Japan:
Raising the wreck of a midget submarine (believed to be #21) from Sydney Harbour, following an attack of the night of May 31-June 1, 1942.
#14 being raised
From 31 May to 8 June 1942, during
World War II,
Imperial Japanese Navy submarines made a series of attacks on the Australian cities of
Sydney and
Newcastle. On the night of 31 May – 1 June, three
Ko-hyoteki-class midget submarines, (M-14, M-21 and M-24) each with a two-member crew, entered
Sydney Harbour, avoided the partially constructed
Sydney Harbour anti-submarine boom net, and attempted to sink Allied warships. Two of the midget submarines were detected and attacked before they could engage any Allied vessels. The crew of M-14
scuttled their submarine, whilst M-21 was successfully attacked and sunk. The crew of M-21 killed themselves. These submarines were later recovered by the Allies. The third submarine attempted to torpedo the heavy cruiser
USS Chicago, but instead sank the converted ferry
HMAS Kuttabul, killing 21 sailors. This midget submarine's fate was unknown until 2006, when amateur scuba divers discovered the wreck off
Sydney's northern beaches.
Immediately following the raid, the five Japanese fleet submarines that carried the midget submarines to Australia embarked on a campaign to disrupt merchant shipping in eastern Australian waters. Over the next month, the submarines attacked at least seven merchant vessels, sinking three ships and killing 50 sailors. During this period, between midnight and 02:30 on 8 June, two of the submarines bombarded the ports of Sydney and Newcastle.