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Japanese Midget submarine attack on Sydney harbour, 30–31 May 1942

About 4.20 a.m. on 30th May a Curtiss-type biplane single-float aircraft, burning navigation lights, flew over Man-of-War anchorage in Sydney Harbour, twice circled U.S.S. Chicago lying at No. 2 Buoy, and departed due east. The aircraft was heard and seen from Garden Island, and a duty officer there, Lieutenant Wilson,8 was sent out to Chicago to ask if they knew anything about it. He saw Chicago's officer of the watch, who replied that it was an American cruiser's aircraft. It was a conclusion that called for reconsideration when it was pointed out that there was no American cruiser other than Chicago in the area—and the aircraft was not hers. At the time, however, little significance appears to have attached to the sighting. An air raid warning was issued by Fighter Sector Headquarters at 5.7 a.m., and later reports came in indicating the presence of two unidentified aircraft in the Sydney-Newcastle area, but searches by fighter aircraft failed to bear fruit. The definite Man-of-War anchorage sighting does not appear to have inspired any apprehensions of a submarine —or other sea-delivered—attack on the harbour, or to have initiated any special defence measures.

Within minutes of the Sydney Harbour sighting, away across the Indian Ocean in Diego Suarez Harbour, Madagascar, a similar aircraft circled H.M.S. Ramillies lying at anchor. This was at 10.30 p.m. on 29th May but, allowing for the difference in longitude, the two incidents were separated by only 70 minutes in time. The Diego Suarez aircraft was from Ishizaki's flagship 110. At the time it was realised that it must have come from an enemy warship of some sort, the alert was given, and Ramillies weighed and steamed around for a while before taking up a different anchor berth. At nightfall on the 30th, under a clear sky bright with a full moon, two midget submarines, from I 16 and I2 0, were launched 10 miles from the harbour entrance. At least one—from I 20—entered the harbour, and at 8.25 p.m. scored a torpedo hit on Ramillies which caused some damage, and an hour later torpedoed and sank the tanker British Loyalty (6,993 tons).

As was learned after the war the Sydney aircraft was from I 21. Piloted by Lieutenant Susumo Ito, it took off from a choppy sea in a rising wind, from a position 35 miles north-east of Sydney's North Head at around 3 a.m. on the 30th. Cloud ceiling was at 2,000 feet. Ito flew up the harbour at about 600 feet, saw Chicago and "four destroyers" in Man-of-War anchorage, and Canberra in adjacent Farm Cove, and flew back to land on the sea alongside I 21. In landing on the rough water the aircraft capsized and was sunk, but Ito and his observer reached the submarine with their report of "battleships and cruisers" in the harbour. Sasaki decided to attack with midget submarines on the night of 31st May.

The evening of Sunday, 31st May 1942, was dark and cloudy at Sydney. Outside the Heads the wind was S. by W., of moderate force, the sea rough with a fair swell running. After sunset the coast was dark. The moon was full and rose at 6.13 p.m., but until the middle watch its light was obscured by heavy overcast. Outer South Head and Inner South Head lights were burning, but the main leads were out. There were, however, patches of brightness within the harbour, and floodlights were on at the graving dock site at Garden Island, where work was in progress. Fixed anti-submarine defences consisted of outer and inner indicator loops at the Heads, but the first-mentioned were out of action. At the inner entrance to the harbour there was, in course of construction, an antitorpedo boom, between George's Head on Middle Head, and Green Point on Inner South Head. The centre portion was completed, but there were gaps at each end, though un-netted piles were in position in the western gap.

The principal naval vessels in the harbour were U.S. Ships Chicago, Perkins, Dobbin, and H.M.A.S. Bungaree (minelayer) at buoys in Man-of-war anchorage; H.M.A.S. Canberra at No. 1 Buoy in Farm Cove; the armed merchant cruisers Kanimbla and Westralia across the harbour off Neutral Bay; Adelaide alongside on the west side of Garden Island; and the corvettes Whyalla and Geelong at the oil wharf on the north-west corner of the island; H.M.I.S. Bombay at No. 9 Buoy, Man-of-War anchorage; and the Dutch submarine K 9 fast outside the depot ship (converted harbour ferry) Kuttabul, lying alongside at the south-east corner of Garden Island.

The available harbour defence craft were the anti-submarine vessels Yandra (one 4-inch gun and 31 depth-charges) and Bingera, Yandra being on duty patrolling within the indicator loop area while Bingera was "stand off" ship, lying at No. 7 Buoy in the Naval Anchorage; minesweepers Goonambee and Samuel Benbow in Watson's Bay; four duty (unarmed) naval auxiliary patrol boats, and six channel patrol boats (each armed with two .303 Vickers guns, depth-charge throwers and four to six depth-charges), Yarroma and Lolita on duty in the vicinity of the boom gates, and Steady Hour, Sea Mist, Marlean and Toomaree "stand off" boats at Farm Cove. The harbour was open to traffic, which was proceedimg normally, the ferries running, and ships depart ing and arriving. The hospital ship Oranje passed out through the Heads at 4.4p.m., and arrivals were Cobargo (860 tons) at 5.17, Erinna (6,233 tons) at 5.50, Mortlake Bank (1,371 tons) at 6.55, and Wyangerie (1,068 tons) at 8.53 p.m.

Sunset was at 4.54 p.m. Dusk was approaching over the greying, heaving sea as, around 4 to 4.30 p.m., I 22, I 24, and I 27 released their midget submarines some seven miles east of Sydney Heads. The land to the west was silhouetted against the waning light, and the early navigational fixes of the approaching midget craft used bearings of unlighted features Outer North Head, Middle Head, and the forward main lead through the Heads—indicating that these bearings were taken while there was yet daylight. Later and closer in bearings were of Outer South Head and Inner South Head lights. The first and outermost bearings of Midget No. 21 placed her in position Outer South Head Light 260 degrees 7.2 miles, and was timed 4.25. Later fixes (untimed) placed her in progressive positions Outer South Head Light 253 degrees 4.1 miles, 247 degrees 3.6 miles, 260 degrees 1.7 miles—this last apparently an "after dark" fix. The other two midgets probably made similar approaches, all being unobserved.

As they stole towards their goal in the swiftly deepening twilight of that May Sunday, the Japanese midget submarines traversed a stretch of water whose surface had been furrowed by another keel on another May Sunday 172 years earlier; and their navigators took bearings of points of land on which the gaze of the first white men to look upon them had, those years before, briefly rested. "At day break on Sunday the 6th May 1770," wrote Captain James Cook in his account of his voyage of circumnavigation,"we set sail from Botany Bay, with a light breeze at N.W. which soon after coming to the southward, we steered along the shore N.N.E., and at noon, our latitude, by observation, was 33 degrees 50 minutes S. At this time we were between two and three miles distant from the land, and abreast of a bay, or harbour, in which there appeared to be good anchorage, and which I called Port Jackson." The third plotted position of Midget No. 21 on Sunday, 31st May 1942, Outer South Head Light 247 degrees 3.6 miles, placed her in 33 degrees 50 minutes south, between two and three miles distant from the land at North Head—in precisely the position of H.M.S. Endeavour at noon on Sunday, 6th May 1770.

The signature of an inward crossing was recorded on an indicator loop at 8 p.m. It was made by Midget No. 14, from I 27, but at the time, owing to the ferry and other traffic over the loops, its significance was not recognised. Approximately fifteen minutes later Mr J. Cargill, a Maritirne Services Board watchman, sighted a suspicious object caught in the anti-torpedo net near the west gate. He and his assistant, Mr W. Nangle, investigated it in a skiff, and reported it to Yarroma (Lieutenant Eyers) at about 9.30. Apprehension that the object was a magnetic mine deterred Yarroma from closing it. She reported "suspicious object in net" at 9.52 p.m., and was ordered to close and give full description, and at 10.20 sent a stoker across in the Maritime Services skiff, while Lolita (Warrant Officer Anderson) closed the scene. The stoker reported that the object was a submarine, and at 10.30—one hour after it was first reported to her by Cargill—Yarroma signalled to Sydney naval headquarters: "Object is submarine. Request permission to open fire." Five minutes later demolition charges in Midget No. 14 were fired by its crew, Lieutenant Kenshi Chuma and Petty Officer Takeshi Ohmori, thus destroying both themselves and their craft. Meanwhile, at 9.48, another inward crossing, again taken as of no special import, was recorded on the indicator loop. It was that of Midget A from I 24 (Sub-Lieutenant Katsuhisa Ban and Petty Officer Namori Ashibe).

At 10.27 p.m., and again at 10.36, the general alarm was given by the Naval Officer-in-Charge, Sydney, Rear-Admiral Muirhead-Gould. At 10.20 Captain H. D. Bode, Commanding Officer of Chicago, who had been on shore at "Tresco", the official residence of the N.O.I.C., left there for his ships "with the suggestion that he should go to sea with Perkins". The 10.27 warning instructed all ships in Sydney Harbour to take antisubmarine precautions, and the port was closed to outward shipping. At approximately 10.50, Chicago, lying at No. 2 Buoy, sighted a submarine's periscope (apparently that of Midget A) about 500 yards distant. She illuminated it by searchlight and opened fire with red tracer pom-pom. The submarine, steering towards the Harbour Bridge, passed about 200 yards off Garden Island in the path of the dockyard motor boat Nestor, which had to alter course to avoid. An observer on Garden Island ferry wharf saw it in Chicago's searchlight with the cruiser's shots "falling all round it".

While Midget A was thus creating excitement in the harbour, Midget No. 21, from I 22, was entering the Heads. She did not at this time reach the effective loop, so no loop indicator signature was then recorded by her, but at 10.52 p.m. the naval auxiliary patrol boat Lauriana, on duty in the loop area with Yandra, sighted "a flurry on the water" ahead. She illuminated with her searchlight Midget 21's conning tower 60 to 80 feet distant, and being unarmed she signalled Port War Signal Station and Yandra. At 10.54 Yandra sighted the submarine's conning tower at a distance of 400 yards, three cables 28 degrees from Hornby Light. She tried to ram the enemy "which appeared 100 yards astern, damaged, and slowly turning to starboard". Contact was lost, but was regained by sighting at 600 yards five minutes later, and at 11.07 Yandra attacked with a pattern of six depth-charges. "Submarine was not seen after explosions."

While all this was going on, the ferries continued to run. This was by Muirhead-Gould's direct order, since he felt that "the more boats that were moving about at high speed the better chance of keeping the submarines down till daylight". Ships continued to show lights, and it was not until 11.14 p.m. that the instruction "All ships to be darkened" was issued, and eleven minutes later before the graving dock floodlights were extinguished.

At 11.10 p.m. Geelong, from her berth alongside at Garden Island, fired at a suspicious object in the direction of Bradley's Head. This was probably Midget A, which had apparently turned toward the north shore after being fired on by Chicago, and was there taking up her torpedo firing position with the cruiser—which was silhouetted against the graving dock floodlights—as target. Both Geelong and Whyalla alongside her, illuminated the Bradley's Head area by searchlight for some time without again sighting the submarine. At 11.25 the graving dock floodlights blacked out. Five minutes later an underwater explosion wrecked Kuttabul, and caused a number of casualties in her. It was subsequently discovered that this was caused by one of two torpedoes which, fired at Chicago by Midget A from the direction of Bradley's Head, passed under the Dutch submarine K 9, and struck the harbour bed beneath Kuttabul, where it exploded. The other torpedo ran on shore on Garden Island and failed to explode. Possibly the blacking out of the graving dock floodlights just prior to Midget A's attack was responsible for the cruiser's escape.

The Harbour was now awake (though in the near-by city many people slept soundly through the gunfire and general turmoil, and others thought that naval practice firing was responsible for the disturbance). Ships and craft got moving. Bingera slipped, and swept between Bradley's Head and Garden Island; Perkins left the Naval Anchorage for sea; the Dutch submarine K 9 slipped, and proceeded up harbour in tow; Chicago made her departure signal from Man-of-War anchorage at 2.14 a.m. on 1st June, and Whyalla followed her seawards at 2.30. Also at 2.30 the four "stand off" Channel Patrol Boats in Farm Cove were ordered to proceed on patrol, Toomaree to the east boom gate, Marlean and Sea Mist to the west gate, and Steady Hour to join Lolita and Yarroma at the boom.

At this time it was believed that a third submarine was in the harbour, because an indicator loop crossing was registered at 1.58 a.m., but in the subsequent analysis this was determined as an outward crossing—that of Midget A, leaving the harbour after having fired her torpedoes and completed her mission. Almost an hour later than this Chicago—whose "proceeding to sea" report from Port War Signal Station at 2.56 a.m. followed Perkins' passage through the Heads by sixteen minutes and anticipated that of Whyalla by nine—sighted a periscope almost alongside, and signalled "Submarine entering harbour". That was at 3 a.m., and one minute later an inward crossing was registered on an indicator loop. It was presumably Midget No. 21 making a belated entry after recovering from the depthcharge battering she had received from Yandra four hours earlier.

In the sorting out of events in this night of alarms and excursions, considerable difficulty was experienced "in making out any sort of chronological plot. A great many ships and boats and, therefore, people were concerned in these operations, and all were so busy that they had no thought for recording actual time of incidents." There came almost an hour of comparative quiet after 3 o'clock. Bingera carried out an antisubmarine patrol in the vicinity of Canberra in Farm Cove, whence the four "stand-off" Channel Patrol Boats proceeded on patrol at 3.35 a.m.

H.M.I.S. Bombay put to sea on an anti-submarine search. There was a revival of activity at 3.50 when Kanimbla, lying at Birt's Buoy in Neutral Bay, suddenly burned a searchlight and opened fire. Bingera made a fruitless search of the area. There was another peaceful interlude, broken after an hour by a report from the auxiliary minesweeper Doomba, at 4.50, of a submarine contact off Robertson's Point. Again a fruitless search by Bingera. At the same time Canberra reported an unconfirmed sighting of a torpedo track from the direction of Bradley's Head.

This was the prelude to some three hours of intense activity by Sea Mist (Lieutenant Andrew), Steady Hour (Lieutenant Townley), and Yarroma, all patrolling in the west gate area. At approximately 5 a.m. Sea Mist, at the request of minesweeper Goonambee (who at 11 p.m. on the 31st had proceeded from Watson's Bay to patrol from Bradley's Head to the west gate) investigated a suspicious object in Taylor Bay. She illuminated it with an Aldis lamp, identified it as a submarine, and made two depth-charge attacks, simultaneously firing red Very lights. These and the explosions brought Yarroma hot-foot to the scene, her crew's anticipations whetted by the sight of more Very lights and the sound of additional explosions as she raced in to find Sea Mist attacking what that boat reported as "three submarines". Yarroma and Sea Mist were shortly joined by Steady Hour, and from then on until 8.27 a.m. intermittent depthcharge attacks were delivered on submarine contacts recorded by detection gear and by visual "sightings" in that deceptive period of twilight and shadow-borne illusion of a growing dawn. They were conditions under which were seen more submarines than were actually present. But reality existed in the wreck of Midget No. 21. It lay on the harbour bed in Taylor Bay, battered by depth-charge explosions, the torpedoes jammed in their tubes, the two crew members—Lieutenant Keiu Matsuo and Petty Officer Masao Tsuzuku—dead and heedless of the faint hum of the motors which kept the propellers still slowly turning, and of the knocking and scraping sounds made by Steady Hour's cable and dragged anchor seeking, finding, and fouling the hull. Chronologically the story of those dawnlight happening runs: 6.40 a.m.—Steady Hour dropped two depth-charges and marker buoy. 6.58—Yarroma confirmed A/S contact and dropped one charge. 7.18 to 7.25—Yarroma and Steady Hour attacked A/S contact, oil and air bubbles rose, Steady Hour reported her anchor had caught up in the submarine. 8.27 a.m.—Yarroma made final depth-charge attack, oil and air bubbles continued to rise.

A diver's investigations that day found Midget No. 21, with her engines still running, lying on the harbour floor. Two 30-fathom lengths of 21-inch wire were shackled to her and, by them, minesweeper Samuel Bellboy was moored to her for the night. Next day, 2nd June, attempts to drag the submarine inshore by these wires failed, but on 4th June, with the help of sheerlegs and slings, the wreck was warped into shallow water and finally brought on shore. Its occupants were found to have died as the result of self-inflicted revolver shots in the head.

From the remains of the two submarines recovered—the components of which were identical—a complete submarine was constructed. This made a final voyage, on wheels over Australian roads, from Sydney via Goulburn, Canberra, and the Hume Highway to Melbourne, thence by the coast road to Adelaide, and back through inland Victoria—Nhill, Ararat, Ballarat, Bendigo, Shepparton—and north again by the Hume Highway to Canberra. This "voyage", of some 2,500 miles, was to let as many Australians as possible see a midget submarine, and also to raise money for the Naval Relief Fund. It was successful on both counts. It ended at 4 p.m. on 28th April 1943, when the submarine, flying the White Ensign (which it did throughout the "voyage") and now flying a paying-off pendant also, arrived at the Australian War Memorial. There it remains. The bodies of the four Japanese recovered from the two submarines were cremated at Rookwood Cemetery, Sydney. Admiral Muirhead-Gould arranged for the funeral to be carried out with full naval honours, the coffins covered with the Japanese ensign and a volley fired by a naval saluting party, and he himself attended. There was some criticism of this, but the action was typical of the man and his tradition.

So ended the Japanese midget submarine raid on Sydney Harbour. Luck was certainly on the side of the defenders, and was undeserved in the early stages when inactivity and indecision were manifested—the disregard of the aircraft reconnaissance of the harbour on 30th May as possibly presaging an attack from the sea though it was known to be by a ship-borne float-plane, and the failure promptly to react to the discovery of Midget No. 14 caught in the anti-torpedo net. Nearly two-and-a-quarter hours elapsed from the initial sighting of this midget by Cargill at 8.15 p.m. and the first "general alarm" issued by Muirhead-Gould at 10.27 to all ships to take anti-submarine precautions. By then, Midget A had been in the harbour, undetected, for more than half an hour. From the time of the initial sighting of Midget No. 14 to that when the four "stand off" Channel Patrol Boats were ordered on patrol, six-and-a-quarter hours elapsed, and another hour passed before they actually proceeded—four hours after Kuttabul was sunk.

Taken from:
Royal Australian Navy, 1942–1945 by G. Hermon Gill, pp. 64–72