Several men watch as a Japanese midget two-man submarine is raised from the harbour bed. The ...

Place Oceania: Australia, New South Wales, Sydney
Accession Number 060696
Collection type Photograph
Object type Black & white - Film copy negative
Maker Keam, Ronald Noel
Place made Australia: New South Wales, Sydney
Date made 1 June 1942
Conflict Second World War, 1939-1945
Copyright

Item copyright: Copyright expired - public domain

Public Domain Mark This item is in the Public Domain

Description

Several men watch as a Japanese midget two-man submarine is raised from the harbour bed. The Japanese submarine, which attempted a raid on shipping in Sydney Harbour on 31 May 1942 was rammed and sunk by gunfire before it could fire its torpedoes. A second submarine which successfully entered the harbour fired one of its torpedoes in an attack on USS Chicago, missed and hit the barracks ship HMAS Kuttabul, a converted ferry, and exploded, killing 21 naval ratings. The fate of this submarine was not known at the time; it was subsequently discovered on the seabed off the Northern Beaches in November 2006. The third of the two-men submarines became entangled in the harbour boom in its attempt to enter the harbour; her crew subsequently blew the submarine up.