IJN Submarine RO-110:
Tabular Record of
Movement
© 2001-2016 Bob Hackett & Sander Kingsepp
Revision 3
20 August 1942:
Kobe. Laid down at Kawasaki Jukogyo K.K.
shipyard as a 525-ton (standard) Kaisho (KS) Type submarine No. 401.
26 January 1943:
Launched as RO-110.
20 June 1943:
Lt (LtCdr, posthumously) Ebato Kazuro (62)(former CO of
RO-67) is appointed the Chief Equipping Officer. [1]
6 July 1943:
Completed and attached to Sasebo Naval District. Lt Ebato
Kazuro is the CO.
10 July 1943:
Reassigned to SubRon 11.
10 November 1943:
Reassigned to SubDiv 30 in Rear Admiral (later Vice
Admiral) Ichioka Hisashi's SubRon 8 of Vice Admiral (later Admiral) Takasu
Shiro's (former CO of ISUZU) Southwest Area Fleet. Departs Sasebo.
12 November 1943:
Departs Tachibana Bay, Kyushu for Penang, Malaya.
24 November 1943:
Arrives at Penang.
3 December 1943:
Departs Penang to raid enemy communications in Indian
Ocean on her first war patrol.
14 December 1943:
Bay of Bengal, SE of Madras, India. Lt Ebato detects
and attacks an enemy convoy, damaging one vessel with a spread of torpedoes. A
few seconds after the hit, RO-110 is rammed by another vessel, probably from the
same convoy, that crushes one of her periscopes and demolishes the roof of her
conning tower.
The crew plugs the leaks and manages to stop the flooding. The patrol is
terminated and RO-110 heads back to Penang. Lt Ebato reports one vessel as
"probably sunk". [2]
19 December 1943:
Returns to Penang. Due to the absence of spare
periscopes at Penang, a new one must be brought in from Singapore. This request
remains unfulfilled until RO-110 departs on her next sortie.
1 January 1944:
Reassigned to SubRon 8's SubDiv 30 of Vice Admiral
(Admiral, posthumously) Takagi Takeo's (former CO of MUTSU) Sixth Fleet
(Submarines).
2 January 1944:
Departs Penang to raid enemy communications in Indian
Ocean on her second war patrol.
January 1944:
Returns to Penang.
2 February 1944:
Departs Penang on her second war patrol to raid enemy
communications in the Bay of Bengal. There are no contacts with the submarine
after her departure.
Bay of Bengal. 200 miles NE of Madras, India. RO-110 attacks convoy JC 36
en route from Colombo, Ceylon to Calcutta, India. The 6,274-ton British merchant
ASPHALION receives two torpedo hits that flood her No. 3 hold and engine room.
Six sailors are MIA and ten others wounded. The survivors abandon the crippled
vessel at 17-28N, 83-32E. Later, ASPHALION is towed to port.
The escorting 1,200-ton Indian gunboat HMIS JUMNA and Australian
minesweepers HMAS IPSWICH and LAUNCESTON detect RO-110 by asdic and attack her
with depth charges at 17-25N, 83-21E. A large amount of oil appears on the
surface, followed by several underwater explosions.
15 March 1944:
Presumed lost with all 47 hands.
30 April 1944:
Removed from the Navy List.
Authors' Notes:
[1] Orita and Harrington (1976) identify RO-110's skipper as
LtCdr Ebato Kazuo; in other sources his name appears as Ehato Kazuro. The
Japanese Navy List of 1937 (p. 293), however, identifies that same officer as
Ebato Kazuro. LtCdr was his posthumous rank.
[2] On 14 December 1943, the 4,807-ton British armed merchant DAISY MOLLER,
en route from Bombay and Colombo to Vizagapatam and Chittagong, with a cargo of
war materials was torpedoed in the Indian Ocean. After the crew abandoned ship,
the attacking submarine submarine rammed the lifeboats and then machine-gunned
the survivors in the water. Fifty-five of the 127 crew members were killed.
Sources vary as to the number of crewmembers aboard DAISY MOLLER, but all agree
there were only 14 survivors. MOLLER sank at 16-21N, 82-13E.
Controversy surrounds the above sinking of DAISY MOLLER. The log of
RO-111 states she never surfaced during the convoy attack. Author/historian
Kimata Jiro has suggested it was some other submarine.
Special thanks for assistance in researching the IJN officers mentioned
in this TROM go to Mr. Jean-François Masson of Canada. Thanks also go to Dr.
Higuchi Tatsuhiro of Japan.
– Bob Hackett and Sander Kingsepp.
Back to Submarine
Page
