SENSUIKAN!
(RO-46)
IJN Submarine RO-39:
Tabular Record of
Movement
© 2001-2020 Bob Hackett & Sander Kingsepp
Revision 4
8 August 1942:
Laid down at Sasebo Navy Yard as a 960-ton type K6 submarine.
6 March 1943:
Launched as RO-39.
1 August 1943:
LtCdr (Cdr, posthumously) Tachigami Rikuta (60)(former
CO of RO-68) is appointed the Chief Equipping Officer (CEO).
12 September 1943:
Sasebo Navy Yard. RO-39 is completed and attached
to Maizuru Naval District. LtCdr Tachigami is the Commanding Officer.
25 December 1943:
RO-39 is assigned to Captain (Rear Admiral,
posthumously) Shimizu Taro's (48) SubDiv 34, Sixth Fleet.
28 December 1943:
Departs Maizuru for Truk in company of RO-44.
6 January 1944:
Arrives at Truk.
17 January 1944
Truk. Embarks stores from HEIAN MARU.
20 January 1944:
RO-39, with ComSubDiv 34 Captain Shimizu embarked,
departs Truk to patrol in the Woleai area, Caroline Islands.
22 January 1944:
Ordered to rescue aircraft crews of 531st NAG
(Woleai) and 755th NAG (Maloelap).
30 January 1944:
RO-39 is ordered to proceed to an area 200 miles NE
of Wotje, Marshall Islands and attack an American invasion fleet.
31 January 1944: American Operation "FLINTLOCK" - The Invasion of the
Marshalls:
Vice Admiral (later Admiral) Marc A. Mitscher's (USNA '10) Task
Force 58 lands the 4th Marine Division and the Army's 7th Infantry Division that
capture the Kwajalein, Roi-Namur and Majuro atolls.
1 February 1944:
Off Wotje. That night, LCdr F. S Townsent's USS
WALKER (DD-517) picks up a surface contact on radar. WALKER closes and fires
star shells that illuminate a submarine. As he crash dives, LtCdr Tachigami gets
off an emergency signal to Sixth Fleet at Truk. WALKER tracks the submarine -
probably RO-39 - on sonar and then destroys her with a single depth charge
attack at 09-24N, 170-32E. [1]
5 March 1944:
Presumed lost E of Wotje with all 70 hands.
6 February 1944:
Takagi orders RO-39 to abort her mission and return.
10 February 1944:
RO-39 fails to acknowledge to the second order to
return.
30 April 1944:
Removed from the Navy List.
Authors' Notes:
[1] The distress signal was received on 2 February at 1038
(JST), but was undecipherable.
Thanks go to Dr. Higuchi Tatsuhiro of Japan.
– Bob Hackett and Sander Kingsepp.
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