Japanese submarine Yu 3003


Yu 3003 was an Imperial Japanese Army transport submarine, a unit of the Yu 3001 subclass of the Yu I type. Constructed for use during World War II, she served in the waters of the Japanese archipelago

Construction

In the final two years of World War II, the Imperial Japanese Army constructed transport submarines — officially the Type 3 submergence transport vehicle and known to the Japanese Army as the Maru Yu — with which to supply its isolated island garrisons in the Pacific. Only submarines of the Yu I type were completed and saw service. The Yu I type was produced in four subclasses, each produced by a different manufacturer and differing primarily in the design of their conning towers and details of their gun armament. None carried torpedoes or had torpedo tubes. Yu 3003 was a unit of the Yu 3001 subclass.
The Korea Machine Factory Boat Manufacturing Works constructed Yu 3003 at Inchon in Chosen, the Japanese name for Korea while Korea was under Japanese rule. Records of the details of the construction of Yu 3003 have not been discovered, but the lead unit of her subclass, her sister ship, entered service in August 1944.
One source claims the North Korea Machine Works at Wonsan, Korea, built all submarines of the Yu 3001 subclass.

Service history

Yu 3003 spent her operational career in Japanese home waters. Surviving records of the activities of Imperial Japanese Army submarines are fragmentary, and no records have been discovered describing her specific activities in support of any particular operation.
World War II ended with the cessation of hostilities on 15 August 1945. Yu 3003 surrendered to the Allies later in August 1945. She subsequently either was scuttled or scrapped.