Researchers find 2 Japanese supersubmarines sunk by U.S. at end of WWII
U.S. researchers said Thursday they have located the remains of two high-tech Japanese submarines that were scuttled by the U.S. Navy off Hawaii in 1946 to prevent the technology from falling into the hands of the Soviet Union at the beginning of the Cold War.
One of the vessels was the largest non-nuclear sub ever built and had the ability to sail 1 1/2 times around the globe without refueling. Called the I-14, the behemoth was 400 feet long, 40 feet high, and carried a crew of 144. It was designed to launch two folding-wing bombers on kamikaze missions against U.S. cities such as New York and Washington, D.C., although the end of the war prevented such attacks.
The second was an attack submarine called the I-201, whose design foreshadowed the sleek submarines of today, and which was thought to be twice as fast as any American subs. It never fought in the war either.
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One of the vessels was the largest non-nuclear sub ever built and had the ability to sail 1 1/2 times around the globe without refueling. Called the I-14, the behemoth was 400 feet long, 40 feet high, and carried a crew of 144. It was designed to launch two folding-wing bombers on kamikaze missions against U.S. cities such as New York and Washington, D.C., although the end of the war prevented such attacks.
The second was an attack submarine called the I-201, whose design foreshadowed the sleek submarines of today, and which was thought to be twice as fast as any American subs. It never fought in the war either.