Japanese Supply Ships To East Africa

[Bronsky]

So we have one trip in November 1940, and another a little over later which aborted.

In addition to the fate of the cargo delivered - I assume that the avgas was used by the Italians, but were the tires destroyed, or recycled by either belligerent? and then there's the question of the second voyage - Davide's original question remains interesting: presumably, the Italians paid for these attempts. I wonder what the Japanese asked for in exchange.

The Axis had very few ways to deliver goods to the Japanese, so unless I missed something payment could only be in one of the following three canals:
1 - Blockade runners shipped various goods between Europe and Japan in 1940-42. The 1942 batch found that Allied blockade had tightened considerably, and further exchanges were by submarine. It is not inconceivable, however, that some of the Axis shipments would have been in payments for the attempts to resupply AOI, though they would have to concern high-value items otherwise the volumes would be a problem (the exchanges were basically a trade already).
2 - Payment could have been in the form of some Italian shipping marrooned in the Pacific and leased to the Japanese in exchange for these trips.
3 - Japan put pressure on Vichy France to get delivery of most of Indochina's rubber production as soon as 1940. Germany in turn "advised" Vichy to accept, offering to partly pay for the stuff by crediting it as French occupation fees. This seems to have been a diplomatic move: the Germans weren't expecting anything in return from the Japanese, they were subsidizing Japan on general principles and at a time when it wasn't costing them anything (they weren't spending all of their occupation fees, that changed later in the war). Resupply of AOI might turn this into a deal of sorts.

EDIT: if anyone used the fuel it would be the Italians, not the Japanese

[Jon G.]

Here is the original Stone & Stone link with the Somaliland narrative. According to the S&S page the Japanese merchant carried tires which turned out to be the wrong size, and fuel which had to be destroyed to prevent its capture by the British.

Of course there might have been Italian-Japanese exchanges via the Red Sea before the British began the conquest of East Africa. The S&S page explicitly mentions that only one ship (the incident mentioned above) arrived during the campaign.

According to this narrative some of the (few) Italian ships stranded in Japan/Asia managed to break the British blockade. On a mildly related note, a Yugoslav merchantman stranded in Japan became Italian by Japanese decree according to the same site after the Axis conquest of Yugoslavia.

[UMachine]

I am going to recap a few things.Approx 15 years ago my father-in-law told me he had met the Japanese in East Africa.About 5-6 years ago while looking for a story of this on the net,I came across one.It said the ship had offloaded to smaller ships.And that there had been some kind of incident,of which they had no information.This year the wife told me that there had in fact been a battle of some sort with the Japanese,on a beach.Where exactly,this is what I am trying to determine,if it happened during this ship's visit.There were some Japanese deaths,and I believe it was kept quiet to avoid trouble between the Axis partners.He in fact obtained a weapon from this engagement which was quite distinctive,and had a very fast rate of fire.He drew a picture of it for her,I believe it to be a Nambu pistol.There is more,but,some people are very skeptical of these sorts of stories,I'll leave it at that.Ciano Diaries have a large gap at this point due to Ciano joining his airgroup.They were definitely Japanese.I will try to find Yosuke Matsuoka's papers.

[Simon Gunson]

I seem to recall that several steamers broke out from the Red Sea for Vichy held Madagascar at the time too. The sloop Eritrea may have been one and the steamship Quito may have been another ending up in Singapore after 1941.

I have a hazey recollection there was a Romalo class submarine operating in the Red sea in 1941 which if I recall correctly went East ?

The Italians had some armed merchant cruisers in the Indian Ocean aswell. Weren't they called RAMB-1 or similar ?

[UMachine]

Ramb I and Ramb II I believe.I'v read Anthony Mockler's book,Haile Selassie'e War.He says Cunninghams reports on the ports of Kismayu and Mogadishu indicate plenty of fuel.Kismayu,1,000,000 litres of petrol,500,000 of aviation fuel.Mogadishu,1800 tons of petrol and aviation fuel.The report of the burning of fuel,that's the one which I believe is the ship that offloaded in some remote bay.

[Jon G.]

Two posts about the Nambu pistol were split off to the small arms section.

Ramb I and Ramb II I believe.I'v read Anthony Mockler's book,Haile Selassie'e War.He says Cunninghams reports on the ports of Kismayu and Mogadishu indicate plenty of fuel.Kismayu,1,000,000 litres of petrol,500,000 of aviation fuel.Mogadishu,1800 tons of petrol and aviation fuel.The report of the burning of fuel,that's the one which I believe is the ship that offloaded in some remote bay.

This is a little unclear. Do you mean that the Italians had the stated quantities of fuel stockpiled in Mogadishu? It seems highly unlikely to me if the Italians would have that much fuel stashed away in remote East Africa - 500,000 tons of avgas would constitute more than a whole year's consumption by the entire Regia Aeronautica.

[Bronsky]

500,000 liters are 400 tons.

[Jon G.]

Right Bronsky. I read it as tons.

From the New Zealand official history, here is a blurb about the NZ Navy's part in the capture of Italian Somaliland. There is also mention of a coral bank named Saya de Malha in the Indian Ocean, which served as a rendezvous point for German raiders and their supply ships.