On March 10, 1944, the I-52 submarine left The Kure Naval Base in Japan for its first voyage, carrying Commander Uno Kameosa and 94 sailors.
It had to sail a long distance, through the Sea of Japan, the East China Sea, the South China Sea to Singapore, stay for a few days and then cross the Strait of Malacca, the Indian Ocean, bypass the Cape of Good Hope in Africa into the Atlantic Ocean, and finally reach the Bay of Biscay docked in the German-occupied French port of Lorient, most of the voyage was hostile waters.
The I-52 is one of three large Japanese-built I-52 submarines, with a total length of 108.7 meters, a width of 9.3 meters, an underwater displacement of 3664 tons, a maximum range of 21,000 nautical miles, and a maximum speed of 17.7 knots on the surface.
The cargo compartment of the submarine was full of 11 tons of tungsten, 10 tons of molybdenum, 3 tons of opium and 54 kilograms of pure caffeine, in addition to carrying 146 gold bars totaling 2.2 tons for the purchase of advanced German equipment and military technology.
Upon arrival in Singapore, it was loaded with 3.3 tons of quinine, 60 tons of raw rubber and 120 tons of tin, as well as 14 Japanese engineers who went to Germany to learn advanced torpedo boat engines and anti-aircraft gun technology.
This was a "blood transfusion program" between the Axis powers, and by strengthening the exchange of goods between them, it was of great significance to enhance Japan's military strength and alleviate Germany's resource pressure.
According to the plan, the I-52 will be equipped with the latest German submarine technology snorkels in Lorient. It allows submarines to dive underwater for a long time without floating, which greatly improves concealment and attack power, and is a revolutionary technological advance. The Japanese intended to wait for the I-52 to return for a replica and equip the snorkels to the entire submarine force.
The I-52 will bring back a variety of advanced equipment, including radar, vacuum tubes, bomber sights, FW-190D fighter engines and T5 sound-guided torpedoes that can track the sound of propellers, as well as about 40 tons of various secret documents, drawings and schematics.
Even more frightening is the fact that there are also 1760 pounds (800 kg) of uranium oxide on the cargo list. Although these unconcented uranium oxides were not enough to make atomic bombs, the Japanese could use these materials to create radioactive "dirty bombs" to attack the United States.
Fortunately, the Allied intelligence services had already mastered the Axis communication code, so they learned of the Japanese submarine mission in advance. As soon as the I-52 left kure naval base, the U.S. military began to monitor it uninterruptedly.
The I-52 was scheduled to reach the port of Lorient on 6 June, but on this day the Allies landed in Normandy to the north, so the Japanese naval attaché in Berlin quickly sent it a letter to let it go to Norway, and then joined the German submarine U-530 on the way to exchange important supplies.
The I-52 received the message and confirmed the reply, and then leaked the fatal location information.
The Borg escort aircraft carrier
The U.S. military immediately dispatched the Borg escort aircraft carrier and five destroyers to embark on a hunting trip from Casablanca, North Africa, on June 15, led by Colonel Aurelius Vaucelle. It was a highly successful anti-submarine fleet that had just sunk a Japanese RO-501 submarine a month earlier. From February 1943 to July 1945, they sent a total of 13 German and Japanese submarines to the bottom of the sea.
On the night of 22 June, the I-52 encountered a German U-530 submarine about 850 miles west of the Cape Verde Islands. The latter filled up the Japanese submarine with fuel and rowed a small boat to send an Eniger code machine, a radar detector, two radar operators and a German liaison officer to help it cross the Bay of Biscay to the port.
The next day the Borg carrier fleet also arrived at the intended sea area to begin the hunting operation, and at about 10 p.m., several TBF Avenger torpedo bombers took off from the carrier in search of enemy submarines. The U-530 submarine slipped away in time and was lucky enough to dodge the attack.
Around 11:40 p.m., a suspicious signal appeared on an Avengers radar, about 10 miles away. Pilot Major Jesse Taylor followed the radar signal for a few minutes and flew there, dropping sonar buoys and flares.
The entire surface of the sea was illuminated as if it were daylight, and the I-52 floating on the water was clearly visible, and Taylor immediately launched an attack. Two Mark 54 depth charges roared into the water, one exploding on the starboard side of the submarine and the other about 25 meters away. The Japanese submarine hurriedly dive, and after a while it lost track.
Taylor listened to its noise with a sonar buoy and then dropped an Mk-24 acoustic torpedo 2 minutes later. This is the first acoustic self-guided torpedo developed by the US military, which is less powerful and is mainly used to destroy submarines to force them to surface and surrender.
A few minutes later the sonar buoy detected an explosion, followed by the sound of the hull cracking. Taylor said afterwards: It was a crackling and crunching sound, like the sound of a tin can being crushed.
Another Avenger also arrived at midnight, carrying pilot Lieutenant William Gordon and underwater sound expert Price Fish.
At around 1:10 a.m., Fish reported hearing faint propeller noise underwater. Gordon asked Taylor for the exact location of the sonar buoy, and then dropped another Mk-24 torpedo at the location where he thought the submarine was, but no sound was heard. (Later generations believed that it was the sound of a German submarine fleeing in the distance.)
Mk-24 torpedo
The next morning the destroyer Jensen arrived at the scene and found the surface of the water covered in 15 square miles of oil slicks with many raw rubber blocks floating on it, as well as a piece of silk and a sandal written in Japanese. This evidence suggests that I-52's months-long journey ended prematurely.
On August 2, the Japanese Navy announced the disappearance of the I-52 submarine. But the Germans, who were in desperate need of supplies, still stubbornly believed that the I-52 had not sunk, but only to remain silent for safety, so they kept trying to contact it. As time went on, however, the submarine's hope of survival grew dimmer, and finally, after a futile 40-day wait, the Germans announced that the I-52 might be sunk by the Allies.
But the story of 2 tons of gold isn't over yet. And the wind talks about originality, and plagiarism is prohibited.
More than half a century later, American marine explorer Paul Tidwell assembled a salvage team of Russian and American oceanographers to search the wealth-laden submarine with long-range cameras. The 2 tons of gold that year were worth $109 million by 1995.
On May 5, 1995, when the search ship was about to run out of fuel and food, the salvage team found the shipwreck 32 kilometers away from the Navy's record sinking site!
The I-52 was almost upright on the bottom of the sea at a depth of 5200 meters, the number of the boat was clearly visible, the command tower was basically complete, but the stern was blown out of a large hole by a torpedo, and the debris was scattered in a large area.
Tidwell prepares to salvage the submarine and find a huge fortune. But the Japanese government has come out against it, arguing that the shipwreck site is a grave and that the undead who have rested in peace should no longer be disturbed.
Tidwell negotiated with the Japanese government and promised to return all artifacts except gold to Japan before being approved.
In November 1998, Tedwell again came to the wreck site and reached the bottom of the sea with two Russian divers in a deep submersible. They brought a large metal box, which everyone happily opened, and then came disappointed—there was no gold in the box, only some opium, and it was thrown back into the sea.
The following year Tidwell came to Japan and delivered salvaged relics to the relatives of the I-52 victims. But the 2 tons of gold on the submarine are still sinking on the bottom of the sea, waiting for someone to find it, maybe it's you!