Qualla: Japanese Submarine Ro-110

Japanese Submarine Ro-110: Introduction

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Somewhere beneath the Bay of Bengal, roughly 200 nautical miles northeast of Madras, the wreck of a Japanese submarine lies in the darkness. Ro-110 was a compact, coastal-class boat, just 60 meters long, built by Kawasaki at Kobe and commissioned in July 1943. She served barely seven months before Allied depth charges sent her to the bottom in February 1944, taking all 47 crew members with her. In that brief career, Ro-110 left a trail of violence that extended beyond the conventions of war, a trail that makes her story worth remembering not for what she achieved but for what she destroyed.

Japanese Submarine Ro-110: A Small Boat for a Big Ocean

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The Ro-100 class was a medium-sized submarine derived from the earlier Kaichu type, designed for coastal and regional operations rather than the long-range patrols of Japan's larger fleet boats. Ro-110 displaced 601 long tons on the surface and 782 submerged. Her double hull allo...

Japanese Submarine Ro-110: The Sinking of the Daisy Moller

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

During one of her patrols, a submarine torpedoed the British armed merchant ship Daisy Moller just 3 nautical miles off India's coast near the Eastern Ghats. The 4,807-gross-register-ton vessel had departed Bombay on 27 November 1943 carrying war materials including ammunition, s...

Japanese Submarine Ro-110: Convoy JC-36

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Ro-110's final action came against Convoy JC-36, bound from Colombo to Calcutta through the Bay of Bengal. She fired two torpedoes into the British merchant ship Asphalion, a 6,274-gross-register-ton vessel. The hits killed six crew members and injured ten more, flooding the numb...

Japanese Submarine Ro-110: War Beneath the Waves of the Bay

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The Bay of Bengal is not usually remembered as a major theater of submarine warfare, overshadowed by the Atlantic and Pacific campaigns. But for the merchant sailors who carried supplies between India, Ceylon, and the front lines in Burma, these waters were deadly. Japanese subma...