Tag Archives: World War II

The Inter-American Highway

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The Inter-American Highway is the common name for the section of the Pan-American Highway that runs from Nuevo Laredo in Mexico (close to the border with the US) to Panama City in Panama. For Panamanians, it provides the link to other Central American countries, and beyond, through the Pan-American highway to the USA and Canada. With the Panama Canal, the highway helped contribute to Panama’s position as a crossroads for world trade – though, with the Darien Gap creating a barrier to direct transport links to South America, it is technically a ‘T’ junction, not a crossroads.

There had long been a desire to link the Panama Canal and its associated port facilities with other countries, for the Americans who the operated the Canal, it would reduce the risk of alternative canal proposals being built, by allowing neighboring countries to benefit from its trade links. It would also provide an alternative link to the US Canal Zone, as an alternative to sea crossings.

In 1923, with the agreement of many Central American countries, the US began a project to use their new photo-reconnaissance aircraft to conduct aerial surveys and mapping of the Central American republics. This laid the foundations for a new road, allowing engineers to plan routes and estimate bridging and tunnelling costs. However, it was World War II which spurred construction. Aware of the risks to their supply lines between the USA and the Canal Zone presented by German U-boats, construction of an overland link became a prudent precaution.

As with the final Panama Canal project, construction was led by US engineers and administrators. Many sections of the road that would become part of the Inter-American Highway had been built by individual countries independently before 1940. However, these roads linked specific cities only and were of variable quality. Progress on construction was slow, with multiple obstacles to be overcome and often very remote construction sites. Nevertheless, construction progressed rapidly, though not quickly enough to see the road finished before World War II ended in 1945.

In 1946, a route was ready for inspection by U.S. diplomats and engineers, but it was far from being the finished article, and much was only passable by four-wheel drive or tracked vehicles. It would take until 1967 until the road was completed, and even today, there is no connection beyond Panama, presenting a huge barrier to trade and prosperity in the region.

The Japanese Plan to Attack the Panama Canal

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Throughout it’s history, there has never been an attack on the Panama Canal infrastructure, but at least one was planned. During World War II, the canal was an invaluable lifeline for the Allies, a fact not missed by the Axis powers. In 1943, with the tide of the war turned against them, and desperate for anything that might delay the defeat that was beginning to seem inevitable, the Japanese developed a plan to attack the canal locks using a secret submarine that they had developed and managed to conceal from the Allies.

The Canal was well fortified by the Americans, with shore based gun batteries, air and sea patrols and barrage balloons and anti-submarine nets. However, interrogation of prisoners had revealed that security had become lax, and air patrols had almost entirely ceased.

The Japanese had, in their fleet, a number of Sen Toku I-400-class submarines. At the time these were the largest submarines ever built (and would remain so, until the larger nuclear powered submarines began to be built in the 1960s). Not only were the Allies completely unaware of these vessels, but they had been designed and built as submarine aircraft carriers, capable of carrying light bomber aircraft far beyond the range of land-based bombers. Each I-400 submarine carried 3 specially designed Aichi seaplanes, each capable of carrying an 850 kg bomb.

Aided by documents provided by a Japanese engineer who had worked on the Canal’s construction, planning reached a very advanced stage, the pilots had been trained by bombing a full-size wooden replica of the Gatun locks, which had been built and towed out to sea. By disabling the Gatun Locks, which the Japanese believed were the easier target, the expected to be able to close the Canal for at least 6 months.

By attacking the Gatun Locks on the Atlantic side of the Canal, well out of range of any land-based bomber, and at the ‘wrong’ end of the Canal, it is quite possible that the plan would have succeeded. Fortunately, events overtook the Japanese, and by the time the war ended in 1945, although planning and training had largely been completed, there were still only 2 I-400 submarines completed and both of these were in Japan, and thousands of miles and weeks of travel away from the Caribbean.