The sinking of a Japanese submarine off the coast of Australia in World War II was a rare event.
German surface raiders had first inflicted heavy damage with mines and guns, one of them sinking the cruiser HMAS Sydney. Then the Japanese arrived, using aircraft in massive bombing raids across the north, with fierce resistance from Allied fighters, radar, and anti-aircraft guns. Submarines joined in, sinking freighters off the coasts. But here the Allies were ineffective at returning fire.
A submarine was sunk off Darwin, and two of the midget raiders which attacked Sydney Harbour were sent to the seabed – that was all. A fight between two RAAF bombers, which actually caught a submarine on the surface – rather than attacking echoes and eddies – is unusual. The I-178, it seems, was surprised and then disabled so she could not dive.
She fought it out, with anti-aircraft guns against the bombers’ depth charges and machineguns. She lies, lost, with her crew of 88, somewhere north of Sydney.
This analytical account from Australia’s leading naval historian is full of detail about life, living, fighting, and dying in WWII submarines and in their most deadly opponent, the aerial bomber.
Non-fiction, Military History
About The Author
Military historian; public speaker, author of 25 books, and a retired naval officer, Dr Tom Lewis received the Order of Australian Medal (OAM) for services to naval history.
He served in the Iraq War in 2006 as an Intelligence analyst, and also in East Timor. He has worked as a divemaster, high school teacher, and journalist.
Tom is an expert on World War II, especially in the Pacific, but has also written in areas including medieval battle, and the reality of battlefield behaviour.
His latest books are Cyclone Warriors – the Armed Forces in Cyclone Tracy; The Secret Submarine, revealing the RAAF’s sinking of the Japanese I-178 off Sydney in 1943, and Australia’s Coastal War, which brings together all of the submarine, surface, and air attacks around WWII Australia.
The Sinking of HMAS Sydney has just won the 2024 Australian Naval Institute’s Commodore Sam Bateman Book Prize.
