I169 Sub - Truk Lagoon June 2024

The I-169 submarine was sunk by American forces at Truk Lagoon after Operation Hailstorm in 1944. The I-169 submarine wreck is the only submarine in Chuuk Lagoon and was the Imperial Japanese Navy’s Kaidai-class cruiser submarine of the KD6 sub-class built in 1930.
While at Truk during December 1943 and January 1944, I-169 took torpedoes and stores aboard from Heian Maru, and on 1 January 1944 she was assigned to the Truk-based Submarine Division 12, a part of Submarine Squadron 3, along with the submarines I-171, I-174, I-175 and I-176. On 27 January 1944 she departed Truk bound for Rabaul, then got underway from Rabaul on a supply mission to Buka and Buin on 27 January 1944. She was not in Truk during Operation Hailstone in Feb 1944. She returned to Truk on 11 March 1944.She left Truk again on 18 March, but returned on 22 March 1944.
On 4 April 1944, I-169 was at her anchorage in Truk Lagoon northwest of Dublon, taking on supplies with some workmen aboard and her commanding officer and 20 other members of her crew ashore. At about 09:00 Japan Standard Time, an air raid warning sounded. I-169′s watch officer ordered her to dive immediately to avoid attack by approaching U.S. Navy PB4Y-1 Liberator patrol bombers. She submerged with most of her deck hatches still open and her main induction valve unsecured, causing her aft compartments to flood immediately. An immediate attempt to resurface failed, and although surviving crewmen sealed off the flooded compartments, I-169 sank to the bottom in 125 feet of water.
After I-169 submerged, it was not immediately apparent that she was in distress. Only after she did not surface after the air raid and attempts to contact her were unsuccessful did concern grow that she had sunk. A diver sent down to investigate found her on the bottom and contacted the surviving crewmen trapped on board by tapping on her hull.
Sixth Fleet headquarters issued orders on 5 April 1944 to rescue the trapped survivors. A repair ship with a 30-ton crane and the tug Futagami arrived on the scene to attempt to lift I-169′s bow to the surface. They initially had difficulty finding I-169, and once they located her and attempted to lift her, the crane's cable broke due to the flooded submarine's great weight.
Tapping later died away except from the aft compartment. Salvage crews lowered air hoses and drilled holes in I-169′s ballast tanks but found it impossible to signal the surviving crewmen to open the air valves to the ballast tanks from the inside. The trapped crewmen fell silent by 23:00 on 5 April 1944 and air raids on Truk prevented further work on the wreck overnight on 5-6 April 1944. All the trapped men who survived the initial flooding suffocated. Many of their remains rest in this wreck even today.

[@namu1957]

Those poor guys, it was a hard way to die. R.I.P.