Hi Theo,

I have done some digging about the loss of the Parigi and several other ships in this region. There is no way the I-2 was responsible for the loss of Parigi. Based upon available evidence, IMHO there can be no other conclusion than that Parigi was lost to Arashi and Nowaki.

The reported position for Parigi's loss is about 300 miles from Tjilatjap. She left Tjilatjap in the evening of February 27. Since the ship was sunk in the early hours of March 1, we can conclude that she steamed for over a day, say 25-30 hours or so?
Bezemer mentions that the ship was steaming on a southerly course at 7 knots. Given the timeframe, that would put her about 200 to 230 miles S of Tjilatjap in the early morning of March 1. That is exactly the area the destroyers Arashi and Nowaki were operating in that timeframe.

Now let's look further. Parigi reported being attacked at "about" 0330 hours or so. That was Z-time, GMT+7,5. Since Japanese warships used Tokio Time GMT +9, that would make the Japanese time for this attack about 0500 hours.

I happen to have the translated logs for Arashi and Nowaki. They reported an attack one a Dutch merchant at 0518-0528. That is 0348-0358 Zulu time.

Now examining other possibilities. Jenkins' book on submarines off Australia's West coast says Parigi was sunk at 8 PM on March 1st in position 13.50 S- 113.30 E, which is about 450 nm SE of Tjilatjap. At 7 knots, the Parigi would have to steam about 15 knots to get there. I already established she was doing 7 knots.

Nobody apparently ever bothered to thoroughly research the events South of Tjilatjap during early March 1942. I have, but it's a mess.

Prove me wrong ;)

Jan