German U-Boat Crews Stranded in Japan Never Expected What Tokyo Did the Day Berlin Surrendered
War Monger
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In May 1945, German submarines sat in Japanese ports from Singapore to Kobe, their crews half a world from home. When Germany's war ended, their Japanese ally had its own plans for them, and it had written those plans down a week before.
This is what happened to U-181, U-862, U-195, U-219 and the two former Italian boats at Kobe: the admiral's dinner at Seletar, the flags that came down, the jungle internment camp, and the German sailors kept back to teach Japanese crews how to run their boats.
Topics covered: the Monsun U-boats in the Far East, Admiral Wenneker's code word, Vice Admiral Fukudome at Seletar, the seizure of the U-boats as I-501 to I-506, UIT-24 and UIT-25 (Comandante Cappellini and Luigi Torelli) under three flags, Japan's April 1945 plan for Germany's surrender, Batu Pahat and Changi, and the scuttling of the boats in 1946.
Sources used: Kurt Freiwald's essay in the ONI Review; combinedfleet.com records for I-501 to I-506, including wartime FRUMEL decrypts; uboat.net and Jerry Waller's "The U-Boats that Surrendered under the Japanese Flag"; Nobuo Tajima (NIDS, 2010) on the April 30, 1945 Outline; Charles Dana Gibson, "Far East Odyssey of UIT-24," Naval History (1990); G. Manzari, Bollettino d'Archivio USMM (2011).
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German U-Boat Crews Stranded in Japan Never Expected What Tokyo Did the Day Berlin Surrendered
War Monger
78,421 views
In May 1945, German submarines sat in Japanese ports from Singapore to Kobe, their crews half a world from home. When Germany's war ended, their Japanese ally had its own plans for them, and it had written those plans down a week before.
This is what happened to U-181, U-862, U-195, U-219 and the two former Italian boats at Kobe: the admiral's dinner at Seletar, the flags that came down, the jungle internment camp, and the German sailors kept back to teach Japanese crews how to run their boats.
Topics covered: the Monsun U-boats in the Far East, Admiral Wenneker's code word, Vice Admiral Fukudome at Seletar, the seizure of the U-boats as I-501 to I-506, UIT-24 and UIT-25 (Comandante Cappellini and Luigi Torelli) under three flags, Japan's April 1945 plan for Germany's surrender, Batu Pahat and Changi, and the scuttling of the boats in 1946.
Sources used: Kurt Freiwald's essay in the ONI Review; combinedfleet.com records for I-501 to I-506, including wartime FRUMEL decrypts; uboat.net and Jerry Waller's "The U-Boats that Surrendered under the Japanese Flag"; Nobuo Tajima (NIDS, 2010) on the April 30, 1945 Outline; Charles Dana Gibson, "Far East Odyssey of UIT-24," Naval History (1990); G. Manzari, Bollettino d'Archivio USMM (2011).
If you'd rather read the stories without my editing in the way, I wrote a book called UNSUNG: 36 Pacific War stories the history books left out, with archival photos, maps, and a guide to finding your own family's service records. The first chapter is free at readunsung.com.