WISDOM of PCSHOGUN
"A CV Hunters dream, A carrier that can sink itself over and over again"

As early as World War I, while aircraft design was still in its relative infancy,
submarine designs were drawn up and built that included the ability to launch and
recover aircraft, not while underwater, however. Suprisingly, it was not just the
Japanese who built these submarines, although their's were some of the more
famous.

BRITIAN: The HMS M Class Submarine.
The British M class submarines were very large for the time at 296 feet long (90 m).
They were designed to operate as part of the main fleet of battleships and so
needed to be fast. The M2 was laid down at Vickers shipyard at Barrow in Furness in
1916, and launched in 1919. Like the other members of her class she was armed
with a single 12-inch gun as well as torpedo tubes. The Mark IX gun was taken from
spares held for the Formidable class of battleships. The Submarine carried a small
sea plane for use as an artillery spotter and was winched back aboard via a small
crane.


FRANCE: Submarine SURCOF
Built October, 1929 and commissioned in 1934 (5 years?) and was the largest
submarine in the world at the start of World War II. It was designed as an
underwater cruiser and carried two 8-inch guns fed from a 600 round magazine.
Surcof also carried a small observation plane in a aft mounted hanger and was
armed with several antiair machineguns and AA cannon. Surcouf was also equiped
with a 16-foot motorboat, and contained a cargo compartment with fittings to
restrain 40 prisoners. The submarine's fuel tanks were very large; enough fuel for a
10,000 nautical-mile range and supplies for 90-day patrols could be carried



ITALY: Submarine Ettore Fieramosca
ITALY designed and began construction on a submarine equiped with a water proof
hanger and small observation aircraft. However. The idea was dropped and the
hanger removed prior to the Ettore Fieramosca entering service.

JAPAN: Several Designs

B1 Class:
The B1 type (I-15 series) were the most numerous type of submarines of the
Imperial Japanese Navy during World War II. 20 of this class were built, beginning
with the I-15, which became the name of the series. These submarines were fast,
had a very long range, and carried a single Yokosuka E14Y seaplane, located in a
hangar in front of the conning tower, which was launched by a catapult.

The series was rather successful, especially at the beginning of the war. The I-26, in
1942, crippled the aircraft carrier USS Saratoga. The I-19, on 15 September 1942,
fired six torpedoes at the aircraft carrier USS Wasp, two of which hit the carrier and
destroyed it, with the remaining torpedoes damaging the battleship USS North
Carolina. The I-25 conducted the only aerial bombings ever on the continental
United States in September 1942.


AM Type (I-13 and I-14)
The AM (A Modified) type submarine was a large seaplane-carrying submarine, with
a hangar space for 2 aircraft. These giant submarines were originally of the A2 type,
but their design was revised after construction started so that they could carry a
second aircraft. The seaplanes were to be the Aichi M6A1 bomber carrying 800 kg
bombs.

The range and speed of these submarines was remarkable (21,000 nm at 16 knots),
but their underwater performance was compromised, making them easy targets. The
I-13 was sunk on 16 July 1945. The I-14 surrendered at sea at the end of the war,
and was later scrapped.

SENTOKU Type: (I-400, I-401, I-402)
The I-400 class submarine displaced 6,500 tons and was over 400 feet (120 m) long,
three times the size of ordinary submarines. It had a longer, watertight hanger on
the bow for three Seiran aircraft, a small torpedo/bomber, which had to be ditched
at the end of the mission as the Sentoku had no ability to recover them. An
interesting note was that Japan planned to use these submarines to torpedo the
locks on the Panama Canal to prevent the transfer of American naval assets from
the Atlantic to the Pacific. However, this did not happen. The Sentoku class
submarines remained the largest calss submarine ever built until the 1960's when
Ballistic missile submarines were constructed.



GERMANY: Type XI U-Cruiser
The Kriegsmarine started development of submarines capable of launching aircraft
and ordered 4 very large "cruiser" U-boats in early 1939. They were intended to
carry a single Arado Ar 231 aircraft, but were canceled at the outbreak of war.