Japanese submarine Ro-111

Upon commissioning, Ro-111 was attached to the Sasebo Naval District and assigned to Submarine Squadron 11 for workups.[4] She was reassigned to Submarine Squadron 7 in the 8th Fleet on 20 July 1944.[4] On 31 October 1943, she was reassigned to Submarine Division 30 in Submarine Squadron 8 in the Southwest Area Fleet, and she departed Kure, Japan, that day bound for Penang in Japanese-occupied British Malaya. After stopping briefly at Singapore on 16 November 1943, she got back underway the same day and reached Penang on 23 November 1943.[4]

On 6 December 1943, Ro-111 departed Penang to begin her first war patrol, tasked with raiding Allied shipping in the Bay of Bengal.[4] She attacked a British 12-ship convoy — Convoy JC.30, bound from Swansea, Wales, to Calcutta, India — in the Indian Ocean southeast of Madras, India, on 23 December 1943.[4] One of her torpedoes struck the British 7,934-gross register ton armed cargo ship Peshawur, which was carrying 150 tons of explosives and 1,983 tons of general cargo.[4] Peshawur′s crew — some of whom mistakenly believed an acoustic homing torpedo had hit their ship rather the wakeless Type 95 torpedo Ro-111 actually had fired — abandoned ship, and she sank two hours later.[4] The Royal Australian Navy corvette HMAS Ipswich rescued all 134 men on board Peshawur, including her entire crew of 125 and all nine of her embarked gunners.[4] Ro-111 returned to Penang on 29 December 1943.[4]

Ro-111 put to sea on 7 January 1944 to conduct her second war patrol, tasked with laying mines off Ceylon and then attacking Allied shipping east of Ceylon.[4] She laid ten Type 3 mines off Elephant Rock, Ceylon, on 10 January 1944, but otherwise her patrol was uneventful, and she returned to Penang in late January 1944.[4]

Ro-111 again left Penang on 1 February 1944 to begin her third war patrol.[4] She again operated off Ceylon, laying more mines and patrolling Ceylonese waters without finding any targets.[4] She returned to Penang on 23 February 1944.[4]

At 09:00 on 7 March 1944, Ro-111 put to sea from Penang to begin her fourth war patrol, briefly escorted by the torpedo boats T-451 and T-455 as she departed.[4] Her patrol area was in the vicinity of Calcutta.[4] In the Bay of Bengal on 16 March 1944, she attacked Convoy HC.44, which was on a voyage from Calcutta to Chittagong, India.[4] One of her torpedoes hit the Indian armed troopship El Madina, which was serving as the flagship of the convoy vice-commodore, at 20°54′N 089°36′E.[4][5] El Madina broke in two, and her stern section sank a few minutes after the torpedo hit.[4] While the rest of the convoy and all of its escorts left the area, the Norwegian steamer Lovstad stopped her engines and rescued El Madina′s 814 survivors.[4] The other 380 men aboard El Madina lost their lives.[4][5]

Ro-111 arrived at Penang on 25 March 1944, the same day that Submarine Division 30 was disbanded and she was reassigned to Submarine Division 51 in Submarine Squadron 7 in the Southwest Area Fleet.[4] On 28 March 1944 she departed Penang and set course for Sasebo, Japan, which she reached in April 1944 for a refit and an overhaul.[4]

After completion of the work, Ro-111 departed Sasebo on 22 May 1944 bound for Truk, which she reached on 31 May 1944.[4] She got underway from Truk on 4 June 1944 for her fifth war patrol, headed for a patrol area north of the Admiralty Islands.[4] On 7 June 1944, she transmitted a routine situation report while operating as part of a submarine patrol line south of Truk.[4] The Japanese never heard from her again.[4]

On 10 June 1944, an FM-2 Wildcat fighter from the United States Navy escort aircraft carrier USS Hoggatt Bay (CVE-75) sighted an oil slick on the surface north of the Admiralty Islands which betrayed the presence of Ro-111.[4] The destroyer USS Taylor (DD-468), operating as part of a hunter-killer group centered around Hoggatt Bay, left Hoggatt Bay′s screen to investigate.[4] Taylor made sonar contact on Ro-111 and dropped two patterns of depth charges, but her crew observed no sign that they had damaged the submarine.[4] After Taylor stopped to improve her sonar contact, Ro-111 surfaced about 2,500 yards (2,300 m) ahead of her at 15:41.[4] Taylor opened fire on Ro-111 with her 5-inch (127 mm) guns and 40 mm antiaircraft guns, scoring at least ten 5-inch (127 mm) and numerous 40 mm hits on her conning tower.[4] Ro-111 sank by the stern at 15:46 at 00°26′N 149°16′E, leaving behind an oil slick.[4] Taylor then passed through the oil slick and dropped a pattern of depth charges, and at 15:58 her crew heard two large underwater explosions which marked the end of Ro-111.[4]

On 13 June 1944, Ro-111 was ordered to proceed to a new patrol area south of Guam at flank speed,[4] and on 22 June 1944 Submarine Division 51 headquarters ordered her to return to Truk,[4] but she acknowledged neither order. On 12 July 1944, the Imperial Japanese Navy declared Ro-111 to be presumed lost with all 54 men on board.[4] The Japanese struck her from the Navy list on 10 August 1944.[4]