SENSUIKAN!
HIJMS Submarine RO-56: Tabular Record of
Movement
© 2001-2003 Bob Hackett & Sander Kingsepp
15 November 1944:
The RO-56 is completed at the Mitsui Tamano shipyard, commissioned in the IJN and based in the Maizuru Naval District. She is assigned to SubRon 11 on that same day. LtCdr Nagamatsu Masateru is the Commanding Officer.
1 January 1945:
The RO-56 is in SubRon 11, Sixth Fleet for training and work-up.
10 February 1945:
Reassigned to SubDiv 34, Sixth Fleet.
18 March 1945:
Departs Saeki for her patrol area was SW of Kyushu with the RO-49.
26 March 1945: American Operation "ICEBERG" - The Invasion of Okinawa:
The 77th Infantry Infantry Division lands on the Kerama Islands and by 29 March captures advance bases and anchorages.
1 April 1945:
Vice Admiral (later Admiral) Raymond A. Spruance's Fifth Fleet, including more than 40 aircraft carriers, 18 battleships, 200 destroyers and over 1,000 support ships surround Okinawa. LtGen Simon B. Buckner Jr's Tenth Army (7th, 77th, 96th Infantry, 1st, 6th Marine divisions) makes amphibious landings and begins the campaign to take the island from LtGen Ushijima Mitsuro's 32nd Army.
9 April 1945:
Okinodaito-Jima, S Ryukyus. LtCdr E. G. Sanderson's USS MONSSEN (DD-798) and Cdr W. S. Maddox's MERTZ (DD-691) are screening a fast-carrier group. The MONSSEN makes a sonar contact at 900 yards. Sanderson then drops three patterns of 13 depth charges. The MERTZ drops another three patterns. The MONSSEN drops a final two patterns that probably kill the RO-56 at 26-09N, 130-21E.*
15 April 1945:
Presumed lost with all 79 hands off Okinawa.
25 May 1945:
Removed from the Navy List.
Authors' Notes:
*Some sources claim that the RO-56 was sunk on 18 April 1945 NE of Wake Island by the USS SEA OWL (SS-405), but the target in that case was the I-372 that was not sunk in that attack. Ther I-372's CO saw one of the American torpedoes slam into the pier next to his sub. There were no other IJN subs at Wake at that time.
Special thanks for help in preparing this TROM go to Dr. Higuchi Tatsuhiro of Japan. – Bob Hackett and Sander Kingsepp.
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