the squadron's submarines sunk another 224,500 tons of shipping (40 ships in total) in the Indian Ocean.  In November the two auxiliary cruisers associated with the squadron's Madagascar operation attacked the Dutch tanker Ondina and her Indian escort ship the HMIS Bengal. In the ensuing battle the Hokoku Maru was destroyed and the tanker was damaged. Both the Aikoku Maru and Bengal were undamaged and returned to their respective bases.
caption: Japanese Imperial Navy midget submarine
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