Actually, these subs weren't "considered" to have been used in the attacks on mainland America, they are confirmed to have been used. Warrant Flying Officer Nobuo Fujita, flew a float plane off IJN submarine I-25 (I-25 was also the same sub that shelled Fort Stevens with its deck gun). There is even a small memorial at the sight he bombed in Oregon, and, Fujitasan actually made several trips to Oregon. He planted a sapling in the crater his bomb made, and he gave his 400-year old familty sword to the town of Brookings, where the bombs landed. I am saddened to say that Fujitasan passed away back in 1997 and his ashes are buried at the bomb site. His obituary actually made the Chicago Tribune.

The subs themselves were an very good idea. The concept behind them was for the sub to surface and launch the spotter plane. The plane would then search out targets of opportunity and then return to the sub, which would then proceed to the target. This would greatly increase the effectiveness of the subs. Unfortunately, as Mahross pointed out, there were too few made. And, quite a few of them were converted to carry Kaiten suicide subs.

I-58 was ironically one of the most successful in that she sank the USS Indianapolis using her torpedoes. I-19 fired the torpedoes that crippled and doomed the USS Wasp and severely damaged the USS North Carolina and sunk the USS O'Brien. All three of these ships were hit from a single spread of torpedoes!

Just imagine how succesful the German wolf packs could have been if they had had planes with which to search out enemy convoys!


Here's a link to some info on the attacks:
http://history1900s.about.com/librar...esebombwc1.htm

Here is a link to a great IJN sight with some more information on these subs:
http://www.combinedfleet.com/ss.htm

[ 19. June 2005, 12:52 AM: Message edited by: Mock26 ]