for dawn 11 January 1945 on five different U.S. anchorages in widely separated locations; the date of the attack later was postponed to 12 January 1945. She got underway on 25 December 1944 bound for her target, Hollandia on the coast of New Guinea. On 30 December 1944, during her voyage, she rescued eight starving Imperial Japanese Army soldiers from a raft in the Philippine Sea west of Guam; the soldiers had participated in a failed attempt to storm the U.S. airfield on Guam and then escaped the island aboard the raft, drifting at sea for 32 days before I-47 found them. On 8 January 1945, an Imperial Japanese Army Air Force reconnaissance aircraft flew over the Hollandia area and sighted 40 large transports anchored in Humboldt Bay () and 10 smaller vessels outside the anchorage, and the Japanese passed this report to I-47. I-47 sighted Cape Soeadja on the north coast of New Guinea at 10:30 on 11 January 1945, then proceeded north. After dark, she surfaced off New Guinea to recharge her batteries. She sighted a U.S. hospital ship, which passed without noticing I-47, then headed south at 23:30 to reach her launch position off Humboldt Bay. Submerged, I-47 reached the launch area north of Cape Soeadja by 03:00 on 12 January 1945. She launched all four kaitens between 04:14 and 04:30, then surfaced and departed the area at flank speed. In Humboldt Bay, one kaiten grazed the port side of the anchored Liberty ship below the waterline, causing a small leak in her No. 3 hold. The kaiten then exploded about off Pontus H. Ross′s port bow at 05:21, causing additional minor damage to her hull. A few seconds later another explosion took place off Cape Soeadja. At sea, I-47 noted a column of red fire rising from the direction of Humboldt Bay after 05:20. She reached Kure on 1 February 1945. During a conference aboard Tsukushi Maru on 7 February 1945, the 6th Fleet's staff credited I-47′s kaitens with sinking four transports at Humboldt Bay. February–March 1945 During I-47′s stay at Kure, her deck gun was removed and she was equipped to accommodate two more kaitens in its place, raising her kaiten-carrying capability to six. She suffered an accident on 16 March 1945 in which a member of her crew died of carbon monoxide poisoning while she was carrying out kaiten launch exercises in the Seto