SE73508 JAPANESE NAVY SUBMARINE I-58 LATE W/KAITEN

The I-58 was a Japanese submarine whose keel was laid in December 1942, launched in June 1943, and commissioned in the Imperial Japanese Navy in September 1944. The length of the ship at the time of launching was 109 m, width 9.3 m, and underwater displacement - 3,690 tons. The maximum surface speed of the I-58 was 17.8 knots on the surface. The main armament was six 533 mm torpedo tubes with 19 spare torpedoes, and the secondary armament was two 25 mm cannons. At the time of launching, I-58 also had a hangar and a catapult for 1 seaplane, but in mid-1945 these elements were dismantled. The I-58 was an ocean-going B-3 submarine, and at the time of launching it was equipped with electronic equipment that is rich by Japanese standards: airspace and sea surface search radars. It also had the ability to carry Kaiten suicide torpedoes. The most famous combat action I-58 was the sinking of the heavy cruiser USS Indianapolis, which was on its return voyage to Guam after the elements of the Little Boy atomic bomb had been delivered from San Francisco to the Tinian base in Tinian. The sinking took place on the night of July 29-30, 1945. The I-58, as one of the few Japanese submarines, survived the war in the Pacific and was sunk in the area of the Goto Islands only on April 1, 1946.