They had a diving depth of 75 m (246 ft)[1] For surface running, the submarines were powered by two 4,500-brake-horsepower (3,356 kW) diesel engines, each driving one propeller shaft.

[4] On 11 November 1941, the 6th Fleet's commander, Vice Admiral Mitsumi Shimizu, held a meeting with the commanding officers of the submarines of Submarine Squadron 3 aboard his flagship, the light cruiser Katori, and his chief of staff briefed them on plans for Operation Z, the upcoming surprise attack on Pearl Harbor in Hawaii.

[5] The attack would begin the Pacific campaign and bring Japan and the United States into World War II.

As Japanese military forces began to deploy for the opening Japanese offensive of the war, I-75 was assigned to the Submarine Advance Force on 11 November 1941 and departed Saeki Bay on the coast of Kyushu that day in company with I-74 bound for Kwajalein Atoll, which the two submarines reached on 20 November 1941.

[10][13] The two submarines departed Kwajalein in company that day to participate in Operation MI, the planned Japanese invasion of Midway Atoll.

[5][13] Plans called for them first to support a preliminary phase of the Midway operation, Operation K-2, which called for the Japanese submarines I-121 and I-123 to refuel two Kawanishi H8K (Allied reporting name "Emily") flying boats at the French Frigate Shoals in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands so that the two aircraft could conduct a reconnaissance flight over Pearl Harbor,[14] while I-175 patrolled 80 nautical miles (150 km; 92 mi) southwest of Oahu to provide weather reports in support of the operation.

[5] She was on the surface 20 nautical miles (37 km; 23 mi) off Newcastle, New South Wales, on 23 July 1942 when she hit the Australian 3,279-gross register ton armed merchant ship Allara with a single torpedo at 33°03′S 152°22′E / 33.050°S 152.367°E / -33.050; 152.367.

[4][5] As Allara — which was on a voyage from Cairns, Queensland, to Sydney with a cargo of sugar — began to settle by the stern, her crew abandoned ship.

[5] On 24 July 1942, I-175 torpedoed and damaged the 3,345-gross register ton Australian merchant ship Murada off Crowdy Head, 82 nautical miles (152 km; 94 mi) northeast of Newcastle.

[5] On 26 July 1942, she survived a depth-charge attack by the Royal Australian Navy corvette HMAS Cairns, then moved southward.

[5] She torpedoed and sank the French 2,795-gross register ton merchant ship Cagou, which was carrying a cargo of nickel ore, 160 nautical miles (300 km; 180 mi) northeast of Newcastle on 28 July 1942.

[16] I-175′s next two 120-millimeter (4.7 in) shells hit Dureenbee, destroying her wheel house and crippling her steam engine, causing her to go dead in the water.

[16] She resurfaced six minutes later and departed to seaward,[16] leaving the crippled Dureenbee with one crewman dead and two others seriously wounded, both of whom later died of their injuries.

[4] At dawn on 12 August 1942, I-175 was on the surface 170 nautical miles (310 km; 200 mi) southwest of Espiritu Santo when two U.S. Navy SBD-3 Dauntless dive bombers from the aircraft carrier USS Saratoga (CV-3) attacked her.

[4] I-175 and I-174 later were ordered to leave their patrol areas and join the submarines I-172 and Ro-34 in an attempt to intercept an American convoy,[5] but I-175 did not encounter enemy ships.

[5] On 20 November 1942, I-175 suffered damage in an anchorage in Truk Lagoon south of Eten Island (known to the Japanese as "Takeshima") in a collision with the 16,764-gross register ton oiler Nisshin Maru[4][5] and was run aground to prevent her from sinking.

As the fighting on Attu raged, I-175 put to sea from Kure on 17 May 1943[4][5] to support Japanese forces in the Aleutians.

[4][5] I-175 departed Paramushiro on 24 June 1943 to begin her eighth war patrol, ordered to attack Allied shipping in the North Pacific Ocean in an area 200 nautical miles (370 km; 230 mi) south of Amchitka with I-171.

She made no contact with enemy forces and concluded the patrol by heading back to Japan, arriving at Kure on 10 August 1943.

[5] I-175 was heading back to Truk on 20 November 1943 when the U.S. offensive phase of the Gilbert and Marshall Islands campaign began on 20 November 1943 with the U.S. landings on Tarawa, beginning the Battle of Tarawa, and on Butaritari (erroneously referred to as "Makin Atoll" by U.S. forces), beginning the Battle of Makin,[5] and she received orders to make for Butaritari at flank speed.

[5] It struck Liscome Bay on her starboard aft of her after engine room, detonating her bomb storage magazine.

[5] Liscome Bay′s stern disintegrated in a tremendous explosion and some debris and body parts struck New Mexico, which was steaming 1 nautical mile (1.9 km; 1.2 mi) away.

[5] The battleship USS New Jersey (BB-62) detected a vessel on radar east of Wotje at 22:03 on 3 February at a range of 21 nautical miles (39 km; 24 mi).

[5] Ordered to assist Charrette, the destroyer escort USS Fair (DE-35) arrived on the scene and at 00:40 fired a salvo of 10 Hedgehog projectiles.

[5] Charrette and Fair heard and felt four explosions, which sank the submarine — probably I-175 — 100 nautical miles (190 km; 120 mi) northwest of Jaluit Atoll at 06°48′N 168°08′E / 6.800°N 168.133°E / 6.800; 168.133 (I-175).

[5] On 26 March 1944, the Imperial Japanese Navy declared I-175 to be presumed lost with all 100 hands in the Kwajalein area.