Post by sparrow on Jun 4, 2012 10:04:05 GMT 12
Not sure if this is the right section,apologies if not.
I was just on the phone to my father in Coromandel,and he told me of a newspaper article he's posting to me from the Whitianga Informer. I went online and it was the 1st article on their site,interesting reading,and reminds me of a story a teacher tiold me of spotting a sub on her way to school during the war.
www.the-informer.co.nz/
"While operating an amphibian aircraft out of Auckland in the late 80s, I began to hear from WW2 amphibian pilots that in 1942 there was a Green float plane with a radial engine that flew in from the Coromandel area, over the city and then flew back past North Head and headed for the Coromandel. It had no registration marking.
I decided to research the story and fly the route with my own amphibian to check times and what the pilot might have seen.
I am indebted to Phil Dulhunty in Australia, a WW2 veteran who located the pilot, Mr Itoh Susumu, in 1993, living in his seaside village in Japan.
The story begins in Hawaii where Mr Itoh Susumu said he participated in the attack on Pearl Harbour. He belonged to the Tateyema Naval Air Force and attached to an I-21 Submarine which was equipped with a Glen EI4YI two seat float plane that was carried forward of the conning tower in a water proof hangar. Itoh says that after Pearl Harbour they navigated their way to the West Coast of North America for reconnaissance and then sailed back to Truk, north of New Guinea, for a re-fit.
Here is Mr Susumu’s recollection:
The I-21 submarine was a giant and an outstanding piece of equipment for its day. She was 108 meters long and weighed 2,600 tons. She had a surface speed of 23.5 knots and an underwater speed of 8 knots. Her range was massive at 14,000 miles. The submarine also carried 2 midget subs, later used in the Sydney Australia raid. The Captain was 26 year old Commander Meiji Tagami.
After the re-fit at Truk, on the 27th April we departed and sailed south via New Caledonia to Fiji. Our mission was to locate any enemy shipping but more to the point locate the US battle ship Chicago which we believed to be in the South Seas.
Forty-five miles south of Suva, one hour before sunrise on the 18th May, my aircraft was pulled from the water proof hangar and assembled. I lifted off with my observer. The sky was pitch black and we went into cloud at 300 metres. (Remember this is a 20 year old pilot with an observer instrument flying in a 1942 wooden aircraft!)
I climbed to 2000 meters. At this height I could not get out of the cloud so descended and burst out into the sunlight. I could see a reef and this turned out to be the entrance to Suva Harbour. There were a lot of low lying clouds which was great for me as it gave us a place to hide. So I flew into the port at 500 meters.
I found there were several destroyers and cruisers moored there. I flew past one at 400 meters and saw the sailors cleaning their teeth. They had just gotten up. My observer in the back cockpit said, “Shall we kill them?” I said, “Don’t be silly we’re spying, just wave to them. We did and they waved back.”
My aircraft had no markings. It was painted olive green so they had no idea of what country it belonged to!
After a one and a half hour flight I flew back to the submarine and landed alongside it in smooth water. The crew took just 8 minutes to lift my aircraft aboard and store it away in its water proof hangar.
We then submerged and set course for New Zealand. The captain was quite agitated that we hadn’t found the Chicago in Suva Harbour and the great hope was that we would locate it in the Auckland Harbour.
We arrived in the Auckland area on the 24th May at 4am on the Eastern side of the larger Mercury Island. This gave us shelter, cover and smooth water. The captain insisted that we surface, ready the plane and prepare for take-off. The Glen had a 300 hp radial engine and could cruise at 110 mph. We made a smooth launch from the catapult and my observer was ready with his papers, maps and pencils. His job as an observer/artist was to draw accurate maps as we crossed the landscape as we had no cameras.
We reached an eastern beach at Auckland but couldn’t see much as it was so dark. I flew north to Auckland Airport where they must have heard us and put the landing lights on for us thinking we were friendly! As there were no ships in the Auckland harbour and it’s also been verified that the North Head guns were out of commission as they were being cleaned!!
We decided to fly back to the Mercury Islands and the mother ship. Yamasaki, my observer and artist, complained that he felt very uneasy as it would be a disaster if the 300 hp. radial engine stopped and we would then have to surrender. I however had great confidence in the engine. As we flew along I was grateful to be flying over such a beautiful country and thrilled that Japan would in the future be owner of this beautiful land.
On returning to the agreed place, we found to our amazement that the mother submarine was not there! After flying around in a 20 mile radius from where the submarine should have been there was still no sighting. I sent out a signal to say where we were and that there was no enemy in the area. Then within two minutes like a great whale the submarine surfaced and we could see the crew men running along the deck getting ready to haul us up and into the hangar. The whole sequence went very smoothly and we quickly submerged and set course for Sydney.
(Editor’s Note: Mr Germone lives in Ngatea. His story was brought to us by Dick Davis in Whitianga, formerly from Ngatea. If you have any further information on this bit of history, please contact The Informer.)"
I was just on the phone to my father in Coromandel,and he told me of a newspaper article he's posting to me from the Whitianga Informer. I went online and it was the 1st article on their site,interesting reading,and reminds me of a story a teacher tiold me of spotting a sub on her way to school during the war.
www.the-informer.co.nz/
"While operating an amphibian aircraft out of Auckland in the late 80s, I began to hear from WW2 amphibian pilots that in 1942 there was a Green float plane with a radial engine that flew in from the Coromandel area, over the city and then flew back past North Head and headed for the Coromandel. It had no registration marking.
I decided to research the story and fly the route with my own amphibian to check times and what the pilot might have seen.
I am indebted to Phil Dulhunty in Australia, a WW2 veteran who located the pilot, Mr Itoh Susumu, in 1993, living in his seaside village in Japan.
The story begins in Hawaii where Mr Itoh Susumu said he participated in the attack on Pearl Harbour. He belonged to the Tateyema Naval Air Force and attached to an I-21 Submarine which was equipped with a Glen EI4YI two seat float plane that was carried forward of the conning tower in a water proof hangar. Itoh says that after Pearl Harbour they navigated their way to the West Coast of North America for reconnaissance and then sailed back to Truk, north of New Guinea, for a re-fit.
Here is Mr Susumu’s recollection:
The I-21 submarine was a giant and an outstanding piece of equipment for its day. She was 108 meters long and weighed 2,600 tons. She had a surface speed of 23.5 knots and an underwater speed of 8 knots. Her range was massive at 14,000 miles. The submarine also carried 2 midget subs, later used in the Sydney Australia raid. The Captain was 26 year old Commander Meiji Tagami.
After the re-fit at Truk, on the 27th April we departed and sailed south via New Caledonia to Fiji. Our mission was to locate any enemy shipping but more to the point locate the US battle ship Chicago which we believed to be in the South Seas.
Forty-five miles south of Suva, one hour before sunrise on the 18th May, my aircraft was pulled from the water proof hangar and assembled. I lifted off with my observer. The sky was pitch black and we went into cloud at 300 metres. (Remember this is a 20 year old pilot with an observer instrument flying in a 1942 wooden aircraft!)
I climbed to 2000 meters. At this height I could not get out of the cloud so descended and burst out into the sunlight. I could see a reef and this turned out to be the entrance to Suva Harbour. There were a lot of low lying clouds which was great for me as it gave us a place to hide. So I flew into the port at 500 meters.
I found there were several destroyers and cruisers moored there. I flew past one at 400 meters and saw the sailors cleaning their teeth. They had just gotten up. My observer in the back cockpit said, “Shall we kill them?” I said, “Don’t be silly we’re spying, just wave to them. We did and they waved back.”
My aircraft had no markings. It was painted olive green so they had no idea of what country it belonged to!
After a one and a half hour flight I flew back to the submarine and landed alongside it in smooth water. The crew took just 8 minutes to lift my aircraft aboard and store it away in its water proof hangar.
We then submerged and set course for New Zealand. The captain was quite agitated that we hadn’t found the Chicago in Suva Harbour and the great hope was that we would locate it in the Auckland Harbour.
We arrived in the Auckland area on the 24th May at 4am on the Eastern side of the larger Mercury Island. This gave us shelter, cover and smooth water. The captain insisted that we surface, ready the plane and prepare for take-off. The Glen had a 300 hp radial engine and could cruise at 110 mph. We made a smooth launch from the catapult and my observer was ready with his papers, maps and pencils. His job as an observer/artist was to draw accurate maps as we crossed the landscape as we had no cameras.
We reached an eastern beach at Auckland but couldn’t see much as it was so dark. I flew north to Auckland Airport where they must have heard us and put the landing lights on for us thinking we were friendly! As there were no ships in the Auckland harbour and it’s also been verified that the North Head guns were out of commission as they were being cleaned!!
We decided to fly back to the Mercury Islands and the mother ship. Yamasaki, my observer and artist, complained that he felt very uneasy as it would be a disaster if the 300 hp. radial engine stopped and we would then have to surrender. I however had great confidence in the engine. As we flew along I was grateful to be flying over such a beautiful country and thrilled that Japan would in the future be owner of this beautiful land.
On returning to the agreed place, we found to our amazement that the mother submarine was not there! After flying around in a 20 mile radius from where the submarine should have been there was still no sighting. I sent out a signal to say where we were and that there was no enemy in the area. Then within two minutes like a great whale the submarine surfaced and we could see the crew men running along the deck getting ready to haul us up and into the hangar. The whole sequence went very smoothly and we quickly submerged and set course for Sydney.
(Editor’s Note: Mr Germone lives in Ngatea. His story was brought to us by Dick Davis in Whitianga, formerly from Ngatea. If you have any further information on this bit of history, please contact The Informer.)"