I-122, laid down in 1925 as Submarine No. 49 and known as I-22 from her construction period until June 1938, was an of the Imperial Japanese Navy that served during the Second Sino-Japanese War and World War II. During the latter conflict, she conducted operations in support of the Japanese invasion of Malaya, the Japanese invasion of the Philippines, the bombing of Darwin, the Battle of Midway, the Guadalcanal campaign, the Battle of the Eastern Solomons, and the New Guinea campaign. From mid-1943 she served as a training ship in Japanese waters until she was sunk during a training voyage in 1945.
After she was renumbered I-122 in 1938, the number I-22 was assigned to a later submarine which also served during World War II.
Design
I-122 and her three sister ships — I-21 (later renumbered ), I-23 (later renumbered ), and I-24 (later renumbered ) — were the Imperial Japanese Navy's only submarine minelayers.Boyd and Yoshida, p. 18. They were known in Japan by the type name , commonly shortened to .
The Kiraisen-type design was based on that of the Imperial German Navy minelaying submarine , a Type UB III submarine which was the largest of seven German submarines transferred to Japan as a war reparation after World War I and served in the Imperial Japanese Navy as O-6 from 1920 to 1921. Like UB-125, the Kiraisen-type submarines had two diesel engines producing a combined , could carry 42 mines, and had four torpedo tubes and a single deck gun — a gun on the Japanese submarines in contrast to a gun on UB-125. Compared to the German submarine, they were larger — longer, and displacing 220 more tons on the surface and 300 more tons submerged — and had a longer range both on the surface — farther at — and submerged — farther at . They were slower than UB-125 both surfaced and submerged, carried two fewer torpedoes, and had could dive to only compared to for UB-125.
Construction and commissioning Built by Kawasaki at Kobe, Japan, I-122 was laid down on 28 February 1925 with the name Submarine No. 49, She was both launched and renumbered I-22 on 8 November 1926, and was completed and commissioned on 28 October 1928.
Service history 1928–1937 Upon commissioning, I-22 was assigned to either the Kure Naval District or the Yokosuka Naval District, according to different sources. On 1 November 1927, she was assigned to Submarine Division 9 in the Yokosuka Defense Division in the Yokosuka Naval District. She was reassigned directly to the Kure Naval District on 1 December 1930, and then to Submarine Division 13 in the district on 15 October 1931. The division was assigned to the Kure Defense Division in the Kure Naval District on 1 October 1932. On 16 March 1933, I-22 was decommissioned and placed in reserve at Kure.
Submarine Division 13 was reassigned directly to the Kure Naval District on 15 November 1933, and that day I-22 was recommissioned and returned to active service in the division. The division began duty in the Kure Defense Squadron in the Kure Naval District on 15 November 1935, and I-22 was decommissioned and again placed in reserve, either on that day or on 16 February 1936, according to different sources.
I-22 again was recommissioned on 30 June 1936, rejoining Submarine Division 13 in the Kure Her sister ship I-24 had suffered damage to her main ballast tanks while I-23 and I-24 were conducting deep diving trials on 25 May 1935, so all four submarines of her class had their designed diving depth limited to in 1936.
Second Sino-Japanese War On 7 July 1937 the first day of the Marco Polo Bridge Incident took place, beginning the Second Sino-Japanese War. In September 1937, Submarine Division 13, consisting of I-22 and her sister ship I-21, moved to a base at Qingdao, China, and began operations in northern Chinese waters as part of a Japanese blockade of China.Boyd and Yoshida, p. 54. On 1 December 1937, Submarine Division 13 was assigned to Submarine Squadron 3 in the 4th Fleet, a component of the Combined Fleet, and in December 1937, the light cruiser arrived at Qingdao to serve as flagship of Submarine Squadron 3, which consisted of I-21, I-22, I-23, and I-24.
I-21 and I-22 received orders to provide distant cover for Kuma while she put a Special Naval Landing Force (SNLF) unit ashore off Chefoo, China, on 3 February 1938, but both submarines experienced engine trouble that prevented them from getting underway to support Kuma. The two submarines had greater success on 22 March 1938, when they departed Port Arthur, Manchukuo, and each of them landed 15 Shanghai-based SNLF troops on Liukung Island in Weihai Bay before they returned to Port Arthur.
I-22 was renumbered I-122 on 1 June 1938, freeing up her previous number for the new submarine , which was launched later that year. On 20 June 1938, I-122 was placed in the Second Reserve in the Kure Naval District. In an effort to reduce international tensions over the conflict in China, Japan withdrew its submarines from Chinese waters in December 1938.
1939–1941 While in reserve, I-122 and all three of her sister ships — which, like her, had been renumbered on 1 June 1938, I-21 becoming I-121, I-23 becoming I-123, and I-24 becoming I-124 — underwent conversion into submarine tankers. Retaining their minelaying and torpedo capabilities, they were modified so that each of them could carry 15 tons of aviation gasoline with which to refuel flying boats, allowing the flying boats to extend their range during reconnaissance and bombing missions by meeting the submarines in harbors and lagoons for more fuel.
On 1 May 1940, I-122 returned to active service in Submarine Division 13, which was assigned that day to Submarine Squadron 5 in the 4th Fleet. She soon began a lengthy training cruise in the Pacific in company with I-121, I-123, and I-124: The four submarines departed Sasebo, Japan, on 16 May 1940 and visited the waters of the Caroline Islands, Marshall Islands, and Mariana Islands before concluding their cruise with their arrival at Yokosuka, Japan, on 22 September 1940.
From 30 January to 4 February 1941, I-121 temporarily substituted for I-122 as flagship of Submarine Division 13 while I-122 was in reserve at Kure. On 1 May 1941, Submarine Division 13 was resubordinated to the 6th Fleet. By 15 October 1941, the division was a part of Submarine Squadron 3 in the 3rd Fleet.
As the Imperial Japanese Navy began to deploy in November 1941 in preparation for the impending conflict in the Pacific, I-122 arrived at Samah on Hainan Island in China in company with the submarine tender on 27 November 1941. On 1 December 1941, I-122 departed Samah along with I-121 to begin what would become her first war patrol. She received the message "Climb Mount Niitaka 1208" () from the Combined Fleet on 2 December 1941, indicating that the Pacific campaign against the Allies would commence on 8 December 1941 Japan time (7 December 1941 on the other side of the International Date Line in Hawaii, where the war would begin with Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor). On 7 December 1941, the last day in East Asia before the attack, I-122 laid forty-two Type 88 Mark 1 mines northeast of Singapore, then took up her patrol station off the eastern entrance of Johore Strait along with I-121.
World War II First war patrol
In East Asia, the Pacific campaign began on 8 December 1941, and Japanese forces invaded British Malaya to the north of Singapore that day. Reassigned to the Southern Submarine Force on 12 December 1941, I-122 called at Cam Ranh Bay in Japanese-occupied French Indochina on 14 December 1941. On 18 December 1941, she got back underway to support the Japanese invasion of the Philippines, bound for the vicinity of Davao on Mindanao in company with I-124. Reassigned to Submarine Group "A" along with I-121, I-123, and I-124 on 26 December 1941, she concluded her patrol on 31 December 1941 when she and I-124 arrival at newly captured Davao where Chōgei serviced I-121, I-122, and I-124.
Second war patrol On 5 January 1942, I-122 set out from Davao to begin her second war patrol, bound for the waters off northern Australia. On 15 January 1942, she laid 30 mines in the western approaches to the Torres Strait. On 20 January 1942, she began patrolling in the northern approaches to the Dundas Strait between Melville Island and the Cobourg Peninsula in the Northern Territory on the mainland of Australia. She concluded her patrol by arriving at Davao with I-121 on 30 January 1942.
Third war patrol In company with I-121, I-122 departed Davao on 9 February 1942 to begin her third war patrol, with a primary mission of supporting an impending air attack on Port Darwin by planes from the aircraft carriers of Vice Admiral Chuichi Nagumo′s Mobile Force and land-based aircraft from both Ambon and Kendari, Celebes. She parted company with I-121 on 13 February 1942; while I-121 headed south, I-122 proceeded southeast to patrol west of the Torres Strait, where she had orders to attack Allied shipping as well as serve as a picket to watch for Allied ship movements. On 19 February 1942 at 09:57, 188 aircraft from Nagumo's carriers began an attack on Darwin's harbor, airfields, and urban center, followed by a raid by 55 Japanese land-based bombers. The attack sank eight ships, damaged nine ships, destroyed 15 aircraft, and damaged structures in the city itself.
On 24 February 1942, I-122 sighted an Allied patrol vessel at 06:00, then departed her patrol station at 12:00. She proceeded to Staring Bay on the Southeast Peninsula of Celebes just southeast of Kendari, where she and I-121 concluded their patrols on 28 February 1942 with a rendezvous with Chōgei, which had moved there from Davao.
March–May 1942
After replenishing and refueling, I-122 departed Staring Bay in company with I-121 on 10 March 1942 — the same day they were subordinated directly to the headquarters of the Combined Fleet — and headed for Japan. They arrived at Kure on 21 March 1942, and I-122 began a refit there. While they were there, Submarine Squadron 6 was disbanded on 10 April 1942, and their division — Submarine Division 13 — was subordinated directly to the 6th Fleet.
Midway operation With her refit complete, I-122 departed Kure bound for Kwajalein on 13 May 1942, deploying to participate in Operation MI, the planned Japanese invasion of Midway Atoll. She reached Kwajalein on 23 May 1942. After a brief stay, she got back underway to support a preliminary phase of the Midway operation, Operation K-2, which called for I-121 and I-123 to refuel two Kawanishi H8K (Allied reporting name "Emily") flying boats at the French Frigate Shoals in the Northwest Hawaiian Islands so that the two aircraft could conduct a reconnaissance flight over Pearl Harbor. was to patrol south of Pearl Harbor to rescue the crews of the aircraft if they were shot down, and the submarine was to operate east of the French Frigate Shoals to provide a radio beacon for the planes. When I-123 arrived off the French Frigate Shoals in late May 1942, however, she found the U.S. Navy seaplane tenders and already operating flying boats there, and Operation K-2 was cancelled.
The Battle of Midway began on 4 June 1942, and on 5 June 1942 I-122 reached a new patrol area to support the other Japanese forces involved in it. The battle ended on 7 June 1942 in a decisive Japanese defeat, and the Japanese cancelled the invasion of Midway. I-122 concluded her patrol with her arrival at Kwajalein in company with I-121 and I-123 on 25 June 1942. She got back underway before the end of June to return to Japan, arriving at Yokosuka probably in July 1942.
Guadalcanal campaign
Toward the end of I-122′s stay at Yokosuka, Submarine Division 13 was resubordinated to Submarine Squadron 7 in the 8th Fleet on 14 July 1942. On 16 July 1942, she departed Yokosuka to take up her new duties, calling at Truk from 24 to 31 July 1942 and arriving at Rabaul on New Britain on 4 August 1942.