Japanese submarine I-5

The Japanese submarine I-5 was the first aircraft-carrying submarine in the Imperial Japanese Navy and operated during World War II. The sole member of the Junsen 1 Mod. (巡潜一型改) class, the submarine was launched on 19 June 1931 at Kobe by Kawasaki. A single Yokosuka E6Y floatplane was carried. A catapult was fitted in 1938 but the capability to operate the aircraft was removed two years later and the boat was reconfigured as an attack submarine. By that time, I-5 had already seen wartime service.

In 1937, submarine served in the Second Sino-Japanese War as part of the Third Fleet patrolling the coasts of China, a role that the vessel reprised off the coast of the Hawaiian Islands during the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. The submarine subsequently supported the Dutch East Indies campaign and was then transferred to the Indian Ocean, where the boat sank a merchant vessel. After successfully supporting the Aleutian Islands campaign, the submarine was re-equipped as a transport to supply distant Japanese garrisons in 1943. The vessel, equipped with a Daihatsu-class landing craft, ran supplies as far afield as New Britain. I-5 went missing in 1944 and is believed to have been sunk by the United States Navy destroyer escort USS Wyman near the Mariana Islands with no survivors on 19 July.