received credit for the probable destruction of a Japanese submarine, which probably was I-12. On 19 December 1944, 6th Fleet headquarters ordered I-12 to return to Kure, but she did not acknowledge receipt of the message. However, Japanese signals intelligence intercepted Allied communications indicating the sinking of an Allied transport and tanker in the mid-Pacific Ocean between 20 and 31 December 1944 and U.S. Navy sightings of a Japanese submarine in the Hawaiian Islands area on 2 and 4 January 1945, leading the 6th Fleet staff to conclude that I-12 still was on patrol. The 6th Fleet staff also assessed that a garbled interception of an Allied report of a surfaced Japanese submarine seen north of the Marshall Islands at on 5 January 1945 was a sighting of I-12 as she returned from her patrol. On 31 January 1945, however, the Imperial Japanese Navy declared I-12 to be presumed lost with all 114 hands in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The Japanese removed her from the navy list on 10 August 1945. References Footnotes Bibliography Type A2 submarines 1943 ships World War II submarines of Japan Maritime incidents in November 1944 Maritime incidents in October 1944 Ships lost with all hands Japanese war crimes Japanese submarines lost during World War II World War II shipwrecks in the Pacific Ocean Ships built by Kawasaki Heavy Industries Submarines sunk by United States warships