Warbird Information Exchange

If i recall rightly didnt Luftwaffe in WW2 ship to Japan a ME-262 and ME-163 for trails -- they went by U Boat and along with alot of other stuff? or did they go by deck cargo on freighters?

Here more info just found -

"the german KM had two "own" bases in the Far East: Soerabaja and Batavia (both on Java). They also use Singapore (here the yard for bigger services). U-Boat had to go there or to the Japan main-land for e.g. change of batteries. The KM used some Type IX C but mainly the huge Typ IX D in this theater. During WW2 (from 1942 on) the KM sent 45 U-Boats into the Indic Ocean. Till May'45 they sunk 170 Ships of around 1000000 tons by the loose of 34 U-Boats. Four U-Boats were overtaken by the Imp. Japanese Navy, four returned to Europe, and three surrendered at sea and in a french base.
U862 made the definitive farthest mission, as it rounded New Zealand and sunk ships off Sidney habour on Christmas Evening 1944.
There were month, the so called Monsun-Boats were more successful than the Wolf-Packs in the Atlantic Ocean.

The definitive best book about the whole mission of KM U-Boat in the Far East is the book of Jochen Brennecke "Haie im Paradies". I am afraid, there is still no english translation of this very informative book..."

Surprised the Wolfpacks operated off Sydney as late as 1944... we stopped the Japanese in 1943 guess the KM got free reigne...

There was one U-boat (U-834 I think.) that was at sea carrying an Me 262, some uranium and two Japanese Naval officers when the order to surrender came in May of 1945. The Japanese tried to scuttle the boat and were discovered in time. The Japanese later committed suicide and the U-boat surrendered to the U.S. I don't know whether an entire Me 262 or 163 ever got to Japan but the engines and plans did earlier.

As or German boats operating off Australia the Germans used their boats far differently than the Japanese seeing them rightly as commerce raiders rather than fleet units. Japanese sub commanders always wanted to destroy surface combat units and not the freighters and transports that were the long term threat.

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"I can't understand it, I cut it twice and it's still too short!" Robert F. Dupre' 1923-2010 Go With God.