On September 15, 1942, the Japanese submarine I-19 was searching for prey near Guadalcanal in the South Pacific. Suddenly, the USS Wasp and Hornet aircraft carrier formations escorted 6 transport ships full of US Marines and men appeared...
After the U.S. army seized Guadalcanal under Japanese occupation, it continued to send troops to support. The Japanese were very reluctant and decided to send a large number of submarines to attack the American ships that came to support Guadalcanal, and the I-19 was one of them.
At 9:50, the I-19, which was on submarine alert, suddenly caught the U.S. military's message in the direction of 40 degrees, but failed to obtain enemy information, so the captain Ofi Hayaichi did not take action.
At 10:50, the U.S. military formation suddenly entered the field of view of the I-19 periscope, and captain Kiri confirmed that the other side was a mobile unit containing an aircraft carrier. However, at this time, the distance between the two sides was 15 kilometers, and the American formation was marching into the distance, and the Japanese submarines did not have the opportunity to attack. Captain Mu li did not want to stop there, he ordered the submarine to quietly follow the American formation, waiting for the opportunity to attack!
After 15 minutes, at 11:05, through the observation of the periscope, the American formation changed course and sailed in the direction of 270 degrees. Kiri ordered the I-19 to continue on its way, as close as possible to the target.
At 11:23, the U.S. formation once again changed course and headed in the direction of 130 degrees. Kiri, who had studied sailing, immediately realized that if this continued, the submarine would be able to get the opportunity to launch a torpedo attack. He immediately changed the course to 40 degrees and took the initiative to sail towards the front of the American army.
At 11:43, the U.S. formation changed course again, and the azimuth angle became 50 degrees. At this time, the distance between the two sides was only 900 meters, and the I-19 encountered a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to attack. At the order of Mu Pear, six torpedoes flew towards the US aircraft carrier "Wasp"!
The I-19 uses the Type 95 submarine torpedo, a classic Type torpedo of the Japanese army during World War II. This torpedo uses 100% oxygen as the propulsion power, not only is the track inconspicuous and has a strong concealment, but also the warhead charge of 405 kg is so powerful that it usually takes only one to sink a destroyer!
Three of the six torpedoes hit the target, and was hit on the starboard side of the Wasp, next to the oil depot and ammunition depot. The Wasp exploded violently, and the spilled oil caused a fire on the hangar deck and the lower deck, and the high temperature generated by the gasoline fire caused the explosion of the right-chord anti-aircraft ammunition depot. The fire hose was blown out of order, and the fire was completely uncontrollable.
Soon, the Wasp began to tilt to the right, and the leaked gasoline ignited a raging fire on the surface of the sea. Half an hour later, there were 3 more petrol explosions. The explosion knocked out key parts of the carrier, destroyed the bridge, killed all the officers and men on the starboard side, and had to order the captain, Colonel Sherman, to abandon the ship. All the injured crew were put on a lifeboat, and the uninjured crew withdrew from behind.
The attack killed 193 of the Wasp crew and injured 367. After the evacuation of all the people, the incurable Wasp was torpedoed by the US destroyer "Lance dorn"...
Interestingly, although three of the six torpedoes were off target, two of them mistakenly hit the battleship North Carolina and the destroyer O'Brien of the Usable Hornet carrier formation.
It turned out that when the I-19 launched a torpedo attack on the Wasp, the Hornet formation was about 10 kilometers east of the Wasp. At that time, the destroyer "Mastin" in the formation found the attack torpedo and issued a flag on the bow of the ship warning the "Hornet" aircraft carrier formation to be careful of torpedo attacks. But the bulky battleship North Carolina failed to avoid the torpedo and was hit by a torpedo and injured by its hull. At the same time, the destroyer O'Brien was also mistakenly hit by a torpedo, and the bow part of the ship was seriously damaged. Although it later managed to return to a nearby base, where it underwent simple repairs, on its way back to the United States on October 19, it was so badly wounded that the ship broke and sank.
After the success, in order to avoid the attack of the American depth charge, Kiri ordered the submarine to quickly dive and withdraw, during which he constantly changed the way of sailing.
The US destroyer USS Mastin captured the sonar signal of the I-19 two minutes after the usable North Carolina exploded. After determining the target, the destroyer Mastin sailed out of the carrier formation sequence and fired 9 depth charges at the Japanese submarine, but its attack did not have the desired effect.
At the same time, the destroyers in the "Wasp" aircraft carrier formation were also busy searching for Japanese submarines, but in the end they did not return. Soon, the I-19 signal disappeared and the U.S. military never found it again...
A salvo of torpedoes severely damaged three classes of American warships – carriers, battleships, and destroyers – and eventually led to the sinking of two of them. Such achievements are unique in the history of torpedo warfare. Captain Kiri Hawichi was not only quickly promoted to Nakasa, but also received the "honor" of meeting Emperor Hirohito of Japan.
However, although the Japanese army achieved a huge victory in this attack, it could not fundamentally change the situation of the entire war. In the battle over Guadalcanal, Japan still ended in a fiasco!
