BABY "SUB"

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 304, 24 December 1941, Page 6

BABY "SUB"

JAP. "MOSQUITOES"

CREW OF THREE MEN

Two-man submarines have been mentioned In the cable news sincc the war was extended to the Pacific, the Japanese Navy being credited with the use of these submarine "mosquitoes." Possibly the messages were meant to refer to three-man submarines which Popular Mechanics featured in a recent issue. That journal said: "From Germany came the 'pocket' battleship, from Japan comes the 'pocket' submarine.

A fleet of baby submarines that carrv a three-man crew and can dive to trie amazing depth of 1800 feet in reported in production in Japan. Only 18 feet from bow to stern they are minnows compared with the French Navy's 361 ft 'Surcouf/ the world's largest submersible ship. While the conventional submarine may cost from £400,000 to £800,000, Japan's deep-diving babies are understood to cost no more than £1000! They have a displacement of 100 tons, operating on storage batteries submerged, and driven by a 100-horse-power Diesel engine on the surface, with a top speed of, about 36 knots and a 600-mile cruising range.

"A dive of 1800 feet where the pressure per square inch would be around 800 pounds is unprecedented in naval annals. The ordinarv modern submarine has a bottom of about 300 feet and the French 'Surcouf' is understood to be capable of plunging 400 ft. The pocket submarine carries two torpedoes. Its captain is stationed amidship at the periscope. The engineer sits aft and the helmsman stands forward at the wheel, watching through narrow window slots beneath the armoured conning tower."