Japanese submarine Ro-103

Ro-103 got underway from Rabaul on 9 February 1943 for her first war patrol, assigned a patrol area east of Port Moresby, New Guinea.[4] The patrol was uneventful, and she returned to Rabaul on 28 February 1943.[4]

In the Battle of the Bismarck Sea, fought between 2 and 4 March 1943, United States Army Air Forces and Royal Australian Air Force aircraft and United States Navy PT boats annihilated a Japanese convoy in the Bismarck Sea that was attempting to carry the Imperial Japanese Army's 51st Division to Lae on New Guinea, sinking all eight ships of the convoy and four of the eight destroyers escorting them.[4] Ro-103 got underway from Rabaul on 7 March 1943 to rescue survivors.[4]

Ro-103 was in the Solomon Sea off Kiriwina in the Trobriand Islands when she ran aground in darkness on 8 March 1943 on an uncharted reef at 08°20′S 150°45′E.[4] She sent a distress signal to Rabaul, which ordered the submarine Ro-101 to get underway from Rabaul and tow Ro-103 off the reef.[4] Meanwhile, Ro-103's crew lightened her by dumping food, supplies, and torpedoes overboard, but she remained aground.[4] On 10 March 1943, Ro-103 sighted an unidentified destroyer to the south, and her commanding officer ordered her classified documents thrown overboard in anticipation of an attack by the destroyer, but the destroyer apparently did not detect Ro-103 and continued on its way.[4]

After Ro-103's crew dumped diesel fuel and fresh water overboard to further lighten her, Ro-103 finally floated free of the reef on 11 March 1943.[4] Ro-101, which had not yet arrived on the scene, was ordered to return to Rabaul.[4] Ro-103 also made for Rabaul, which she reached on 17 March 1943.[4]

After the Combined Fleet initiated Operation I-Go — a reinforcement of the 11th Air Fleet base at Rabaul by planes from the aircraft carriers Zuikaku and Zuihō and of the Japanese naval air base on Balalae Island in the Shortland Islands by planes from the aircraft carriers Hiyō and Jun'yō[4] — Ro-103 departed Rabaul on 30 March 1943 in company with the submarine Ro-102 to support the operation by patrolling in the vicinity of Guadalcanal in the southeastern Solomon Islands.[4] The patrol passed quietly, and she returned to Rabaul on 20 April 1943.[4]

On 9 May 1943, Ro-103 departed Rabaul to begin her third war patrol, bound for a patrol area east of Guadalcanal.[4] After another uneventful patrol, she returned to Rabaul on 1 June 1943.[4]

Ro-103 got underway from Rabaul on 12 June 1943 for her fourth war patrol, assigned a patrol area in the Solomon Islands in the vicinity of Gatukai Island and San Cristobal.[4] She was 50 nautical miles (93 km; 58 mi) south of the eastern tip of San Cristobal on 23 June 1943 when she sighted a convoy of what she identified as three transports escorted by three destroyers.[4] She attacked the convoy in the vicinity of 11°26′S 162°01′E, sinking the cargo ship USS Aludra and so badly damaging the cargo ship USS Deimos that the destroyer USS O'Bannon later scuttled her at 11°35′S 162°08′E.[4]

On 29 June 1943, Ro-103 was on the surface after sunset recharging her batteries when she sighted seven Allied ships south of Gatukai Island.[4] The ships she sighted probably were among those bound for the New Georgia Islands in the central Solomons, where the New Georgia campaign began on 30 June 1943 with the U.S. landings on New Georgia, Rendova, and other islands.[4] Ro-103 returned to Rabaul on 4 July 1943.[4]

After a week at Rabaul, Ro-103 departed on 11 July 1943 to begin her fifth war patrol.[4] Her orders called for her to patrol in the vicinity of Rendova, but on 13 July 1943 she received new orders to move instead to a patrol area in Vanga Bay off Vangunu.[4] Between 15 and 24 July 1943, she sighted Allied forces three times, but never achieved an attack position against them.[4] She transmitted a message reporting these sightings from a position north of New Georgia on 28 July 1943.[4] The Japanese never heard from her again.[4]

The circumstances of Ro-103's loss remain a mystery.[4] On 10 August 1943, the Imperial Japanese Navy declared her to be presumed lost in the Solomon Islands with all 43 men on board.[4] The Japanese struck her from the Navy list on 1 November 1943.[4]