In the final two years of
World War II, the
Imperial Japanese Army constructed transport submarines — officially the
Type 3 submergence transport vehicle and known to the Japanese Army as the Maru Yu — with which to supply its isolated island garrisons in the
Pacific. Only submarines of the Yu I type were completed and saw service. The Yu I type was produced in four subclasses, each produced by a different manufacturer and differing primarily in the design of their
conning towers and details of their gun armament. None carried
torpedoes or had
torpedo tubes. Yu 14 was a unit of the Yu 1 subclass.[1]
The
Hitachi Kasado Works (Hitachi Kasado Seisakujo) at
Kudamatsu,
Japan, constructed Yu 14.[1][2] Records of the details of the construction of Yu 14 have not been discovered, but the earlier Yu I-type submarines were
laid down and
launched during the latter half of 1943 and entered service at the end of 1943 or early in 1944.[2][3]
Service history
Yu 14 spent her operational career in
Japanese home waters.[4] She was assigned to Detachment
Kuchinotsu, Transport Submarine Group, on 15 May 1945 and to Detachment Mikuriya in June 1945.[citation needed] Surviving records of the activities of Imperial Japanese Army submarines are fragmentary,[3][5] and no records have been discovered describing her specific activities in support of any particular operation.[2][4]
World War II ended with the
cessation of hostilities on 15 August 1945.Yu 14 surrendered to the
Allies later in August 1945.[2] She sank in a storm off the coast of Mikuriya in 1945[2] and subsequently was scrapped.[2]
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