Yokosuka E14Y "Glen"

 

Glen Floatplanes over the US.

 

Posted By: Jerry <j.wes@worldnet.att.net>

Date: Sunday, 4 February 2001, at 4:17 p.m.

 

One of my favorite episodes of the Second World War is the bombing of the Oregon forests by a catapult launched Glen Floatplane. I know its almost impossible to recreate the markings used during this historic mission, but I was wondering. Does anyone have any idea of how this aircraft might have been marked? I've seen all sorts of conjectures in different publications. None of them give any kind of idea of how the Glen from the I-25 was marked during this time period. Also is there any information as to what the eventual fate of this historic aircraft and of the sub that launched it?

Posted By: Dan Salamone <heroncreek@qwest.net>

Date: Sunday, 4 February 2001, at 6:28 p.m.

 

In Response To: Glen Floatplanes over the US. (Jerry)

 

There is a small note in "Warships of the IJN, 1869-1945" that says the I-25 was launched June 8th 1940 and missing from September 20th 1943. No mention of how she was lost.....

On a side note, a few of the same class subs were rebuilt as Kaiten carriers, I-36 carrying six of them and I-37 four. Others in the class had the catapult replaced by an extra 5.5in. gun. Hope this was useful.

Re: Glen Floatplanes over the US.

 

Posted By: William Blado <wblad@msn.com>

Date: Sunday, 4 February 2001, at 10:31 p.m.

 

In Response To: Glen Floatplanes over the US. (Jerry)

 

During the Pearl Harbor attack, I-25 was part of a patrol line north of Oahu to track down any US ships escaping to the north, and to intercept any counterattacks against the carrier striking force.

Warrant Flying Officer Nobuo Fujita, with his enlisted air crewman, flew the only bombing missions against the continental US. He was conscripted into the Japanese Navy in 1932 and soon took flight instruction. He served in submarines I-23 and I-25 before becoming an instructor during the remainder of the war.

In August, 1942, the I-25 arrived in waters off Cape Blanco, Oregon. With Commander Meiji Tagami in command, the large submarine surfaced and crewmen scrambled onto the deck, opened the hangar, and rapidly fitted wings, stabilizers, rudder, and floats to the Yokosuka E14Y Glen reconnaissance aircraft. A pair of special incendiary bombs were attached to wing racks, and Warrant Flying Officer Nobuo Fujita and Petty Officer Shoji Okuda climber into the cockpit and were catapulted into the air. The floatplane flew inland some fifty miles, and the fliers released the two firebombs over the Oregon forests. The plane returned to come down safely on the water alongside the I-25, and was taken back on board the submarine. A second firebombing mission was flown. These were the first air attacks ever made against the continental United States.

The I-25 continued to operate off the West Coast, with Commander Tagami sinking two American freighters and damaging another. With one torpedo remaining, Tagami was preparing to conclude his patrol when, on 11 October, he detected two submarines traveling on the surface some 500 miles west of Seattle, Washington. Tagami fired his last torpedo and one of the submarines exploded. He thought that he had sunk and American submarine. His victim, however, was the Soviet submarine L-16. At that time the US was at war with Japan and Germany while the Soviet Union was at war with Germany but not Japan. The Soviets decided to send the submarines L-15 and L-16 from Vladivostok on the Siberian coast to the Baltic Sea where they could be used against the Germans. The craft were making the voyage via the Aleutians, San Francisco, and the Panama Canal. There were no survivors from the sunken L-16.

The Soviets - ever paranoid - stated at the time that the "cruel and foul blow" against the L-16 could have been struck by either a US submarine of a submarine belonging to Japan - "which was neutral as far as we were concerned."

The I-25 was sunk by USS Patterson (DD392) off New Hebrides Islands, Solomons, 3 September, 1943.