We began this in KTB #115 last month, so let’s borrow some ‘news’ from the little sheet put out by the vet from USS KEITH who claimed they sank a German U-Boat full of gold off the harbor at San Francisco - then decided it was really an American sub they sank by mistake (I should hope it would be a mistake!) but divers tell me all they found was an old barge on the bottom.

In the summer 1995 issue of his flier, he reports the story of a man living in Malibu (California) during the war years (he was just a boy at the time) and this boy found a Japanese fighter plane on the beach. There was no pilot, but the plane was sitting on the pontoons in the water. He found ‘something’ of interest and buried it in the sand, then went home to tell his parents.

When he returned a short while later, he found the area cordoned off and men in suits, along with local law enforcement, questioned the boy. A large truck drove up and soon all traces of this Japanese plane were removed. One of these ‘men wearing suits’ told the boy that the plane was being evaluated by the US Navy.

In 1985, the USS KEITH veteran was visiting this boy, now a grown man, and the friend showed him the ‘something’ he had removed from the ‘Japanese’ plane and buried in the sand. It was a Lewis machine gun, loaded with .303 British ammunition and marked WRA (Winchester Repeating Arms) and, according to this paper, the date ‘1938’ was printed on the right side of the gun along with several characters in Japanese.

So, if you are following this story, according to the paper, we have a Japanese seaplane on the beach at Malibu, fitted with a British machine gun made in America, loaded with British ammunition and with Japanese writing on the nomenclature plate. Happened all the time during the war, didn’t it?

Oops - the USS KEITH veteran had an idea. This, he thinks, was the submarine-borne aircraft from I-15 which must have gone up the coast (after somehow misplacing its airplane at Malibu) and it was NOT a German U-Boat loaded with gold that was sunk by USS KEITH; not even an American sub sunk in error - but it was this Japanese I-15 that was sunk by USS KEITH.

In his little paper, Wm. Anderson asks:

“Now what became of the sub that launched this aircraft? Did it continue up the coast and be picked up by the sonar of the USS WILLARD KEITH? Who has records of the I-15 Japanese sub sunk during World War II? Someone out there knows the answer.”

Yes Bill, someone out there has the answer and no, I-15 did not get spotted by USS KEITH. The I.J.N. submarine I-15 was sunk on 2 November, 1942 (I’m not sure USS WILLARD KEITH {DD 775} had even been built at that time), & it was sunk by USS McCALLA (DD 488) not USS KEITH. I-15 was sunk at 10.53S x 161.50E and if my High School geography classes still hold true - that is a long, LONG way from San Francisco.

Well, we know for sure that USS KEITH did not sink a German U-Boat full of gold because there were no German U-Boats off San Francisco at all at any time during World War II for any reason.

We also know it was not a US Navy submarine sunk in error; as there are none missing anywhere near the San Francisco area.

And now we know that it was not I.J.N. submarine I-15. So where did this plane come from? The real question is: did this plane ever exist? My guess is that this plane was nothing more than the same old rumor as the dozens of German U-Boats sunk off Florida; or the Cape Cod U-Boat, or the German U-Boat captured in the Gulf of Mexico with local bread wrappers aboard, or the bodies of German U-Boat officers recovered on the New York coast wearing formal tuxedoes with ticket stubs to Broadway plays in their pockets. It just DID NOT HAPPEN!

More Phantoms

Cape Cod U-Boat, Unsolved Mysteries U-Boat
I-15 and USS Keith
I-15 and USS Keith
More on the San Francisco "U-Boat"