Midget - Attack

The Japanese Navy used Type A Midget Submarines in their . This cutaway drawing illustrates the midget sub. The U.S. Navy's Historical Center provides background on these small submarines and explains how they were used in the attack: The Japanese Navy included five Type A midget submarines in the Pearl Harbor raid of 7 December 1941. Transported on board large I type submarines, the midgets were launched near the entrance to Pearl Harbor the night before the attack was to begin. One, spotted trying to enter the harbor before dawn, was attacked byUSS Ward (DD-139) and presumably sunk in the first combat action of the as yet unopened Pacific War. At least one of the midgets was able to enter the harbor and was sunk there by USS Monaghan (DD-354). Another, the Ha-19, unsuccessful in its attempts to penetrate Pearl Harbor, drifted around to the east coast of Oahu and was captured there the day after the attack. Three of the five Pearl Harbor midget submarines have been salvaged, Ha-19 immediately after the attack and the one sunk by USS Monaghan a few days later. The third was found off the harbor entrance in 1960. Monaghan's was buried in a landfill shortly after its recovery. The other two are on exhibit, Ha-19 at Fredericksburg, Texas, and the one found in 1960 at Eta Jima, Japan. The two remaining midgets are still unaccounted for, including the one attributed to USS Ward. Recent studies of Pearl Harbor attack photograpy have led some observers to argue that one of the midgets was in place off "Battleship Row" as the Japanese planes came in, and may have fired its torpedoes at USS Oklahoma (BB-37) or USS West Virginia (BB-48). This contention is still controversial, but, if it is true, one Type A may lie undiscovered inside Pearl Harbor. What happened to the ships which attacked the mini-subs? Three years to the day after the USS Ward fired the first shot of the Pacific War, she was massively damaged in a attack while in Ormoc Bay at the island of Leyte (in the ). She sank soon after, on December 7, 1944. America also lost the Monaghan - with all but six of her sailors - but it wasn't due to enemy action. In December of 1944, while the Monaghan was about 300 offshore in the Philippine Sea, Typhoon "Cobra" imperiled the vessel. The survivors reported that she took roll after roll to starboard until she could no longer fight back. She sank, going over on her starboard side, on the 17th of December, 1944. And ... two notes about : A view of the "eye" of this late-season, unexpected storm was seen on by one of the Navy's ships. It was the second major storm ever to be observed via radar.

"Cobra" was the storm which Herman Wouk featured in his novel The Caine Mutiny (which was later made into a movie).

Click on the image to greatly expand its view. Credits:

Illustration of Japanese two-man midget submarine published in theIllustrated London News on the 27th of December, 1941. Online, courtesy Library of Congress.

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