Japanese submarine I-54 (1926)

On the day of her commissioning, I-54 was attached to the Kure Naval District[7][8] and assigned to Submarine Division 18, initially as a reserve unit. Her division was assigned to Submarine Squadron 2 in the 2nd Fleet, a component of the Combined Fleet, on 1 February 1928.[7] The division was reassigned to the Kure Defense Division in the Kure Naval District on 1 December 1930,[7] then began a second tour as a component of Submarine Squadron 2 in the 2nd Fleet on 1 December 1931.[7]

At 13:48 on 10 February 1932 I-54 suffered a steering failure off Kyushu 20 nautical miles (37 km; 23 mi) south of Odate Shima lighthouse while Submarine Division 18 was on maneuvers during fleet exercises.[7][8][9][10] She reduced speed to 3 knots (5.6 km/h; 3.5 mph), but nonetheless accidentally rammed her sister ship I-55,[7][8] suffering damage to her bow and flooding a compartment.[8] She proceeded to Sasebo for repairs, which took one week.[8] After their completion, she was placed in reserve at Kure, Japan.[8]

Between February 1932 and mid-November 1934, Submarine Division 18 was reassigned to the Kure Defense Division in the Kure Naval District on 15 November 1933[7] and then to the Kure Defense Squadron in the Kure Naval District on 11 December 1933[7] before it began a third tour of duty in Submarine Squadron 2 in the 2nd Fleet on 1 February 1934.[7] Sources disagree on I-54′s activities during this period. According to one source, she remained in reserve at Kure throughout the period.[8] Another source credits her with taking part in Submarine Division 18's activities, including getting underway from Sasebo on 29 June 1933 with the other submarines of her squadron (I-53 and I-55 of her division and Submarine Division 19's I-56, I-57 and I-58) for a training cruise off China and Mako in the Pescadores Islands which the submarines concluded with their arrival at Takao, Formosa, on 5 July 1933;[7][9][11][12][13][14] departing Takao on 13 July 1933 with the other five submarines and again training in Chinese waters before arriving in Tokyo Bay on 21 August 1933;[7][9][11][12][13][14] and taking part with the other five submarines in a fleet review at Yokohama, Japan, on 25 August 1933.[7][9][11][12][13][14]

Sources agree that I-54 was back in active service by mid-November 1934.[8] On 7 February 1935 I-54 got underway from Sasebo along with the other eight submarines of Submarine Squadron 2 — I-53, I-55, I-59, I-60, I-61, I-62, I-63, and I-64 — for a training cruise in the Kuril Islands.[7][11][9][15][16][17][18][19][20] The cruise concluded with their arrival at Sukumo Bay on 25 February 1935.[7][11][9][15][16][17][18][19][20] The nine submarines departed Sasebo on 29 March 1935 to train in Chinese waters, returning to Sasebo on 4 April 1935.[7][11][9][15][16][17][18][19][20] On 15 November 1935, Submarine Division 18 transferred from Submarine Squadron 2 in the 2nd Fleet to Submarine Squadron 1 in the 1st Fleet, also a component of the Combined Fleet.[7]

I-54 again was in reserve at Kure from 1 November 1937 to late March 1938.[8] On 15 November 1939, Submarine Division 18 was reassigned to Submarine Squadron 4 in the 1st Fleet,[7] and on 15 November 1940 Submarine Squadron 4 was reassigned directly to the Combined Fleet.[7] Placed in reserve at Kure again on 19 June 1941,[8] I-54 returned to active service on 15 August 1941.[8]

As the Japanese armed forces mobilized for an offensive against Allied forces that would begin the Pacific campaign of World War II, I-53, I-54, and I-55 departed Kure, Japan, on 20 November 1941 bound for Samah on China's Hainan Island, which they reached on 26 November 1941.[11] All three submarines departed Samah on 1 December 1941 to take up positions to support the offensive.[7][21] Tasked with supporting Operation E, the Japanese invasion of British Malaya, I-54 arrived in her patrol area in the South China Sea north of the Anambas Islands on 7 December 1941.[8]

Hostilities began in East Asia on 8 December 1941 (which was 7 December on the other side of the International Date Line in Hawaii, where the war began with the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor).[8] That day, I-54 and I-55 formed a patrol line in the South China Sea northeast of Kuantan, British Malaya.[8] Early on the morning of 14 December 1941, the Dutch submarine HNLMS K XII detected faint propeller noises, apparently those of a Japanese submarine, and at 11:00 sighted a periscope to starboard.[22] K XII steered to ram the Japanese submarine and had closed to 100 meters (109 yd) of where lookouts had last seen the periscope when the periscope reappeared to port.[22] K XII abandoned the ramming attempt and broke contact by zigzagging away.[22] The submarine she attempted to ram probably was I-54, I-55, or I-56.[8][10][22] I-54 concluded her patrol with her arrival at Cam Ranh Bay in Japanese-occupied French Indochina on 20 December 1941.[8]

On 29 December 1941, I-54 departed Cam Ranh Bay in company with I-53, both submarines beginning their second war patrols.[8][21] They both suffered damage in a heavy gale and had to return to Cam Ranh Bay Bay for repairs.[8][21] With them complete, I-54 got underway from Cam Ranh Bay again on 12 January 1942 to begin her second patrol, assigned a patrol area off Singapore.[8] The patrol was uneventful, and she returned to Cam Ranh Bay on 21 January 1942.[8]

I-54 departed Cam Ranh Bay in company with I-53 on 7 February 1942 to begin her third war patrol, tasked to provide distant support during the Japanese invasion of Java in the Netherlands East Indies.[8] After Japanese forces successfully landed on Java and Sumatra on 8 February 1942, I-54 received orders on 9 February to move to the Anambas Islands area.[8] On 13 February, she transited the Lombok Strait between Bali and Lombok and entered the Indian Ocean to occupy a new patrol area at the southern entrance to the Sunda Strait between Java and Sumatra,[8] and she also reportedly transited the Lombok Strait into the Indian Ocean on 20 February 1942.[8] While south of the Sunda Strait on 24 February, she conducted an unsuccessful torpedo attack against an unidentified Allied tanker, failing to score any hits.[8] On 1 March 1942, she fired torpedoes at a large, unidentified Allied cargo ship off Tjilatjap, Java, but they all missed astern.[8] I-54 claimed two Allied merchant ships sunk during her patrol, and some sources assert that she sank the Dutch 8,806-gross register ton motor cargo ship Modjokerto in the 1 March 1942 attack, while others credit the submarine I-58 with sinking Modjokerto, and still others assert that the log of the Japanese heavy cruiser Chikuma and distress signals transmitted by Modjokerto indicate that Chikuma sank her.[8][23] I-54′s patrol ended with her arrival at Staring Bay on the coast of the Celebes on 7 March 1942.[8]

On 10 March 1942, Submarine Squadron 4 was disbanded, and I-53, I-54, and I-55 were reassigned to the Kure Guard Unit in the Kure Naval District in Japan.[8] They departed Staring Bay on 16 March 1942 and I-54 arrived at Kure, Japan, on 25 March 1942.[8][10][21] They thereafter served as a training ships.[8][10][21] On 20 May 1942, I-54 was renumbered I-154.[8] On 1 December 1943, she became the flagship of Submarine Division 18.[8]

In December 1943, I-154 was repainted in a new experimental camouflage paint scheme — dark grey with a bluish hue, applied to her hull and the sides of her conning tower — inspired by that of the German submarine U-511, which Japan had purchased in 1943 and redesignated Ro-500.[8] I-154 participated in the first stage of Submarine School tests of the paint scheme in the Iyo Nada in the Seto Inland Sea on 5 January 1944[8] to determine the effectiveness of the paint against detection by surface warships and aircraft. The experiment was a failure.

On 31 January 1944, Submarine Division 18 was disbanded[8] and I-154 was decommissioned and placed in reserve.[8] She remained docked without a crew at Kure for the remainder of World War II, which ended with the cessation of hostilities on 15 August 1945.[8] The Japanese removed her from the navy list on 20 November 1945.[8]

• Bagnasco, Erminio (1977). Submarines of World War Two. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0-87021-962-6.
• Boyd, Carl (2002). The Japanese Submarine Force in World War II. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 1-55750-015-0.
• Carpenter, Dorr B. & Polmar, Norman (1986). Submarines of the Imperial Japanese Navy 1904–1945. London: Conway Maritime Press. ISBN 0-85177-396-6.
• Chesneau, Roger, ed. (1980). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1922–1946. Greenwich, UK: Conway Maritime Press. ISBN 0-85177-146-7.
• Hackett, Bob & Kingsepp, Sander (2013). "IJN Submarine I-154: Tabular Record of Movement". combinedfleet.com. Retrieved 20 January 2022.
• Evans, David C. (1997). Kaigun: Strategy, Tactics, and Technology in the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1887–1941. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0-87021-192-7.
• Jentschura, Hansgeorg; Jung, Dieter & Mickel, Peter (1977). Warships of the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1869–1945. Annapolis, Maryland: United States Naval Institute. ISBN 0-87021-893-X.
• Stille, Mark (2007). Imperial Japanese Navy Submarines 1941–45. Osprey. ISBN 978-1846030901.