>Lyndaship at 13:27, 3 November 2021

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{{Other ships|Japanese ship Matsu}}

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|Ship country=Japan
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|Ship name=''I-29''
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|Ship laid down=29 September 1940
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|Ship commissioned=27 February 1942
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|Ship nickname=Matsu
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|Ship fate=Sunk by {{USS|Sawfish|SS-276|6}}, 26 July 1944

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|Ship class=[[Type B1 submarine|Type B1]] [[submarine]]
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|Ship displacement=*2,584 tons standard
*3,654 tons submerged
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|Ship length={{convert|108.5|m|ft|abbr=on}}
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|Ship speed={{convert|23|kn|km/h|0}} surface, {{convert|8|kn|km/h|0}} submerged
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|Ship complement=101 officers and men
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|Ship armament=6 × 533 mm [[torpedo tube]]s forward (17 [[torpedo]]es) + 1 × [[14 cm/40 11th Year Type naval gun]]<ref name="campbell">Campbell, John ''Naval Weapons of World War Two'' {{ISBN|0-87021-459-4}} p.191</ref>
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'''''I-29''''', code-named ''Matsu'' (松, Japanese for "pine tree"), was a [[B1 type submarine]] of the [[Imperial Japanese Navy]] used during [[World War II]] on two secret missions with Germany. She was sunk while returning from the second mission.

==Construction==
This was the most numerous class of Japanese submarines – almost 20 were built, of which only one ({{ship|Japanese submarine|I-36||2}}) survived. These boats were fast, had a long range, and carried a seaplane, launched via a forward [[Aircraft catapult#Interwar and World War II|catapult]].

The keel of ''I-29'' was laid on 29 September 1940 at the [[Yokosuka Naval Arsenal]], and she was commissioned on 27 February 1942, into the 14th submarine squadron under the command of Lieutenant Commander (later Captain) Izu Juichi (伊豆壽市).

==Yanagi missions==
The [[Yanagi missions]] fell under the [[Tripartite Pact]] which provided for an exchange of personnel, [[strategic material]]s and manufactured goods between Germany, Italy and Japan. Initially, cargo ships were used to make the exchanges, but when that was no longer possible submarines were used.

Few submarines attempted this trans-oceanic voyage during World War II: {{ship|Japanese submarine|I-30||2}} (April 1942), {{ship|Japanese submarine|I-8||2}} (June 1943), {{ship|Japanese submarine|I-34||2}} (October 1943) and the German submarines {{GS|U-511||2}} (August 1943) and {{GS|U-234||2}} (May 1945). Of these, ''I-30'' was sunk by a [[naval mine|mine]] and ''I-34'' by the British submarine {{HMS|Taurus|P399|6}}. Later, the famous Japanese submarine {{ship|Japanese submarine|I-52|1943|2}} would also share their fate. In 1945 the German ''U-234'' had completed part of the voyage to Japan when news of Germany's surrender to the [[Allies of World War II|Allies]] was announced, and the submarine was intercepted and boarded off [[Newfoundland]]; this marked the end of the German-Japanese submarine exchanges.

==Service history==

===Missions===
''I-29'' participated in missions supporting the [[Operation Mo]] attack on [[Port Moresby]] in [[New Guinea]], and also in the futile search for [[Task Force 16]] which had launched the [[Doolittle Raid]] on [[Tokyo]] in April 1942.

''I-29''{{'}}s reconnaissance of [[Sydney harbour]] on 23 May 1942 resulted in the [[attack on Sydney Harbour]] by Japanese [[midget submarine]]

===First exchange===
[[File:19430428 japanese submarine crew i-29.png|thumb|Netaji [[Subhas Chandra Bose]], Second left, first line and his adjutant, [[Abid Hasan (diplomat)|Abid Hasan]] far left with the members of crew of ''I-29'' after the exchange with ''U-180'' (April 28, 1943)]]

In April 1943, ''I-29'' was tasked with a ''Yanagi'' mission. She was commanded by Captain Masao Teraoka, submarine flotilla commander – indicating the importance of the trip. She left [[Penang]] with a cargo that included two tons of gold as payment from Japan for weapons technology. She met ''Fregattenkapitän'' Werner Musenberg's Type IXD-1 U-boat, {{GS|U-180||2}} on 26 April 1943 off the coast of [[Mozambique]].

During this meeting that lasted over 12 hours due to bad weather, the two submarines swapped several important passengers. ''U-180'' transferred Netaji [[Subhas Chandra Bose]], a leader of the [[Indian Independence Movement]] who was going from [[Berlin]] to Tokyo, and his adjutant, [[Abid Hasan (diplomat)|Abid Hasan]]. ''I-29'' in turn transferred two Japanese Navy personnel who were to study U-boat building techniques in Germany: Commander (later posthumously promoted to rear admiral) [[Emi Tetsushiro]], and Lieutenant Commander (later posthumously promoted to captain) [[Tomonaga Hideo]] (who was later connected with the German submarine {{GS|U-234||2}}). Both submarines returned safely to their bases. ''I-29'' landed her important passengers at [[Sabang, Indonesia|Sabang]] on [[Weh Island]], located to the north of [[Sumatra]] on 6 May 1943, instead of [[Penang]], to avoid detection by British spies. Bose and Hasan's transfer is the only known record of a civilian transfer between two submarines of two different navies in World War II.

===Second exchange===
On December 17, 1943, ''I-29'' was dispatched on a second ''Yanagi'' mission, this time to [[Lorient]], [[France]], under star Japanese submarine Commander [[Takakazu Kinashi]] Japan's highest-scoring submarine "ace".<ref group=note>Commanding {{ship|Japanese submarine|I-19||2}}, Kinashi torpedoed and sank the U.S. [[aircraft carrier]] {{USS|Wasp|CV-7|2}} and damaged both the [[battleship]] {{USS|North Carolina|BB-55|2}} and the [[destroyer]] {{USS|O'Brien|DD-415|2}} during the same attack. ''O'Brien'' later sank as a result of the torpedo damage and ''North Carolina'' was under repair at Pearl Harbor until November 16, 1942</ref> At [[Singapore]] she was loaded with 80 tons of raw rubber, 80 tons of [[tungsten]], 50 tons of [[tin]], two tons of [[zinc]], and three tons of [[quinine]], [[opium]] and coffee.

In spite of Allied [[Ultra]] decrypts of her mission, ''I-29'' managed to reach Lorient on 11 March 1944. On her way she was refueled twice by German vessels. Also, she had three close brushes with Allied aircraft tracking her signals. One of which was an attack by six [[RAF]] aircraft including two [[De Havilland Mosquito#Fighter-bombers|Mosquito F Mk. XVIII fighters]] equipped with 57 mm cannon from [[No. 248 Squadron RAF]] off Cape Peñas, [[Bay of Biscay]], at {{coord|43.66|N|5.85|W|}}, and the protection provided to her during the entry into Lorient by the Luftwaffe's only long range maritime fighter unit, ''V Gruppe/[[Kampfgeschwader 40]]'' using [[Junkers Ju 88]]s. At least one Ju 88 was shot down by British fighters over Spanish waters. The ''Kriegsmarine'' also provided an escort of two destroyers and two torpedo boats.<ref>Goss 1997, pp. 153–154</ref>

She left Lorient 16 April 1944 for the long voyage home with a cargo of 18 passengers, torpedo boat engines, [[Enigma machine|Enigma]] coding machines, radar components, a [[Walter HWK 509]]A rocket engine, and [[Messerschmitt Me 163]] and [[Messerschmitt Me 262]] blueprints for the development of the rocket plane [[Mitsubishi J8M]]. After an uneventful trip she arrived at Singapore on 14 July 1944, disembarking her passengers, though not the cargo.

===Sinking===
On her way back to [[Kure, Hiroshima|Kure]], Japan, she was attacked at [[Balintang Channel]], [[Luzon Strait]], near the [[Philippines]] by Commander W. D. Wilkins' "Wildcats" submarine task force: {{USS|Tilefish|SS-307|2}}, {{USS|Rock|SS-274|2}} and {{USS|Sawfish|SS-276|2}}. From using [[Ultra]] signal intelligence. During the evening of 26 July 1944, she was spotted by ''Sawfish'' which fired four torpedoes at her. Three hit ''I-29'', which sank immediately at {{coord|20.10|N|121.55|E|}}. Only one of her crewmen survived. Kinashi was honored by a rare two-rank posthumous promotion to rear admiral.

==Media==
* ''I-29'' is the submarine shown in the 2004 Bollywood film [[Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose: The Forgotten Hero]] where Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose travels with the German submarine U-180 around the Cape of Good Hope to the southeast of Madagascar, where he is transferred to the I-29, greeted aboard by her captain Masao Teraoka and continues the rest of the journey to Imperial Japan.

==Notes==
{{reflist|group=note}}

{{reflist}}

==Sources==
*{{cite book |last1=Milanovich |first1=Kathrin |editor1-last=Jordan |editor1-first=John |title=Warship 2021 |date=2021 |publisher=Osprey Publishing |location=Oxford, UK |isbn=978-1-4728-4779-9 |chapter=The IJN Submarines of the I 15 Class|pages=29–43}}
* Paterson, Lawrence. ''Hitler's Grey Wolves: U-Boats in the Indian Ocean.'', Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 2004, {{ISBN|1-85367-615-2}}, 287 pgs. Chapter II

==Further reading==
* Miller, Vernon. ''Analysis of Japanese Submarine Losses to Allied Submarines in World War II'', Merriam Press Original Publication, 36 pgs.
* Boyd, Carl and Akihiko Yoshida. ''The Japanese Submarine Force and World War II.'', Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 1995
* Jenkins, David. ''Battle Surface!: Japan's Submarine War Against Australia, 1942-44''. Milsons Point and London: Random House, 1992
* Goss, Chris. ''Bloody Biscay: The Story of the Luftwaffe's Only Long Range Maritime Fighter Unit, V Gruppe/Kampfgeschwader 40, and its Adversaries, 1942-1944''. Manchester, England: Crecy Publishing, 1997, {{ISBN|0-947554-62-9}}, 254 pgs.
*Clay Blair" Hitler's U-Boats War The Hunted 1942–1945

==External links==
* [http://piquetjm.free.fr/I28/I29/Maquette%20Mario%20Grima%20du%20I-29.html Photo of 1/48 scale replica of I-29]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20071009023905/http://rc-sub.com/resources/modelpics/BClass/Bclassblueprints.jpg Blueprints of B-1 class Japanese submarine]
* [http://www.rddesigns.com/ww2/sawfish.html Accomplishments of the USS Sawfish]
* [http://piquetjm.ns5-wistee.fr/cybervillage/viewtopic.php?t=365 I-29 pictures of crew stay in France taken by Kriegsmarine. Album stolen by a GI in Lorient in 1945 and found c. 1994 in an Hawaii flea market (French)courtesy www.lazaloeil.com]
*[http://piquetjm.ns5-wistee.fr/cybervillage/viewtopic.php?t=949 View a 1942 German propaganda newsreel on arrival in Lorient and stay of I-30 which inaugurated the Yanagi missions to Europe Courtesy www.lazaloeil.com]


{{B1 type submarine}}
{{July 1944 shipwrecks}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:I-029}}
[[Category:Type B1 submarines]]
[[Category:Ships built by Yokosuka Naval Arsenal]]
[[Category:1940 ships]]
[[Category:World War II submarines of Japan]]
[[Category:Japanese submarines lost during World War II]]
[[Category:Shipwrecks in the Luzon Strait]]
[[Category:World War II shipwrecks in the Pacific Ocean]]
[[Category:Subhas Chandra Bose]]
[[Category:Ships sunk by American submarines]]
[[Category:Maritime incidents in July 1944]]
[[Category:Submarines sunk by submarines]]

Japanese submarine I-29 - Revision history

>Lyndaship at 13:27, 3 November 2021