“Today the fate of our country is in my hands. We are the defenders of our country. You can forget me when I am gone, but please live better than you did before. Do not worry and do not be discouraged."
- From the farewell letter of Jr. Lieutenant Shunsuke Tomiyasu.
Kamikaze are definitely heroes. Self-sacrifice has been valued at all times by all peoples of the world. But what is the peculiarity of the “divine wind” phenomenon? Why does not the mockery of the Japanese "zombies" who beat their heads against the armor in impotent rage not subside? How did the kamikaze differ from the Russian, European and American pilots who committed a suicidal ram?
Captain Gastello, who sent a wrecked car to a mechanized enemy column, or Captain Flemming, who rammed the Japanese cruiser Mikuma on a burning bomber - these heroes hoped to stay alive until the last minutes. The suicidal ramming was their last, spontaneous decision in a desperate situation.
Unlike Gastello, the Japanese pilots sentenced themselves to death in advance and lived with this feeling for many months. It seems absolutely impossible to repeat something like this with a Russian upbringing. Everyone knows that in war there are situations when you have to risk and even sacrifice your life - but condemn yourself in advance to the fate of a "living bomb" and a "walking corpse" … The bushido code says: a samurai must prepare for death every day. No doubt, we will all die someday. But why think about it every minute?
For the kamikaze, the last flight turned into an exquisite death ritual with bows, white hachimaki headbands and a ritual sake cup. For the emperor and the sacred land of Yamato!
A separate question for the Japanese leadership: unlike the fanatical young pilots, these wise Lao Tzu knew the situation at the front very well. Even the greatest optimists could not help but know that by 1944 the war was lost to smithereens. So why was it necessary to destroy the "flower of the nation" in useless suicidal attacks ?! In order to delay the hour of reckoning and save your own skin, throwing the young generation of your country into the furnace?
Despite the discrepancies in assessments of the moral component of the actions of the "kamikaze" and some shocking details of the training of suicide pilots, do not forget about the main thing - it was a WEAPON. A powerful cruise missile - the prototype of modern "Harpoons" and "Granites", equipped with the most reliable and perfect guidance system - a living person.
Of greatest interest is the performance of the Special Attacks Corps. How many ships were sunk? What damage were the kamikaze pilots able to inflict on the enemy?
Americans prefer not to focus on this issue, telling contradictory stories pulled out of the general context of events. When asked about general statistics, a list of 47 … 57 sunk ships is usually given. The discrepancy is due to three main reasons:
1. Suicide attacks were practiced not only by the pilots of the "Corps of Special Attacks": to distinguish a "real" kamikaze from an Air Force bomber, whose crew decided to repeat the feat of Gastello, was not easy, and sometimes impossible.
An example is the destruction of the destroyer Twiggs. On June 16, 1945, the ship was attacked by a single torpedo bomber. The plane dropped a torpedo that hit the port side, and then circled and crashed into the doomed destroyer. Was this the work of kamikaze or combat pilots? The question remained unanswered. The destroyer Twiggs sank.
Damaged destroyer
2. Attacked ships did not always sink immediately. Often they needed "help" in the form of a torpedo and a dozen rounds of five-inch shots at the waterline. The mortally wounded ship was finished off by the nearby US Navy destroyers - which means that this is a reason to exclude the loss from the list of kamikaze victims.
An example is the destroyer Colhoun. On April 6, 1945, he was rammed by a Japanese aircraft and subsequently finished off by fire from the destroyer Kassin Yang.
3. The attacked ships did not always sink in the same place. Taking advantage of their numerical superiority and the weakness of the enemy, the Yankees towed the charred ruins to Pearl Harbor or to the nearest coast, and then used what was left of the ships in the interests of the national economy. Of course, such "wounded" were not included in the official list of losses.
Examples:
Destroyer "Morris" - damaged by the kamikaze at about. Okinawa, towed to the USA. Due to the inexpediency of repairs, it was excluded from the lists of the Navy and cut into metal.
Submarine Hunter PC-1603 - Rammed by a kamikaze, towed to the shore. Subsequently, his hull was used to build a breakwater on the Japanese island of Kerama.
Escort destroyer "Oberrender" - rammed by a kamikaze, towed to the USA. Has not been restored. Sunk as a target in November 1945.
In total, among the large losses from the actions of Japanese suicide pilots, there are 4 escort aircraft carriers and 24 destroyers. Baby destroyers were more likely than others to get hit - firstly, there were a lot of them. Secondly, they provided radar surveillance in the most dangerous areas.
The rest of the list of losses sounds like a mockery of the kamikaze: a destroyer escort, six high-speed Navy transports (converted from obsolete destroyers), two dozen landing craft, a hospital ship, a floating dock, a tanker and several small boats and hunters …
Not a single heavy aircraft carrier, cruiser or battleship!
At first glance, it may seem that 3913 kamikaze pilots died in vain - loud world fame with such worthless results. The desperate courage of the Japanese guys was powerless against combat air patrols and anti-aircraft guns with automated radar guidance.
But blind faith in official American sources is a thankless job. The real state of affairs turned out to be much more serious.
Large ships are known to have a large buoyancy reserve and are not susceptible to damage above the waterline. Hits from bombs, missiles or suicidal ramming "Zero" are not capable of inflicting critical damage.
But this did not stop the American ships from burning to the ground and losing several hundred people from their crew. In such conditions, the most fair criterion for the success of an attack is the damage caused.
Alas, official historiography bypasses this issue.
Kamikaze strike on battleship Maryland. That time, on November 25, 1944, the damage turned out to be significant - the main battery tower was damaged, 31 sailors died
Indeed, whose case turned out to be more difficult: the sinking of the destroyer "Abner Reed" (November 1, 1944, as a result of the incident, 22 sailors were killed) or the second damage to the aircraft carrier "Intrepid" (November 25, 1944, the ship lost 65 crew members and completely lost combat capability)?.. It's hard to say.
More than half of the US Navy's warships in the Pacific theater of operations had "scars" and "marks" after meeting with kamikaze. Often they are repeated. During the battle for Okinawa alone, the kamikaze sank 26 enemy ships and damaged 225, incl. 27 aircraft carriers!
The results of the attacks are impressive.
Spring 45
Their rage knew no bounds. With frenzied persistence, the Japanese set off on their last flight to crash into a meteorite in the sea or on the deck of an enemy ship - as they were lucky. Gusts of the "divine wind" either died down or intensified again, filling the air with surreal horror and the stench of grave decay. The water was boiling, the barrels of the anti-aircraft guns were heating up, and the kamikaze kept walking and walking to give their lives for the great Nippon.
The highest intensity of suicide attacks was noted during the landing on Okinawa. At that time, the Japanese had to defend their own territory - everything that could fly was thrown into the attack: new and battered Zeros, Oka jet rocket planes, single and twin-engine bombers, seaplanes, training aircraft …
In just one day, on April 6, 1945, the American fleet lost six destroyers from kamikaze attacks! On April 7, the battleship Maryland and the heavy aircraft carrier Hancock were damaged. The battleship, having lost 10 anti-aircraft gunners killed on the upper deck, was still able to hold out in position for a week, shelling the coast and repelling countless suicide attacks. The aircraft carrier with a mangled deck had to immediately go to the United States for repairs (the fire that broke out was extinguished at the cost of the death of 62 sailors, another 72 were injured and burned).
On April 16, 1945, the aircraft carrier Intrepid was damaged (for the fourth time!) - by a lucky coincidence, the damage was not great, the crew was able to restore the ship's combat capability in just three hours. However, the very next day Intrepid was forced to leave for renovations in San Francisco.
Explosion on the aircraft carrier "Enterprise"
"Saratoga" is on fire - three kamikaze strikes led to the loss of 36 aircraft of the air wing, the entire nose was destroyed, 123 sailors were killed
It is not often said that the fighting career of the hero of the Midway battle - the famed aircraft carrier Enterprise - was suddenly cut short after a couple of meetings with kamikaze. And if the first attack (April 11) was relatively easy for the ship, the second (May 14) turned out to be fatal - "Zero", controlled by ml. Lieutenant Shunsuke Tomiyasu (thus, whose letter was quoted at the beginning of the article), broke through the wall of anti-aircraft fire and broke through several decks at full speed. There was a deafening internal explosion on the ship - the bow lift was vomited and thrown up 200 meters. The Enterprise remained under repair until the end of the war and was never used again as an aircraft carrier.
Bunker Hill suffered the worst - on May 11, 1945, as a result of two kamikaze attacks, the newest heavy aircraft carrier lost speed, combat effectiveness, buoyancy and lost all hope of salvation. The fire burned down 80 aircraft and about 400 crew members. The squadron command considered the issue of the forced sinking of the ship. Only the absence of new enemy attacks and the presence of a number of dozens of US Navy ships made it possible to rescue and tow the charred ruin to its home shores - Bunker Hill was partially repaired after the war, but was never used for its intended purpose again. In 1947 he was permanently excluded from the active composition of the fleet.
Such cases represent the true meaning of the legend of the kamikaze - alas, authoritative experts on the other side of the ocean prefer to tell the tale of 47 sunken transports, destroyers and patrol boats. The real consequences of powerful attacks seem to go beyond the list of losses - the ship did not sink? No. So everything is ok.
A lot of painful scars and marks remained on the decks of the cruisers. The planes did not manage to sink a single armored monster, but each time the case ended in major damage, fires and twisted sheets of armored decks.
The last dive. Target - the cruiser "Columbia"
In January 1945, the Columbia cruiser (the newest one, of the Cleveland type) was severely damaged - as a result of two kamikaze attacks, the entire main artillery group of the main ship was out of action, 39 people died, and over 100 ended up in the infirmary. However, due to its resilience and high survivability, the cruiser continued to perform missions in the combat zone.
Around the same time, in Lingaen Bay, a double ramming attack hit the Louisville, a Washington-era cruiser with weakened armor. The cruiser required factory repairs, but after a couple of months it returned to service. In total, 41 sailors died as a result of that attack, incl. Rear Admiral T. Chandler - there is a legend that the badly burned commander gave up his privileges and took a place in the general queue in the operating room.
The moment of the explosion on the cruiser "Louisville"
Despite the tragic overtones, the history of the kamikaze knows a couple of surprising and even funny episodes - for example, the incredible incident that happened on the afternoon of April 12, 1945 with the destroyer Stanley. In the course of carrying out radar patrols, the destroyer was pierced through by the Oka jet aircraft. According to the recollections of the crew members, "Oka" hit the ship at a speed of over 500 miles per hour (900 km / h). Part of the debris of the rocket plane got stuck in the hull, but a warhead weighing 1200 kg flew from the opposite side and fell into the water. No one, except the Japanese pilot himself, was injured.
Another unusual story happened to the submarine "Devilfish" - she became the only submarine attacked by a kamikaze. Devilfish escaped with a destroyed deckhouse fence and a leak in a solid hull. I returned to the base on my own.
The circle of victims of the kamikaze was not limited to the US Navy - any ship in the war zone was hit. The first victim of the kamikaze is by no means an American ship, but the flagship of the Australian Navy, the cruiser Australia (October 21, 1944). Having returned to service after repairs, "Australia" again came under attack from a Japanese aircraft, and just a day later, on January 6, 1945, she underwent the third attack! But this was not the limit - on January 8, the Australians had to fight off the kamikaze again (one of the bombs dropped from the downed plane ricocheted off the water and made a hole in the side of the cruiser). The next day, January 9, the superstructure "Australia" was rammed by the fourth Japanese kamikaze. Despite extensive damage and death of fifty crew members, "Australia" was able to stay afloat and after a short repair went under its own power for modernization in the UK.
By the way, about the British. Her Majesty's fleet sent to Okinawa, to the aid of the Yankees, a whole group of warships, incl. heavy aircraft carriers with an armored deck - Victories, Ilastries, Indomitable, Fomidable and Indifatigable. It is not hard to guess what became of these ships.
Deck obstructions HMS Formidable. The power plant's steam line burst from powerful shocks, the speed dropped, the radars went out of order - in the midst of the battle, the ship lost its combat capability
The presence of an armored flight room made it easier for them to endure meetings with kamikaze, the dents were quickly filled with cement - but it was impossible to completely prevent the catastrophic consequences.
Each ram ended in a huge fire on the upper deck, completely destroying the aircraft parked there, and streams of burning gasoline somehow penetrated the hangar, where a fiery hell began. By the beginning of May, only 15 operational aircraft remained on board the orderly burnt Fomidebla!
It is known about at least two meetings with the kamikaze of our sailors - on August 18, 1945, on the way to Vladivostok, the Taganrog tanker was attacked - the anti-aircraft gunners managed to repel the attack, the wreckage of the aircraft fell into the sea. On the same day, near the Shumshu Island (Kuril Ridge), a kamikaze rammed a minesweeper KT-152 (a former fishing boat with a displacement of 62 tons). A Soviet minesweeper with a crew of 17 was the last in the list of victims of the Special Attacks Corps (Tokubetsu kogekitai).
Epilogue
Did they have a chance to save Japan from defeat? Could the kamikaze be able to stop the enemy by defeating his fleet? The answer is no. The forces were too unequal.
Japanese pilots inflicted terrible damage on the allies. No fleet in the world could withstand the "divine wind". None other than the US Navy. Off the coast of Okinawa, the Yankees deployed a group of 1,000 warships and support vessels, which was constantly updated on a rotational basis. Japanese courage was powerless in the face of such power. The damaged ships were immediately replaced by new ones - sometimes even more powerful and perfect than those who crawled away for repairs.
The story of the kamikaze is still of considerable interest. In addition to the massive heroism of Japanese pilots, suicidal rams became a formidable harbinger of a new type of weapon - anti-ship cruise missiles. The Philippines and Okinawa turned into a magnificent training ground, where the capabilities of such "ammunition" were demonstrated in real combat conditions. The accumulated statistical material will make it possible to judge with due confidence about the destructive effect of "winged aircraft-projectiles" and the consequences of their hitting the ship. This is a direct answer to the question of which class of ships turned out to be the most resistant and tenacious when hitting the surface of the hull, as well as about measures of protection and minimization of combat damage.
Damaged cruiser "Australia"
Bunker Hill is on fire
Aircraft carrier Intrepid has big flight deck problems
Explosion of the escort aircraft carrier "Saint Lo". The ship was lost
British Victories hit
The wreckage of Junior Lieutenant Tomiyasu's plane, found during the repair of the Enterprise.
Currently housed in the Kanoya Air Base Museum
