BC Cook
“AS we flew low over the coast of Colombia, headed for the locks of the Panama Canal, we knew we had not been detected. We had a perfect view of the canal as the sun rose, a good omen that assured us of success. The other pilots followed me as I began my bombing run. We completely destroyed the Gatun locks with our bombs before crashing our aircraft into the pumping stations, rendering the Panama Canal useless for more than a year. Because our mission was such a success our capture was of no consequence. That moment the war turned in Japan’s favor.”
Perhaps the only reason we do not have a diary entry like the one above is because the Second World War ended before the Japanese could carry out the mission. It was a daring idea that was so crazy it just might work. Knowing that the United States relied heavily on the Panama Canal to move ships and supplies between the Atlantic and PacificOceans, the Japanese developed a plan to attack and disable the canal, which would buy them time to regain the initiative that had been lost at the battle of Midway.
Japan designed the largest submarines ever built, the I-400 class, each carrying three aircraft in a watertight hangar. They were over 400 feet long had a sailing range of one and a half times around the world. They would cross the Pacific and surface somewhere along the coast of South America below the canal, where they would launch their planes. The planes would fly north and strike the vulnerable Gatun locks on the Atlantic side, and some even envisioned the aircraft slamming into vital installations, increasing the damage done by bombs alone. It was estimated that the canal could be rendered useless for six months or more.
The plan may have worked. By 1943 the American military devoted fewer resources to guarding the Panama Canal, assuming the Axis powers could no longer seriously threaten it. The war shifted to other areas and the canal zone was far behind the lines. With the end of the war in Europe, the allies would start a massive transfer of men and equipment from the European war zone to the Pacific, using the Panama Canal as the most direct route. If the canal became inoperable, allied forces would have to make the long voyage around South America, buying Japan much-needed time.
As the war drew to a close, the Japanese commanders realized that destroying the Panama Canal would no longer turn the tide that was building against them. Alas, the atomic bombs brought a surprise ending to the war, so the mission was cancelled.
The end of the war did not bring an end to the remarkable story of the I-400s. The vessels were taken into custody by an American naval officer named John McCain Sr. Once word got out that the Japanese had built submarine aircraft carriers everyone wanted to see them. The Soviet Union sent a delegation to Hawaii to study the subs, and since the Americans did not want them to see them, they took the subs out to sea and sank them in deep water, denying the Russians a chance to investigate.
This ended the history of some of the most interesting, creative, and deadly ships of the Second World War. It is hard to imagine what would have happened if they had carried out their mission to destroy the Panama Canal.
Dr. BC Cook taught history for thirty years and is a director and Pacific historian at Sealark Exploration (sealarkexploration.org). He currently lives in Hawaii.
