Related Research Articles
USS Pampanito (SS-383/AGSS-383), a Balao-class submarine, is a United States Navy ship, the third named for the pompano fish. She completed six war patrols from 1944 to 1945 and served as a United States Naval Reserve training ship from 1960 to 1971. She is now a National Historic Landmark, preserved as a memorial and museum ship in the San Francisco Maritime National Park Association located at Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco, California.
USS Sealion (SS/SSP/ASSP/APSS/LPSS-315), a Balao-class submarine, was the second ship of the United States Navy to be named for the sea lion, any of several large, eared seals native to the Pacific. She is sometimes referred to as Sealion II, because her first skipper, Lieutenant Commander Eli Thomas Reich, was a veteran of the first Sealion (SS-195), serving on her when she was lost at the beginning of World War II. Sealion was the only US and Allied submarine responsible for the sinking of an enemy battleship during the Second World War.
Montevideo Maru was a merchant ship of the Empire of Japan. Launched in 1926, it was pressed into service as a military transport during World War II. It was sunk by the American submarine USS Sturgeon on 1 July 1942, drowning 1,054 people, mostly Australian prisoners of war and civilians who were being transported from Rabaul, the former Australian territory of New Guinea, to Hainan. The sinking is considered the worst maritime disaster in Australia's history. The wreck of the Montevideo Maru was discovered on 18 April 2023.
USS Shark (SS-314), a Balao-class submarine, was the sixth ship of the United States Navy to be named for the shark, a large marine predator.
Lisbon Maru (りすぼん丸) was a Japanese cargo liner built at Yokohama in 1920 for a Japanese shipping line. During World War II, the ship was requisitioned by the Japanese Army and turned into an armed troopship. On her final voyage, Lisbon Maru was being used to transport prisoners of war between Hong Kong and Japan when it was torpedoed by the submarine USS Grouper on 1 October 1942. Over 800 British POWs died in the sinking, either by drowning or being shot by Japanese soldiers as they attempted to escape from the sinking ship. Approximately 380 British POWs were rescued by nearby Chinese fishermen, but were soon recaptured by the Japanese. The remaining 644 POWs were salvaged by nearby Japanese naval vessels from the water and taken back into captivity.
USS Queenfish (SS/AGSS-393), was a Balao-class submarine, the first ship of the United States Navy to be named for the queenfish, a small food fish found off the Pacific coast of North America.
Vice Admiral Eli Thomas Reich was a highly decorated United States Navy officer and World War II submarine commander — the only one to sink a battleship during the war. He is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.
The Japanese raiders in the Indian Ocean were those vessels used by the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) during the Second World War to pursue its war on Allied commerce in that theatre. Possessing a powerful fleet of warships, prior to the start of World War II, the IJN had strategically planned to fight a war of fleet actions, and as a consequence delegated few resources to raiding merchant vessels. Nevertheless, in 1940, two passenger-cargo vessels – Aikoku Maru and Hōkoku Maru – of the Osaka Shipping Line were requisitioned for conversion to armed merchant cruisers (AMC)s, in anticipation of the likely thrust southward by the Japanese. These vessels were subsequently used as merchant raiders attacking Allied commercial shipping along vital sea lanes of communication between Australia and the Middle East. Using their comprehensive armament and speed to their advantage, the raiders experienced a brief period of success. Japanese raiding in the Indian Ocean largely ceased by the end of 1942 after an action with a Dutch vessel, the Ondina and a Royal Indian Navy corvette, HMIS Bengal in which the Hōkoku Maru was sunk.
A hell ship is a ship with extremely inhumane living conditions or with a reputation for cruelty among the crew. It now generally refers to the ships used by the Imperial Japanese Navy and Imperial Japanese Army to transport Allied prisoners of war (POWs) and rōmusha out of the Philippines, the Dutch East Indies, Hong Kong, and Singapore in World War II. These POWs were taken to the Japanese Islands, Formosa, Manchukuo, Korea, the Moluccas, Sumatra, Burma, or Siam to be used as forced labor.
Arisan Maru was a 6,886 GRT Type 2A freighter constructed in 1944 during World War II and was one of Imperial Japan's hell ships. The vessel, named for a mountain on Taiwan, was initially used as a troop transport. The vessel was then turned over for use for the transportation of prisoners of war (POWs) from the Philippines to Manchuria, China or Japan. On October 24, 1944, the ship was torpedoed by an American submarine and sank. Of the 1,781 POWs aboard, all of them escaped the sinking ship but were not rescued by the Japanese. In the end, only nine of the prisoners survived the sinking.
Shin'yō Maru was a cargo steamship that was built in 1894, had a fifty-year career under successive British, Australian, Chinese and Greek owners, was captured by Japan in the Second World War, and sunk by a United States Navy submarine in 1944.
Ōryoku Maru was a Japanese passenger cargo ship which was commissioned by the Imperial Japanese Navy during World War II as a troop transport and prisoner of war (POW) transport ship. Japanese POW transport ships are often referred to as hell ships, due to their notoriously unpleasant conditions and the many deaths that occurred on board. In December 1944, the ship was bombed by American aircraft, killing 200 Allied POWs. Hundreds more died in the months that followed.
The Chichibu Maru (秩父丸) was a Japanese passenger ship which, renamed Kamakura Maru, was sunk during World War II, killing 2,035 soldiers and civilians on board.
The Hofuku Maru, briefly known as Taifuku Maru No. 31 during construction, was a Japanese Dai-ichi Taifuku Maru-class cargo ship, torpedoed and sunk on September 21, 1944 by US Navy carrier aircraft.
The Shin'yō Maru incident occurred in the Philippines on September 7, 1944, in the Pacific theater of World War II. In an attack on a Japanese convoy by the United States Navy submarine USS Paddle, 668 Allied prisoners of war were killed fighting their Japanese guards or killed when their ship, Shinyō Maru, was sunk. Only 82 Americans survived and were later rescued.
SS Rakuyo Maru (楽洋丸) was a passenger cargo ship built in 1921 by the Mitsubishi Shipbuilding & Engineering Company, Nagasaki for Nippon Yusen Kisen Kaisha. Serving as a troopship in World War II, the Rakuyō Maru was torpedoed and sunk by USS Sealion on 12 September 1944.
Charles Rowland Bromley "Rowley" Richards was an Australian Army medical officer who, as a prisoner of war during the Second World War, is credited with saving countless lives on the notorious Burma Railway where prisoners suffered and died under inhumane conditions. Journalist Andrew Denton described him as "as good a man as this country has produced".
Suez Maru was a Japanese passenger and cargo steamship that was built in 1919, used as a hell ship, and sunk in 1943. The submarine USS Bonefish sank her when she was carrying 548 Allied prisoners of war (PoWs). Many drowned, but many others were shot by the Japanese.
Lieutenant Colonel Reginald William James Newton, was an Australian Army officer noted for his leadership while in Japanese prisoner of war camps during the Second World War. He became well known among Australian military circles, where he was affectionately known as "Roaring Reggie."
References
- 1 2 "Winston Ide". Australia / Players & Officials. ESPN Scrum.com. Retrieved 4 March 2012.
- 1 2 3 4 Daniel, Lane (24 April 2011). "Hero's 'enemy' connections". Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 5 May 2012.
- 1 2 "Rakuyo Maru". Roll of Honour. Retrieved 5 March 2012.
- ↑ Greg, Growden (5 March 2012). "Read it and weep: real heroes found on the shelves, not on the field". Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 5 March 2012.
