I-400: Japan's Secret Aircraft-Carrying Strike Submarine: Objective Panama Canal

The I-400 submarine was one of the most monstrous creations to emerge from World War II and in its time it was the largest submarine ever built. At more than 400 feet long weighing 5 223 tons submerged carrying a crew of nearly 200 and possessing a range of over 30 000 nautical miles the I-400 featured state of the art Japanese radar and stealth technology and carried three Aichi M6A Seiran attack floatplanes in a water-tight tube-like hangar built onto the deck forward of and under its massive conning tower. In mid-1944 this secret weapon was tasked with attacking American cities and destroying the Panama Canal. The extraordinary story of this submarine is told using first-hand accounts from three of the original air crew assigned to fly the Seirans and former officers and crew of the I-400 as well as American naval personnel who crewed the vessel on its dramatic final voyage. Hundreds of remarkable photographs show external and internal views of the I-4