The Japanese Monsoon missions, and the I-29

And its involvement in Indian affairs

During the early 40’s, as the world was engulfed in a great war, pitting the Allies against the Axis, the battles drifted Eastwards, and the skirmishes in the air and over the seas intensified. Frigates churned the waters and bombers roared overhead in many war theaters, while submarines prowled the depths waiting to pounce on enemy warships and merchantmen plying the waters above. German U-boats, Italian Sottomarini, and Japanese Sensuikan competed with British and American submarines in outmaneuvering each other, while radar-equipped B-24s scanned the waters, to swoop down like eagles and bomb them as they surfaced. Through this melee, two Axis submarines, one from Japan and another from Germany, moved in opposite directions, and at each other, intent on a secret mission somewhat connected to the liberation of India.

In the previous article, we followed the fortunes of the American cargo ship Paul Luckenbach, read about its sinking off the coast of Madagascar, and checked the fate of its survivors, who ultimately ended up in Calicut. The latter story of the submarine I-29, which fired its torpedoes at the Luckenbach, is equally interesting due to its subsequent connections to India. Let’s spend a few minutes checking it out.

Recapping, we saw that those Japanese submarines and their support frigate groups had moved out of the Pacific Ocean and relocated to attack Allied merchant ships plying the Indian Ocean, preventing supplies from reaching Allied front lines, circumventing blockades, and augmenting German Axis efforts. Many of the submarines involved in these shipping attacks moved out from European bases to Penang after the Japanese took Singapore, Malaya, the Andaman Islands, and later, Burma.

U-boat Base - Penang

As we read previously, U-boats became the most significant peril to maritime shipping since the War started in 1939. Wolfpacks roamed freely underwater and sank many a ship destined for the West. While the subs roamed the seas, the Allies were perfecting their submarine search-and-destroy techniques from the air. By February 1942, Singapore had become part of the Japanese-controlled territories in Southeast Asia. As the Japanese joined up with the Germans to form the Axis powers, the Kriegsmarine, i.e., the Third Reich’s navy, decided to create an Eastern base in Penang. Strangely, it remained somewhat of a secret, and few locals were aware of this establishment. It was also a base for Japanese submarines during the remainder of the war. The Japanese 8th Flotilla, commanded by Admiral Uzuki, which participated in the Yanagi transport missions, used Penang as its staging base, while Singapore remained the repair base.

The base was established at George Town, at a former British seaplane station in Penang. Japan was 3500 nautical miles away, and Singapore was 415 nautical miles from the base. It was certainly strategic, located on the Swettenham Pier, and covered the northern end of the strategic Malacca Strait, through which shipping destined to the West had to pass. Not a full-fledged base, it was at best a repair depot and a home base for the crew.

From the German side, the U-511 was the first to arrive at Penang, which was then sent to Kobe, allowing the Japanese to model new submarines around it for the future. Wilhelm Dommes, the captain of U-178, arrived to set up the U-boat base in August 1943. From there, he would oversee the U-boat operations at Penang, Singapore, Surabaya, and Kobe.  Thus, this became the home for the Monsunboote or the Monsoon boat program. Initially, 11 German U-boats were deployed, but during transit, 4 were destroyed, two were converted into supply boats, out of which one sank, and five got through to Penang. As these U-boats arrived towards the end of the monsoon season, they were called the Gruppe Monsun or the Monsoon group. Three Italian submarines were also stationed there, but they were primarily used for transport. Over time, U Boat combat missions were reduced and converted to Yanagi transport missions.

Another reason for the move out East was that the war in the Atlantic, where the U-boats had wreaked havoc, was now tilting in favor of the Allies. Although the concept was sound, the problem was that Penang was far away, and secondly, supply boats were scarce.  It was certainly not a great arrangement; the Japanese and the Germans (who considered themselves vastly superior) quarreled incessantly, and therefore, the sharing of authority between them proved to be quite difficult.  Also, around this time, Allied SIGINT had cracked the German Enigma codes and were finding it easier to track the movements of these U-boats.

Yanagi missions

The Axis powers needed supplies badly to continue on with the War, and these had to arrive from diverse sources. Germany needed rubber, tin, tungsten, copper, and bismuth, as well as medicines such as quinine, while the Japanese needed steel, mercury, and optical glass. It also became clear that Japan and Germany should exchange military technology, including military hardware, prototypes of new weapons, and research data. The only corridor for exchanging the above information was underwater, using submarines, simply because air transport was no longer viable.

The naval and air power of the Allies made overseas blockade-running shipments difficult. German Admiral Karl Dönitz conceived the idea of utilizing refitted submarines for this purpose. The Japanese Navy agreed to build twenty large cargo submarines for the Yanagi missions (the significance of the U511 transfer via Penang). This was how the Yanagi Sakusen started, namely a series of submarine voyages undertaken by the two navies to exchange technology, skills, and materials with Nazi Germany.

The Japanese Submarine I-29

The 8th Submarine Squadron, part of the Japanese 6^th Fleet, was thus relocated from the Marshall Islands to Penang in 1942 and remained there until late 1944. These Japanese subs were involved in offensive raids and sank many ships, participated in Yanagi missions, and were also involved in transferring IIL spies and saboteurs to Indian shores (see articles on the Swaraj School).

Many submarines (I- followed by two digits such as I-10, 16, 20, 21, 22, 24, 27, 28, and through to 30) participated in the missions, and perhaps the most famous was the B1 class I-29, named Matsu, launched in 1940. Commissioned on 27 February 1942, into the 14th submarine squadron and commanded by Izu Juichi, it was involved in many daring raids, the famous reconnaissance of the Sydney harbor before it was attacked, sinking of quite a few ships, including the Paul Luckenbach on Sept 22, 1942, plus a few others along the way. The I-29 returned to Penang after a successful run on 5th Oct 1942 and went on to have a remarkable wartime record for a Japanese submarine, sinking even more merchant ships. It also did multiple successful Yanagi missions to Germany (Juichi Izu was part of many more exploits before losing his life in another submarine that was sunk by the Allies).

In April 1943, it was tasked with a Yanagi mission by Masao Teraoka, the commander of the submarine flotilla. She left Penang with a cargo that included two tons of gold for the Japanese embassy in Berlin and was additionally tasked with a secret mission, to bring back a couple of mechanics from Berlin.

Berlin - Germany

Bose arrived in Nazi Germany in 1941, where the leadership offered little support and mostly sympathy for India’s independence. German funds were nevertheless provided to open a Free India Centre in Berlin. A 3,000-strong Free India Legion was recruited from among Indian POWs captured by Erwin Rommel’s Afrika Korps to serve under Bose. As we saw in the Jai Hind article, Bose had Abid Hassan and NG Swami assist with recruiting of key personnel from this group to team up with the Germans in an attack on the Afghan border, a project which was eventually shelved. Bose was then asked to travel to Japan and discuss arrangements to collaborate with the Japanese and plan resistance from Southeast Asia.

Continuing discussions with German authorities, Bose also met (May 29, 1942) with Adolf Hitler to cement his proposals. He desired to move as soon as possible to SE Asia and direct the free India operations from as close to the Indian border as possible. Hitler agreed to find a way of sending Bose to Asia, and suggested traveling in either a German or a Japanese submarine. Things were not going well for the Germans in the war, and Bose’s plans did not receive any urgency from that point on, so he attempted to persuade the Italians to assist him in flying to Burma. On a personal level, Emilie was pregnant with Bose’s child and nearing the delivery date. The flight plans were delayed for various reasons, while Emilie delivered Anita in Vienna.  Eventually, Bose’s submarine voyage to Japan was finalized in January 1943. Though intending to take along Swami, Hassan, and Vyas, Bose had to contend with just Hasan, as space was limited in the submarine. Bose and Hasan thus started preparing for an arduous submarine trip to Japan.

The submarine they boarded was the U-180 with its forward torpedo tubes removed to create space for cargo. Overland, meanwhile, the war was starting to turn. After their rapid advance into Russia, the seemingly invincible German army was defeated by the harsh Soviet winter and a determined, resolute Red Army in Stalingrad in February 1943. Mahatma Gandhi was undertaking a hunger fast in India, and the Quit India Movement had been crushed.

U 180

On 9th February 1943, the submarine sailed from Kiel, headed towards the Indian Ocean. On the eve of their departure, cargo destined for Japan was loaded onto the submarine, and eventually, the supercargo arrived – two Asian-looking gentlemen. The crew was not told who the two strangers boarding the U-Boat were, only that they were machinists. One of the sailors recognized Bose and mentioned that it was the Indian Adolf, who had been with Hitler, as he had seen the press report and the photographs. But the U-boat’s commander, Musenberg, assured them that the two men were two specialist engineers going to help in a submarine bunker construction in Norway.

Abid Hasan recounts the voyage in his interviews and notes, he remembers that everything smelled of diesel, omnipresent within the hull. Bose was given a bunk along the passage, and the spartan meals served were chunks of beef and dank bread. Hasan managed to find some rice and lentils, which, much to Hasan’s dismay, Bose shared with other sailors. He then helped Bose make revisions to his work “Indian Struggle”, drafts of many speeches, as well as the plans to create a women's regiment. The long voyage was dangerous and adventurous, and had a close shave when the U-180 had to make a hasty dive to escape a British frigate speeding up to ram them. After a two-month voyage, the U-boat circumvented the Cape of Good Hope in April 1943 and lay in wait for the Japanese submarine headed their way.

Meanwhile, the I-29 had departed Penang, carrying a small reconnaissance aircraft, 17 torpedoes, a 14 cm gun, and a crew of 94. The crew had been having a torrid time, for the subs had no air conditioning, and with a range of some 16,000 miles, they had been at sea for a long time. Eventually, the I-29 rendezvoused with the U-180 near Madagascar.

Even though the waters were rough, the transfer was completed on April 26, and rafts were used to ferry cargo back and forth, as well as the two Indians. Two Japanese naval officers sent to study U-boat construction and 2 tons of gold were transferred to U-180. The I-29 took a path far away from the British sea patrols and changed their destination to Sabang, in Sumatra. On May 29^th, the I-29 docked at Sabang, and Subhas Bose, accompanied by Abid Hasan, stepped ashore after a 90-day voyage under the seas. Following a few days' rest, accompanied by Admiral Yamamoto, Bose flew to Tokyo. Both submarines returned safely to their bases.

“It took us three full months.” Abid Hasan said, “To travel from Berlin to Sumatra, every minute of which was full of dangers. We were taken in two submarines, one arranged by the Germans and the other by the Japanese. The long time taken for the journey was due to the fact that we had to remain submerged throughout the day and could only travel at night, as all along we were going through dangerous zones”. When we boarded, we found that the U-boat had space enough for only one bed. It was a small room where the entire crew, the doctors, and we all sat together. We sat up all 24 hours, and we sat there motionless. There was no elbow room at all. We felt cramped; it was like solitary confinement. Even in jail, the living conditions would be better.

Penang Submarine Base

The U-boat base at Georgetown ceased to exist as a functional base after October 1944, when all U-boats transferred to either Djakarta or Surabaya due to intense Allied submarine activity off Penang, accompanied by aerial bombing and mining, since it was within range of both Kharagpur-based B-24 Liberators and B-29 bombers. A raid by mine-laying Liberators in October 1944 blocked the harbor entrance. The last submarine to leave was the German U-843 in December 1944. After the transfer of the two Indians to Japan, the I-29 continued on and dropped many Indian revolutionaries, saboteurs, and radiomen on Indian shores, on other voyages, as we discussed previously.

The I-29 left for Europe in November. Arriving off the Spanish coast in March 1944, the submarine and her escort of four German torpedo boats and eight German Junkers aircraft came under attack by the RAF and US Liberators. The Allied code breakers had been tracking the I-29 and located it off the Spanish coast.

The I-29, then commanded by Kinashi, survived the attack and arrived at Boudreaux in occupied France, where Kinashi received an Iron Cross from Hitler. The I-29 departed Lorient in April 1944 with a significant amount of German technology, including a Walter rocket engine and plans for the jet-powered Me 262, as well as a rocket-powered Me 163. It is also mentioned (HistoryNet - Hackett) that it carried a quantity of Uranium Oxide (it is not clear whether it was for a bomb or other Japanese research) though it seems unlikely. Loaded with vital military plans and hardware, and 20 Enigma machines, the I-29 departed Lorient on April 16. It arrived in Singapore on July 13^th. The blueprints and paper cargo were flown to Tokyo.

Desperately tracking the U-boat and with some knowledge of what the submarine was carrying, the Allied code breakers waited for the I-29 to break radio silence. On July 20^th, Kinashi transmitted their plans to Tokyo, which were intercepted by a US Navy radio unit. Orders were passed to Commander Wilkins, who was sailing the USS Tilefish in tandem with subs Rock and Sawfish.

On July 25^th, the I-29 surfaced, and that was when Commander Alan B. Banister’s Sawfish sighted the sub. Banister fired four torpedoes at I-29. Three of them hit, and the Japanese submarine exploded and sank almost immediately. Three Japanese sailors blown off the sub, swam to a Philippine island and reported the sinking. Although the engine prototypes were lost, the Japanese, using the blueprints that had been air-dropped, developed the Nakajima Kikka (orange blossom) jets based on the Me-262 and the Mitsubishi J8M Shusui (sword stroke) based on the Me-163.

Despite the loss of the I-29, the Yanagi missions continued. While jet engine technology managed to reach the Japanese, Uranium oxides did not, fortunately.  Another story involving Japanese attempts to mine and ship the material from Thailand will follow later. While it is not established that the I-29 carried Uranium dioxide, other Yanagi subs, such as U 234, which moved a significant amount of strategic equipment and specialists, supposedly carried a large amount of Uranium dioxide stored in lead caskets, while Nazi Germany was collapsing and in its death throes.

The story of the U-234, which surrendered to America, is, for those interested, a fascinating read. Did the captured uranium become part of the payload of the ‘Little Boy’ dropped at Hiroshima? Joseph M. Scalia’s book Germany's Last Mission to Japan: The Failed Voyage of U-234 discusses the topic.

The story of Bose, who arrived in Tokyo, his work with the IIL, INA, and the creation of the Azad Hind Fauj with volunteers and Indian soldiers captured by the Japanese, is well known; however, there are many lesser-known details. We will uncover them along the way. The story of the girl who was involved in getting a Congress radio repaired (and which reported about the Japanese submarines prowling the Malabar shorelines) will be one of them and will follow shortly.

References

More than Merchants – Khoo Salma Nasution

His Majesty’s opponent – Sugatha Bose

Yanagi Missions – Bob Hackett

Abid Hasan Safrani: Netaji’s Comrade-in-Arms, Ismat Mehdi and Shehbaz Safrani

Relevant articles

On and Under the High Seas – Maddy’s Ramblings

The Indian Swaraj Institute (ISI) and the 5th column- Maddy’s Ramblings

The fate of the Penang ISI's 5th column- Maddy’s Ramblings

Those interested in seeing the innards of a U-boat, click this link

And the inside of a Japanese submarine – see this video