her torpedoes at a transport, subsequently hearing an explosion. A destroyer pursued No. 8. She escaped without damage, but was swamped when she surfaced, so her two-man crew scuttled her and swam safely to Guadalcanal. While I-20 was conducting her midget-submarine operations, the Japanese issued orders on 16 November 1942 for their submarines to begin a series of supply runs to deliver cargo to the Japanese forces fighting on Guadalcanal. Assigned to these duties, I-20 arrived off Cape Esperance on 31 December 1942, delivering 25-tons of cargo in rubber containers. She made a brief stop at Truk before departing on 2 January 1943 for Shortland Island. Getting underway from Shortland for her second supply run, she arrived off Cape Esperance on 7 January 1943, discharging 18-tons of cargo in rubber containers. On her third and final Guadalcanal supply run, she became the first Japanese submarine to deliver cargo using an Unkato supply container — a submersible cargo container that could carry up to 377 tons of supplies, designed for a one-way trip in which the cargo′s recipients released, recovered, and unloaded it — departing Shortland on 20 January and delivering 18 tons of cargo at Cape Esperance in her container on 22 January 1943. New Guinea campaign After the conclusion of the Guadalcanal campaign in early February 1943, I-20 received orders to begin supply runs to New Guinea, where Japanese forces were fighting in the New Guinea campaign. Departing Truk on 18 March 1943, she delivered 30 tons of food and ammunition at Lae on the coast of New Guinea on 21 March. She called at Lae again to deliver cargo on 27 March 1943. During her third supply run, she collided underwater with her sister ship I-16 south of New Britain on 2 April 1943, but suffered only minor damage and continued to Lae, which she reached on 3 April. She unloaded 37 tons of cargo there and evacuated 39 men, including Imperial Japanese Army Lieutenant General Hatazō Adachi and his staff. She next called at Lae on 9 April 1943, dropping off 30 tons of cargo and embarking 42 soldiers. On 11 April 1943, the submarine , also making a supply run to Lae, was on the surface in the Solomon Sea east of Gasmata, New Britain, when she sighted I-20 on the surface at 05:10. Sighting I-5 at 05:13 and mistaking her for an Allied submarine, I-20