Three Japanese midget submarines,believed to have been operating from a mother-ship somewhere off the Australian coast,entered Sydney Harbour late on Sunday night. One submarine fired two torpedoes,one of which hit and sank a Sydney ferry boat used as a depot.
Hundreds of people around the harbour heard the explosions and saw the searchlights which followed the location of the submarines in the harbour,and heard guns fired when the periscope of one of the submarines was spotted. The din was added to by the dropping of depth charges. The detonations shook houses and broke windows. Most people,however,thought that exercises were taking place. The explosion of the torpedo which sank the old ferry-boat was heard by people a mile away. Although muffled,the explosion was sufficiently violent to shake thousands of houses and blocks of flats along the waterfront.
Divers who reconnoitred the bed of the harbour yesterday discovered one submarine at rest in the slime. It was intact with one torpedo visible in its tube. A 2 1/2 inch steel hawser has been affixed to it. Naval authorities are anxious to take possession of one of the submarines,because,although they were used by the Japanese at Pearl Harbour,little is known by the Australian authorities of the craft and their capabilities.
Since dawn yesterday Allied aircraft have been scouring eastern Australian waters for the mother-ship but,so far as is known,no sign of an enemy vessel has been reported. The fact that the submarines appeared soon after the succession of stand-by warnings to Sydney A.R.P. personnel has led to a suggestion that the two might be related and that an enemy ship,standing well out to sea,might have been employing reconnaissance aircraft.
First news of the attempted raid was contained in the following special communique issued at General Headquarters,Melbourne,yesterday. It was:"In an attempted submarine raid on Sydney three enemy midget submarines are believed to have been destroyed,one by gunfire,two by depth charges. The enemy's attack was completely unsuccessful. Damage was confined to one small harbour vessel of no military value."
The daring of the submarines'crews has surprised observers,but it is pointed out that the Japanese in this war have shown a fatalistic determination to undertake seemingly impossible missions. Evidently they thought that they could imitate the feat of a German U-boat which entered Scapa Flow early in the war and sank the British battleship Royal Oak.
Sinking of the Kuttabul
The former ferry was at its moorings when the torpedo struck her under the stern,and wrecked the whole of the after-part. Within a few minutes the ferry had practically submerged. Only her upper deck remained above water. Shattered woodwork and broken glass tables,mixed with the
wreckage on the upper deck,which was half awash,showed the terrific force of the explosion.
An eye-witness who saw the explosion said:"I saw the whole ferry lift as though she were on the top of an enormous wave,and then settle down again sinking at the stern. I saw pieces of wood flying in the air. Half the steering wheel was blown away."
The sinking of the Kuttabul resulted in the deaths of nineteen Australian and two British sailors,with ten others injured. Two of the midget submarines were scuttled by the crews and recovered from Sydney Harbour. This fate of the third midget submarine was unknown until 2006,when amateur scuba divers discovered the wreck off Sydney's Bungan Head.