history · 12 February 1944 · 80 years ago
The troopship Khedive Ismail, en-route to India, was torpedoed and sunk in two minutes by the 2,000-ton Japanese submarine I-27 near the Maldives islands. Only 260 of the 1,297 passengers and crew were saved (only 113 of 754 Askaris of 301st Field Regiment, East African Artillery survived) including 9 out of 86 women, most of whom were below decks at a concert party. Escorts brought the submarine to the surface with depth charges and kept the crew from reaching her 5.5-inch deck gun with cannon fire, then eventually sank the submarine with torpedoes. The extent of the disaster was kept a closely guarded secret until after the war.
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