The 49 men strong crew was brought from Japan to Europe on board the Japanese submarine I-8, arriving at Brest on 31 August 1943, to go through a full German U-boat training lasting several months. The German Type IXC U-boat U 1224 was commissioned initially on 01 September 1943, but re-commissioned as RO-501 by a Japanese crew on 15 February 1944 at Kiel. For this purpose, the Type IXC U-boat U 511 left Europe on for Japan, arriving at Kure, Japan on 07 August 1943, to be handed over to the Japanese Navy as “Present of the Fuehrer” on 16 September 1943 and re-commissioned as RO-501. Also, it was agreed, to donate to Japan two German U-boats for study and test purposes. The voyages of U-boats between Europe, South East Asia and Japan, including the operations of German U-boats from Japanese bases in Japanese occupied South East Asia, were based on the German-Italian-Japanese tripartite agreement (“Three-Power-Pact”) of 27 September 1940 (“Axis” Berlin-Rome-Tokyo) and the tripartite “Agreement on Military Cooperation” of 18 January 1942.
The collective designation of these U-boats is commonly known as “Monsoon-U-boats”, although “Monsoon” was the code name given to just the one group of U-boats that actually were tasked to proceed to bases at South East Asia to operate from there. The U-boats in the Indian Ocean and Pacific ( U 862 only) sank 162 vessels with a total tonnage of 839,541 GRT. The majority of U-boats did not survive these detachments.
Starting in the Summer of 1943, the Kriegsmarine detached up to 57 U-boats (figures subject to selected criteria) in several groups, initially down to the southern tip of Africa, then to the Indian Ocean, and in the end some of the U-boats even to make it to Japanese bases (Penang, Singapore, Batavia and Surabaya) in Japanese occupied South East Asia, to execute operations from there. A 16th U-boat has to be added to this list, as also U 511 made it safely from Europe to the Far East, however with a final destination at Japan.ĬO of U 511 and U 183 Kapitänleutnannt (Lieutenant-Commander) Fritz Schneewind, KIA on This U-boat was one of a total of 15 Kriegsmarine U-boats ( U 168/ U 178/ U 181/ U 183/ U 188/ U 195/ U 196/ U 219/ U 510/ U 532/ U 537/ U 843/ U 861 und U 1062), which successfully completed their voyage from bases in Germany, France and Norway to South East Asia to bases established at Penang, Batavia, Singapore and Surabaya. Recently, we added a report about the myths around U 862 and her epic voyage to the shores of Australia and New Zealand to our series “Myths”. U 511 and the voyages of German and Japanese U-boats between Europe and the Far East