Japanese Submarine I-124 - Service History - Pacific War Begins

Pacific War Begins

In November 1941 I-124, under the command of Lt.Cdr. Kishigami Koichi, sailed in company with I-123 for the Philippines. She received the coded signal "Climb Mount Niitaka" on 2 December 1941, notifying her that hostilities would commence on 8 December (Japan time). On that day I-124 laid mines off Manila Bay, Philippines, before proceeding to the seas south-west of Lubang Island.

On 10 December she torpedoed and sank the 1,523-ton British freighter Hareldawns off western Luzon. I-124 then sailed to Cam Ranh Bay, before returning to the Philippines to patrol Manila Bay in late December, before proceeding south via the Mindoro Strait into the Sulu Sea. On 31 December 1941 she arrived at Davao, to join the rest of Submarine Squadron 6 (I-121, I-122 and I-123) and their flagship, the 6,600-ton submarine tender Chogei.

SubRon 6 was then assigned to operate in the Flores Sea and the Torres Strait north of Australia. On 10 January they departed Davao, and the same day, one of the mines laid by I-124 the previous month in Manila Bay sank the 1,976-ton Panamanian-flagged freighter Daylight. On 12 January I-124 laid 39 mines in the Joseph Bonaparte Gulf, and on the 14th she sighted the American heavy cruiser Houston (CA-30) and two destroyers, but was unable to gain an attack position.

On 16 January I-124 laid 27 mines near Darwin where over 40 Allied ships were in the harbor. On the 19th she sent a radio signal reporting the arrival at Darwin of three transports escorted by a destroyer. The signal was intercepted by Allied codebreakers who warned that a Japanese submarine was operating near Darwin.