Bulletin of the Australasian Institute for Maritime Archaeology (2008), 32: 79–89 Managing an Australian midget: The Imperial Japanese Navy Type A submarine M24 at Sydney Tim Smith, Deputy Director, M24 Project Manager Heritage Branch, NSW Department of Planning, Sydney, Locked Bag 5020, Parramatta NSW 2124, Australia Email:
[email protected] Introduction was to have been involved but had been sunk en route, The discovery in November 2006 of the ‘missing’ third whilst a fourth midget had been disabled in a previous Japanese midget submarine from the 1942 Sydney raid gas explosion (Grose 2007:105). closed one of Australia’s enduring naval mysteries. The Like the midget attacks at Pearl Habour just six vessel was the most successful of the boats used in the months before (7 December 1941), and the parallel audacious attack and its disappearance created a legacy raid at Diego Suarez Habour in Madagascar (30 May of intrigue. Under command of Sub Lieutenant Katsuhisa 1942), the outcome was mixed. No significant fleet units Ban (aged 23) and Petty Officer Namori Ashibe (aged 24), were damaged at Sydney and all the midget submariners M24 entered the harbour, attacked the visiting United were killed. Midget Ha-14 deployed from I-27 became States heavy cruiser USS Chicago (CA-29), missed, and fouled in the partly constructed anti-submarine net at sunk a naval depot ship killing 21 men. Importantly M24 8.30 pm and partially destroyed when the crew fired escaped, whereas its sister midgets Ha-14 and Ha-21 were the forward demolition charge at 10.30 pm.