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The Vanished Golden Submarine’s Final Journey and Fate

Khalid Elhassan December 8, 2024 14 min

I-52 - Underwater wreckage of the Golden Submarine — Underwater wreckage of the Golden Submarine. National Geographic

2. The End of the Golden Submarine

I-52 - Blocks of raw rubber recovered from the site of the I-52's sinking — Blocks of raw rubber recovered from the site of the I-52’s sinking. Quora

At about 11:45PM, Taylor dropped two depth bombs, set to explode at 25 feet. Both he and his plane’s gunner saw one bomb explode almost directly on the starboard or right side of the I-52, and another explode about 75 feet away. Two minutes later, Taylor followed that up with an acoustic torpedo, and shortly thereafter, the sonobuoys detected the sounds of an explosion, followed by those of a hull breaking up. Per Taylor, it was: “a crackling and crunching noise … the sounds of a tin can being crushed“. The next day, the area was covered by an oil slick of about 15 square miles. There was also considerable other evidence of the submarine’s demise, such as blocks of floating raw rubber, as well as bits of flesh, including a foot in a sandal with Japanese characters. The I-52’s months-long journey had come to an end.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.