Small but armed. Indonesian experimental midget submarine

This model sank during the first test at sea, being designed and built by a German submarine in a steelworks (rather than a designer) without professional tools was nevertheless an impressive feat.

Focus He translated a new text about Indonesia’s midget submarine written by Stein Mitzer and Just Olimans.

The German submarine served on Gruppe Monsun, a group of German and Italian submarines operating in the Pacific and Indian Oceans during World War II. German and Italian forces moved from bases in Japanese-controlled Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia (then the Dutch East Indies), and this area of ​​operation remained the only area where they actually fought in the same theater. Following Germany’s surrender on May 8, 1945, the four German and two Italian submarines remaining in service were captured by the Japanese and their crews were arrested in Indonesia or used to operate submarines now controlled by Japan.

Important

Interestingly, Japan once captured the Italian submarines Luigi Torelli and Commandante Cappellini. This happened after the surrender of Italy in September 1943. After that, the boats were transferred to the German Kriegsmarine in Sabang, Indonesia, where the operation of the submarines continued with a mixed German-Italian crew. After Germany’s surrender, these two boats (along with four German boats) fell into Japanese hands, now under the control of a mixed German-Italian-Japanese crew! Luigi Torelli and Comandante Cappellini They were the only naval vessels to serve in all three major Axis powers during World War II.

While the two Italian submarines served primarily as transports between the Dutch East Indies and Japan and were eventually captured by American forces at Japanese Kobe in 1945, German U-boats U-181, U-195, U-219 and U-boats 862 captured. It was captured by the British in Singapore and the Dutch East Indies. U-181 (I-501) and U-862 (I-502) in Singapore surrendered to the British, who later destroyed both boats in the Strait of Malacca. U-195 (I-506) and U-219 (I-505) were captured by British forces in Jakarta and Surabaya (Dutch East Indies) respectively in August 1945. In 1946, the Triple Sea Commission forced the Dutch to decommission both submarines.

The crews of U-181 and U-862 captured in Singapore returned to Germany after the end of the war or settled permanently in Wales after being detained. Remaining in the Dutch East Indies in 1945, some members of the U-195 and U-219 crews and other Kriegsmarine members chose a completely different path in life. Some surrendered and cooperated with the British, while others offered service to the Republic of Indonesia to continue fighting colonial British and Dutch forces during the Indonesian National Revolution. It included the designer and builder of a midget submarine at a steel mill in Yogyakarta on the island of Java.

The steel structure was discovered after Dutch troops captured Yogyakarta, the temporary capital of the Republic of Indonesia, during Operation Raven (Operatie Kraai), the second of two successful military offensives aimed at capturing the Republic’s capital and its leaders. Interestingly, during the first offensive Operatie Product (Operation Product) in August 1947, the Dutch captured not only Indonesian President Sukarno and Vice President Mohammad Hatta, but also five Germans in East Java. Four of them served on the U-195/I-506, and the fifth German (Indonesian native) went to work as dog trainers in the Indonesian troops.

As rough and inoperable as the boat’s design, the Midget U-Boat was the first submarine to be assembled and operated in Indonesia. Unfortunately, little is known about the interior of the boat, except that the design parameters did not prevent it from sinking on the first voyage. Later, the steel monster was lifted from the bottom and sent back to the steel mill for repairs and structural improvement – ​​a process roughly interrupted by the Dutch. Had the submarine been repaired in time, it would likely have worked against the unsuspecting destroyers of the Dutch fleet, which was maintaining a naval blockade around the Republic-controlled area on the island of Java.

For this purpose, a midget submarine can be armed with a single torpedo under the hull. These were most likely Japanese Type 93 or Type 95 torpedoes, or even the 450 mm Type 91 aircraft torpedo mod. When the 2nd Imperial Japanese Navy captured or recaptured their former bases, a large part of them fell into the hands of Indonesian forces. The torpedo had to be steered through a large periscope located in the tilting fence. Judging by the large round windows in the submersible’s control tower and the size of the periscope, at least part of the sub must have come out of the water during operations, making it technically semi-submersible.

The final design could be called very crude at best and bears not the slightest resemblance to any dwarf submarine type of that era. A scale model of the submarine, made before the design began, appears to have been heavily inspired by the German Biber midget submarine. It is not known whether this is pure coincidence, or whether a German submarine had the opportunity to study Biber before being sent to the Dutch East Indies and then used it as the basis for its own project. Serial production of the Bieber began in the summer of 1944, a few months before the U-195 and U-216 sailed to the Dutch East Indies. Both submarines carried plans for dismantled V-2 missiles and modern weapons, possibly including the Bieber plans. Ultimately, the most plausible theory is that the resemblance is just a coincidence.

This story has it all: a German midget submarine armed with Japanese torpedoes, designed by a German submarine in the Dutch East Indies and armed with Japanese torpedoes after Nazi Germany and Japan chose to fight alongside Indonesian freedom fighters after the surrender. Although the submarine was doomed from the start for its rough design and poor build quality, it is an important testament to the growing determination of the Indonesians to stop at nothing to fight the Dutch forces. In 1962, Indonesia made another attempt to sink the Dutch flagship as part of Operation Trikora, Indonesia’s plan to capture Dutch New Guinea.

By this time, Indonesia already had modern weapons from the Soviet Union. The plan, which was eventually canceled, required the Dutch aircraft carrier HNLMS Karel Doorman to be sunk by Tu-16KS-1 heavy bombers armed with KS-1 Kometa anti-ship missiles. That Indonesian military history is so little known in the West is unfair for the many interesting facts it contains – and the author would be happy to share them.