Kamikaze pilots - Japans last weapon
Kamikaze, which means Divine Wind in Japanese, was Japans last attempt to balance the ever increasing technological and material advantage of the American forces advancing to Japan. The Kamikaze attack tactic was suggested on October 19, 1944, by vice-Admiral Onishi of the Japanese Navy, when he was assigned to command the air attacks against the huge American invasion fleet off the Philippines, and then realized that he had less than 100 operational aircraft for this task. There was no way to sink or even severely damage the American fleet in any conventional tactic, so the Admiral needed a force multiplier, a way to get a significantly greater striking power from a given force. The solution was obvious. Guided weapons provide dramatically greater accuracy and lethality than unguided weapons, producing much greater damage per weapon unit and per sortie. Such weapons already existed and were operational for over a year then, but not in Japan. The German Air Force successfully used large radio- guided Fritz-X bombs against battleships and cruisers since September 1943, but Japan had no such weapon, and therefore Admiral Onishi suggested that volunteer pilots will guide their bomb-carrying aircraft all the way to an explosive suicide collision with their American warship targets, acting as a living guidance system, literally becoming smart bombs.
The new tactic was adopted immediately. Large numbers of pilots, initially qualified and experienced pilots and later air cadets with minimal training who were asked to volunteer, were assigned to Special Attack air wings, the official name of the Kamikaze units. Their goal and motto was One man - one ship.
To increase the Kamikaze pilots chance of successful penetration of the American Navys dense perimeter defense of fighters and anti-aircraft ships, and reach the main ships in the center, most desirably the aircraft carriers, the Japanese concentrated most of the Kamikaze pilots attacks during the battle of Okinawa in ten large attack waves of mixed Kamikaze and conventional attack aircraft, in an attempt to saturate the American defenses. These large attack waves, nicknamed Kikosui (floating Chrysanthemum), were also coordinated with the Japanese naval and ground operations of the battle of Okinawa, the wars last great battle.
In the first of these Kamikaze attack waves, 355 Kamikaze pilots attacked the American fleet off Okinawa, together with 341 conventional attack aircraft, and in coordination with a naval attack which included the super-battleship Yamato. The result of this massive air strike was six sunk ships and ten severely damaged.
When Japan ran out of ordinary combat aircraft for Kamikaze attacks, slow trainer aircraft were also used. Another aircraft used was the Okha (cherry blossom), Japans latest new weapon. The Okha was specifically designed as a Kamikaze missile. It was a small rocket-powered aircraft with a large 1200kg warhead in the nose, that was carried by a bomber and dropped 20-30 miles from its target, where its Kamikaze pilot ignited the rockets and streaked to its target. In its final dive, the Okha reached a top speed of 576mph, much faster than any other aircraft, but most Okhas were shot down by American fighters before even being dropped from the carrying bombers.
A total of about 5000 Kamikaze pilots were launched, mostly in the Battle of Okinawa, consuming much of the remaining human and material resources of Japanese air power. The result of their effort was 36 sunk American ships and landing craft, and 368 damaged. The ferocity of watching wave after wave of Kamikaze pilots hurtling down through a dense hail of anti-aircraft fire, and the enormous fiery explosions which followed, terrorized the Americans, but the Kamikaze campaign failed to achieve its strategic goal of stopping the American advance, and American air attacks were launched against the Kamikaze air bases in southern Japan in order to reduce their numbers. Japan lost its last battle despite the enormous sacrifice of its fanatic warriors, and lost the war.
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