JAPANS SUBMARINE C1 design and midget submarine

[aukepalmhof]

This stamp issued by Grenadines of St Vincent in 1991 shows us a submarine, the Japanese C1 design of which five were built and who were used to carry the midget sub. from Japan to Hawaii on 07 December 1941. On the stern is lashed the midget sub. Both the submarine and the midget sub. Have not been identified.

The C1 design was developed from the Type KD6. These carried no aircraft, but they did have fittings for carrying a midget submarine aft. This was later modified to accommodate a 46-foot daihatsu barge. Their eight torpedo tubes were all forward and were served via two separate torpedo rooms, one above the other.
These five boats carried the five midget submarines that were deployed to assist the attack on Pearl Harbor. All of the midgets were lost, and only one actually entered the harbor. It fired its two torpedoes at a seaplane tender and a destroyer, but hit neither, and was promptly sunk by the destroyer.
On 30 May 1942, I-16 and I-20 launched midgets outside the British naval base at Diego Suarez, Madagascar. A third midget, from I-18, failed to launch. The midget from I-20 damaged battleship HMS Ramillies with one of his torpedoes and sank a tanker with the other. Neither midget survived, although the crew of the midget from I-20 made it ashore, only to be shot and killed by British soldiers. An attack on Sydney Harbor the very next evening achieved nothing, and the five midgets employed, including those from I-22 and I-24, were all lost. I-16, I-20, and I-24 were used to launch midgets off Guadalcanal on 7 November 1942, when the midget from I-20 damaged a transport, but again none of the midgets survived the attack.
None of the C1 Type survived the war. The famed destroyer escort USS England sank I-16 northeast of the Solomons on 19 May 1944. I-18 was lost to the destroyer USS Fletcher and an aircraft from cruiser USS Helena south of the Solomons on 11 February 1943. I-20 was an operational loss in the New Hebrides on 10 October 1943, while I-22 was lost operationally in the Solomons on 1 October 1942. Patrol Craft PC-487 sank I-24 off Attu in the Aleutians 11 June 1943.

Units 5 (none survived)
Ships I-16, I-18, I-20, I-22, I-24
Year(s) Completed 1940-1941
Displacement 2,554 tons / 3,561 tons
Dimensions 358.5 ft x 30 ft x 17.5 ft
Machinery 2 diesels: 12,400 hp
electric motors: 2,000 hp
Speed 23.5 knots / 8 knots
Range 14,000 nm @ 16 knots
Armament 8x533mm TT fwd + 1x14cm/50 cal. (20 torpedoes).
Max. Depth 100 m (330 feet)
Crew 101 officers and men

http://www.combinedfleet.com/type_c1.htm