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| IJN Sagiri was sunk near Kuching, Borneo |
Following Japan's attacks on Pearl Harbor and Allied territories (in early December 1941), Dutch submarines based in the East Indies were ordered to aggressively patrolled to disrupt Japanese invasion convoys heading toward Borneo and Malaya.
At that time, the Dutch East Indies (Indonesia) was a colony of the Dutch and Japan was making a play for it.
The Japanese destroyer, IJN Sagiri was one of the Japanese warships tasked to escort Japanese landing vessels in Borneo. The ship had been deployed there since December 17 1941.
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| IJN Sagiri, 1940 |
The sinking
On Christmas Eve 1941, Dutch submarine HNLMS K XVI spotted a Japanese force escorting troop transports, including the destroyer Sagiri. In a bold night surface attack, the submarine fired torpedoes, scoring a direct hit. The torpedo struck Sagiri's aft magazine, causing a massive explosion that broke the destroyer in two.
IJN Sagiri sank rapidly and lost 121 of its 241 crew. This victory was significant as it was the first time that a Japanese warship was sunk by an Allied submarine.
Aftermath
Tragically, K XVI's triumph was short-lived: the next day (Christmas 1941), she was torpedoed and sunk with all 36 hands by the Japanese submarine I-166 while returning to base. The wreck of K XVI was rediscovered off Borneo in 2011.
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