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ORIGINAL: Lecivius

From reading Silent Service, I know agents were dropped off on mainland Japan. I have never seen what they were about. Curiously, now that I think on it, I don't recall off the top of my head any mission to pick an agent up. Troops, and civvies caught up in the war etc., yes. But I don't recall seeing any agent pickup reports.

ORIGINAL: mind_messing

ORIGINAL: Lecivius

From reading Silent Service, I know agents were dropped off on mainland Japan. I have never seen what they were about. Curiously, now that I think on it, I don't recall off the top of my head any mission to pick an agent up. Troops, and civvies caught up in the war etc., yes. But I don't recall seeing any agent pickup reports.

What book is this, and can you elaborate on the nature of the missions?

Missions were to drop off agents, then proceed on a war patrol. While not common, they were not altogether uncommon. The book never described the agents mission, just the boat who dropped the agent.

ORIGINAL: Macclan5


It depends upon your definition of Allied.

The USSR had various and many (according to speculation and KGB released files in recent years) spied in Japan in WW2.

Richard Sorge and Ozaki to name the most famous.

However they both had extensive networks never revealed nor prosecuted ; further the Imperial Government maintained high level diplomatic accord with the USSR through out the war hoping Stalin would mediate as the USA steamroller was occurring. Uncle Joe played coy till the very last even warning the Japanese of Allied raids on Formosa leading up to the the landings on Leyte. The USSR had much intelligence from diplomacy no doubt.

I am unfamiliar with intelligence assets on the western allied side - primarily American or British. Both had high level contacts leading up to the war and so would glean some Military intelligence prior to Pearl Harbor, Hong Kong, and Singapore.

If the IJN truly hid the existence of Yamato and Mushashi from the Allies till 1944 as often stated - this infers that American British intelligence was poor. Hard to hide Battleships that large 100% of the time

ORIGINAL: BBfanboy

ORIGINAL: Macclan5


It depends upon your definition of Allied.

The USSR had various and many (according to speculation and KGB released files in recent years) spied in Japan in WW2.

Richard Sorge and Ozaki to name the most famous.

However they both had extensive networks never revealed nor prosecuted ; further the Imperial Government maintained high level diplomatic accord with the USSR through out the war hoping Stalin would mediate as the USA steamroller was occurring. Uncle Joe played coy till the very last even warning the Japanese of Allied raids on Formosa leading up to the the landings on Leyte. The USSR had much intelligence from diplomacy no doubt.

I am unfamiliar with intelligence assets on the western allied side - primarily American or British. Both had high level contacts leading up to the war and so would glean some Military intelligence prior to Pearl Harbor, Hong Kong, and Singapore.

If the IJN truly hid the existence of Yamato and Mushashi from the Allies till 1944 as often stated - this infers that American British intelligence was poor. Hard to hide Battleships that large 100% of the time

The Japanese went to extraordinary lengths to hide the Yamato BB program.
1. Budgetary appropriations in the Diet referred to three Treaty sized 35,000 ton BBs and three 27,000 ton BCs ( the "Chibuchi class that would - in imagined design - have been similar to the US Alaska class CBs built in response to the Japanese appropriation).
2. The construction berths were shielded by a wall and ceiling of camouflage netting
3. Every component shipped in was well crated to disguise what it was
4. Every worker at the dockyard and major component manufacturer (like gun barrels) was sworn to secrecy on penalty of death
5 Every worker was investigated for security risks
6. Design work was done in the shipyard next to the construction site rather than in an engineering office elsewhere.

Once completed the war was already on and the BBs stayed in well protected anchorages - probably leaving at night for sea trials and working up beyond the area where fishing boats could see them. The first Allied aircraft to spot them could not get a good picture to estimate their size, but compared to escorting vessels the Allies knew they were bigger than most BBs.

A sub torpedoed Musashi once and doubtless made a report of a very large BB, but did not have a picture so the report may have been considered exaggeration.
I think the first clear pics of the Yamato and Musashi were during the Sibuyan Sea battle on day two of the Leyte Gulf naval battles.

ORIGINAL: GI Jive

Here is an article describing an OSS plan to insert Korean operatives into Japan using small semi-submersibles. It looks like the war ended before the plan was carried out. The concept was for agents to land, operate for several weeks ashore, then return to the semi-submersible to escape.

https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for- ... arines.pdf

Drug smugglers have taken to using semi-submersibles to smuggle cocaine.

ORIGINAL: rustysi

Well one thing occurred to give one an idea of the size of these behemoths. When Musashi was launched she caused a tsunami at her location.[X(] Of course no westerners were around to notice, at least none that I know of.

Drug smugglers have taken to using semi-submersibles to smuggle cocaine.

They've graduated to full on subs.