31/05/2026
On the night of 31 May β 1 June 1942, 3 two-man crew Japanese midget submarines stealthily entered Sydney Harbour with the intention of attacking Allied shipping. The bold and audacious plan however, soon turned into a doomed tragedy. The first submarine became tangled and trapped in an anti-submarine boom net and the helpless crew determined on π«πͺπ£π’π¬πΆ (self-destruction). At 10.35 pm Lieutenant Kenshi Chuma set off a powerful demolition charge which split apart the front end of the submarine. The explosion was heard all over the adjacent Sydney suburbs causing hundreds of panicked people to come out onto the streets. Both sailors died instantly.
The second submarine, commanded by Sub Lieutenant Katsuhisa Ban fired its two torpedoes at the heavy cruiser USS ππ©πͺπ€π’π¨π°, from a position off Bradleyβs Head, at about 12.29am. Both missed and instead hit Garden Island, the second without exploding, but the first detonated against the sea wall beneath HMAS ππΆπ΅π΅π’π£πΆπ. The converted ferry had been taken over by the Royal Australian Navy as an accommodation ship. The explosion lifted the ππΆπ΅π΅π’π£πΆπout of the water and it quickly sank. Tragically, twenty-one sailors on board β 19 Australian and 2 British were killed. Ten more were wounded. That submarine then slipped out of the harbour and disappeared for 64 years. Its wreck was eventually discovered on the ocean floor off Newport on Sydneyβs northern beaches in 2006.
The third submarine, piloted by Lieutenant Keiu Matsuo was damaged whilst entering the harbour and found it was unable to fire its torpedoes. It was eventually tracked down and depth charged in Taylors Bay; to avoid capture, and rather than surrender, the Japanese crew suicided.
In the days that followed the two submarines were recovered from the harbour and the bodies of the 4 Japanese submariners were placed in the Sydney morgue. On the 9 June 1942, they were given a funeral with full military honours, their bodies cremated and their ashes sent back to Japan.
The civil and military authorities sold off small pieces of the submarines as souvenirs to aid the war effort. Souvenir models and postcards of the salvaged subs were also made - like this one in the Anzac Memorialβs collection.
Nineteen-year-old Neville Rice from North Sydney was one of the men sleeping aboard the ππΆπ΅π΅π’π£πΆπ on that fateful night. The explosion threw him into the cold black waters of the harbour. Rice was wounded but was to be one of the lucky ones; after he was rescued, he was wrapped in this blanket which is currently on display in our permanent gallery.
π·1: The wreck of the Australian Navy depot ship HMAS ππΆπ΅π΅π’π£πΆπ. AWM 106651.
π·2: A souvenir postcard of the midget submarine skippered by Lieutenant Keiu Matsuo raised from the floor of Taylors Bay in Sydney Harbour. Anzac Memorial Collection.
π·3: Anzac Memorial Collection.
