The submarine wrecked three weeks later trying to make it back to base, running aground on a reef and was abandoned.

For surface running, the submarines were powered by two 1,200-brake-horsepower (895 kW) Vickers diesel engines, each driving one propeller shaft.

[2] On 1 March 1926, Ro-60 and the submarines Ro-57, Ro-58, Ro-59, Ro-61, Ro-62, Ro-63, Ro-64, and Ro-68 departed Sasebo, Japan, bound for Okinawa, which they reached the same day.

[2][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11] The nine submarines got underway from Okinawa on 30 March 1926 for a training cruise in Chinese waters off Shanghai and Amoy which concluded with their arrival at Mako in the Pescadores Islands on 5 April 1926.

[2] When the Imperial Japanese Navy deployed for the upcoming conflict in the Pacific, Ro-60 was at Kwajalein in the Marshall Islands.

[3] She received the message "Climb Mount Niitaka 1208" (Japanese: Niitakayama nobore 1208) from the Combined Fleet on 2 December 1941, indicating that war with the Allies would commence on 8 December 1941 Japan time,[3] which was on 7 December 1941 on the other side of the International Date Line in Hawaii, where Japanese plans called for the war to open with their attack on Pearl Harbor.

[3] The three submarines were placed on "standby alert" that day as United States Marine Corps forces on Wake Island threw back the first Japanese attempt to invade the atoll.

[13] Ro-60 was on the surface 25 nautical miles (46 km; 29 mi) southwest of Wake at around 16:00 local time on 21 December 1941 when a U.S. Marine Corps F4F Wildcat fighter of Marine Fighter Squadron 211 (VMF-211) attacked her, strafing her and dropping two 100-pound (45.4 kg) bombs.

[3] After she resurfaced that night and her crew inspected her damage, her commanding officer decided that she no longer could dive safely.

[3] As she was approaching Kwajalein Atoll in bad weather in the predawn darkness of 29 December 1941, Ro-60 went off course and ran hard aground on a reef north of the atoll at 02:00 at 09°00′N 167°30′E / 9.000°N 167.500°E / 9.000; 167.500 (Ro-60), damaging her pressure hull and splitting her starboard diving tanks open.

[3] Pounded by high surf, Ro-60 incurred additional damage and took on such a heavy list that her crew destroyed her secret documents and abandoned ship.