Tango Maru

Tango Maru (丹後丸) was a cargo motor ship that was built in Germany in 1926 and sunk off the coast of Bali in 1944.

In 1944 she was serving as a hell ship when the submarine USS Rasher torpedoed her, sinking her with the loss of about 3,000 lives.

One was the British-built, Dutch-owned 2,046 GRT tanker Talang Akar, which was sunk in the Makassar Strait in November 1943, ironically also by Rasher.

[1] Another was a Japanese-built 6,893 GRT steamship operated by Nippon Yusen KK,[2] which was sunk in the East China Sea by US aircraft only five days later.

[8] The combined power of Rendsburg's twin engines was rated at 993 NHP[5] or 4,100 bhp, and gave her a speed of 13 knots (24 km/h).

[11] When the Second World War began in September 1939, German merchant ships sought refuge in neutral ports.

It took ownership of Rendsburg, renamed her Toendjoek, and appointed Willem Ruys en Zonen to manage her.

On 2 March 1942, a week before Dutch forces surrendered to the Japanese, Toendjoek's crew scuttled her as a blockship.

[9] On 24 February 1944 Tango Maru left Surabaya, Java for Ambon, Maluku carrying about 5,700 troops, including men of the Japanese 3rd Infantry Regiment, and about 3,500 Javanese rōmusha conscripted labourers and Allied prisoners of war, probably mostly Royal Netherlands East Indies Army indigenous troops.

[9] Allied naval intelligence was aware of the convoy, and the US Navy sent the submarines Rasher and Raton to the Bali Sea to intercept it.