SENSUIKAN!
HIJMS Submarine I-372: Tabular Record of
Movement
© 2001-2004 Bob Hackett & Sander Kingsepp
Revision 1
8 November 1944:
The I-372 is completed at the Yokosuka Navy Yard, commissioned in the IJN and based in the Sasebo Naval District. The I-372 is a Type D1 "Tei-gata" transport submarine. The D1's have no torpedo tubes. Lt Matsusaka Hiroshi is the Commanding Officer.
8 January 1945:
The I-372 is in Rear Admiral Owada Noboru's (former CO of BB YAMASHIRO) SubRon 7, Sixth Fleet.
9 January 1945: American Operation "Mike One" - The Invasion of Luzon:
Vice Admiral (later Admiral) Thomas C. Kinkaid's Task Force 77 lands almost 175,000 men of Lt Gen (later Gen) Walter Krueger's Sixth Army at Lingayen Gulf, Philippines under the cover of Vice Admiral (later Admiral) Jesse B. Oldendorf's TG 77.2 bombardment force and aircraft of Rear Admiral (later Vice Admiral) Calvin T. Durgin's TG 77.4. In a five-month campaign, the Sixth Army defeats General Yamashita Tomoyuki's 14th Area Army defenders.
8 February 1945:
Departs Yokosuka for Batulinao, northern Luzon, Philippines to evacuate stranded pilots. The mission is canceled after several RO-type submarines are sunk in the Luzon Strait. Lt Matsusaka is ordered to return to Kure.
14 February 1945:
Arrives at Kure. It is intended to send the I-372 to Iwo Jima with a cargo of artillery shells, but the situation there turns hopeless.
March 1945:
Returns to Yokosuka.
20 March 1945:
SubRon 7 is deactivated. Reassigned to SubDiv 16 with the I-369, Ha-101, -102 and -104.
1 April 1945:
Departs Yokosuka on a supply run to Wake Island.
16 April 1945:
At 0400, Cdr Carter L. Bennett's USS SEA OWL (SS-405) enroute to Pearl Harbor is alerted by an "Ultra" signal from Guam to a Japanese submarine making a supply run from the Empire to Wake Island.
18 April 1945:
The SEA OWL's radar picks up a surfaced submarine about seven miles NW of Wake. Bennett begins tracking. The I-372 puts into Wake and begins unloading her cargo. Bennett closes the anchorage. At 1,600 yards, he fires three torpedoes. Two do not explode but the third torpedo demolishes the pier. The I-372 crash-dives and remains underwater until 19 April. Takahashi is astonished that his E27 radar detector had not given any warning.
19 April 1945:
The I-372 completes unloading and departs with 29 evacuees. Her cargo of rice lasts the garrison for the next ten days.
29 April 1945:
Arrives at Yokosuka.
15 May 1945:
Lt Takahashi Shingo assumes command.
15 June 1945:
Departs Yokosuka.
28 June 1945:
Arrives at Wake, unloads her cargo.
10 July 1945:
Returns to Yokosuka.
18 July 1945:
The I-372 suffers a near miss during an attack on Yokusuka by Grumman TBF "Avenger" torpedo-bombers and F6F "Hellcat" fighter-bombers from Task Force 38's USS ESSEX (CV-9), RANDOLPH (CV-15), SHANGRI-LA (CV-38) and the BELLEAU WOOD (CVL-24). A near miss amidships ruptures the I-372's starboard cargo hold. She sinks slowly despite the desperate efforts of her crew to keep her afloat. All hands survive.
Lt Takahashi is not at Yokosuka that day, but Captain Imaizumi Yoshijiro ComSubDiv 16/C-in-C of the Yokosuka Submarine Base and the I-372's XO arrive immediately after the attack. They deem that the submarine is beyond salvage and she is abandoned.
15 September 1945:
Removed from the Navy List.
August 1946:
The hulk of the I-372 is raised, towed to deep water and scuttled.
Authors' Notes:
*Postwar, the Joint Army-Navy Assessment Committee (JANAC) erroneously credits the SEA OWL with sinking the RO-56.
Special thanks for help in preparing this TROM go to Dr. Higuchi Tatsuhiro of Japan.
Thanks for help with the COs in Rev 1 also go to Steve Eckhardt of Australia.
– Bob Hackett & Sander Kingsepp
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