[prax22a]

They keep finding these things all over the place...

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — A Japanese World War II submarine wreck was found partially buried in the seabed of a Papua New Guinea harbor during a search for unexploded munitions, Australia's military said Friday.
Australian and New Zealand warships found it 180 feet (55 meters) underwater while working in the area to clear WWII-era explosives Thursday, a Defense Department statement said.
Simpson Harbor is in the town of Rabaul, which was a major Japanese military base on the northeast coast of the South Pacific nation.
The wreck is partially buried in sand but upright. Australian navy historians had concluded from underwater images that the wreck is Japanese, the statement said.
"The Royal Australian Navy will now work with Japanese authorities to assist in determining the wreck's identity," it said.
Gary Oakley, an Australian War Memorial curator and a former submariner, said it appeared to be a midget submarine crewed by one or two men.
"My best guess would be it's a Japanese midget submarine. It doesn't look big enough to be an ocean-going ... submarine," Oakley said after examining indistinct images of the wreck released by the Defense Department.
Japanese midget submarines were transported by ship or larger submarines and used covertly to infiltrate enemy targets including Pearl Harbor in Hawaii and Sydney Harbor.
Such a submarine could have been destroyed by an American air raid or naval bombardment or even scuttled by the Japanese toward the end of the war, Oakley said.

[kellyhound]

once saw a docu about these one or 2 manned subs.
crazy stuff
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midget_submarine#Japan

<iframe frameborder="0" width="560" height="420" src="http://www.dailymotion.com/embed/video/x4bj1y"></iframe>

<iframe frameborder="0" width="560" height="420" src="http://www.dailymotion.com/embed/video/x4bk82"></iframe>

[Faline]

The wreckage of the 66ft-long submarine was found 180ft underwater in Papua New Guinea:

An underwater image shows the stern section of the uncharted submarine wreck, which was found near a former Japanese wartime military base:

[azdesertsnake01]

Wow, that is something. So why were Japanese midgets attacking us in their subs anyhow? Lol!

[Oswald2001]

Originally Posted by azdesertsnake01 ↗

Wow, that is something. So why were Japanese midgets attacking us in their subs anyhow? Lol!

I'm not sure, but I think it was short sighted of them.

[Sharon]

Cool!! I love shipwrecks and the like. When I lived in Scotland, we saw a lot of subs around the upper West coast. Think there are a couple of submarine bases there, one is near the River Clyde. Very creepy looking things.

below is a Trident nuclear submarine.

[prax22a]

Originally Posted by azdesertsnake01 ↗

Wow, that is something. So why were Japanese midgets attacking us in their subs anyhow? Lol!

They were designed to be carried on a ship or a larger sub close to a harbor entrance. the midget sub would then be released and it would attack ships docked in the harbor. There haven't been many accounts of successful attacks by these little monsters.

[prax22a]

Originally Posted by Sharon. ↗

Cool!! I love shipwrecks and the like. When I lived in Scotland, we saw a lot of subs around the upper West coast. Think there are a couple of submarine bases there, one is near the River Clyde. Very creepy looking things.

below is a Trident nuclear submarine.

That's pretty cool! There's a Los Angeles class attack submarine named after my home town of Helena, MT (USS Helena). They're designed to hunt larger Nuclear Subs.

[azdesertsnake01]

Yes, thank you. I can use google, it was a joke!