Monday, July 30, 2007

[strafing again] kamikaze operations

I wouldn't want you to think I have a fixation about crashing aircraft and bombs [kerboom, kerboom] but a divine wind forces me to run this Wiki excerpt:

... Purpose-built kamikaze planes, as opposed to converted fighters and dive-bombers, were also being constructed. Ensign Mitsuo Ohta had suggested that piloted glider bombs, carried within range of targets by a mother plane, should be developed.

The First Naval Air Technical Bureau (Kugisho), in Yokosuka, refined Ohta's idea. Yokosuka MXY7 Ohka rocket planes, launched from bombers, were first deployed in kamikaze attacks from March 1945. U.S. personnel gave them the derisive nickname "Baka Bombs" (baka is Japanese for "idiot" or "stupid").

Allied naval crews had begun to develop techniques to negate kamikaze attacks, such as firing their high-caliber guns into the sea in front of attacking planes flying near sea level, in order to create walls of water which would swamp the attacking planes.

Although such tactics could not be used against Okhas and other fast, high angle attacks, these were in turn more vulnerable to anti-aircraft fire ...

My new title: Daimyo Higham-Baka-Ohta of Straf Okinawa, birthday September 13th, 1944.

Inflicted on you by on

3 comments:

  1. CrushedTuesday 31 July 2007 at 01:59:00 GMT+1

    Ah, Japanese!
    Well, its exotic!

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousTuesday 31 July 2007 at 10:19:00 GMT+1

    Of course, British aircraft carriers had armoured flight decks ...
    So the Kamikaze aircraft, erm, bounced shall we say?

    Here's the Wikipedia quote:
    "U.S. aircraft carriers, with their wooden flight decks, were more vulnerable to kamikaze hits than the reinforced steel-decked carriers from the British Pacific Fleet (BPF) which operated in the theatre during 1945. The resilience of well-armoured vessels was shown on May 4. Just after 11:30, there was a wave of attacks against the BPF. One Japanese plane made a steep dive from "a great height" at the carrier HMS Formidable and was engaged by AA guns.[7] The kamikaze was hit at close range but crashed into the flight deck, making a massive dent about 10 feet (3 m) long, two feet (0.6 m) wide and two feet deep in the armoured flight deck. A large steel splinter speared down through the hangar deck and the centre boiler-room, where it ruptured a steam line and came to rest in a fuel tank, starting a major fire in the aircraft park. Eight crew members were killed and 47 were wounded. One Corsair and 10 Grumman Avengers were destroyed. However, the fires were gradually brought under control, and the crater in the deck was repaired with concrete and steel plate. By 17:00, Corsairs were able to land. On May 8, Formidable was again damaged by a kamikaze, as was the carrier HMS Victorious and the battleship HMS Howe."

    ReplyDelete
  3. James HighamWednesday 1 August 2007 at 07:05:00 GMT+1

    G. Tingey - thanks for that info. Interesting indeed.

    ReplyDelete

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