|
| IJN Built Captain |
Ship History Wartime History Sinking History LtCdr Kisagami sets up on this new threat and fires a torpedo with a shallow depth setting at the DELORAINE. At 1335, the corvette's starboard lookout reports "torpedo approaching, Green 100". The DELORAINE turns hard starboard at full speed and the torpedo passes ten feet astern. The corvette's ASDIC locates the I-124 about 2,500 yards ahead and creeping south. The DELORAINE drops pattern after pattern of depth charges. Then the bridge lookout reports a conning tower breaking surface. The DELORAINE rolls a depth charge close alongside of the I-124. The submarine submerges, but air bubbles and oil rise to the surface. The ALDEN and EDSALL arrive, accompanied by a Consolidated PBY and two American floatplanes, to find the DELORAINE dropping depth charges. The Americans patrol near the submarine contact but are unable to locate the oil slick because of a heavy rainsquall. The LITHGOW and the KATOOMBA patrol another area. The overpressures created during the depth charge attacks deform the thin seals of the I-124's hatch gaskets and she takes on water. She sinks with 80 crewmen in the western entrance of the Clarence Strait. After the action, the DELORAINE claims two, and the KATOOMBA one, submarine sunk. The I-124 is the first Japanese warship sunk by the Royal Australian Navy. Late, four Japanese mines, possibly laid by the I-124, wash ashore near Darwin on February 11, 1942. Wreckage
|
|
|