Author: Mark Stille
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1472812751
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 84
Get Book Here
Book Description
The ineffectiveness of conventional air attacks on US Navy surface ships, particularly heavily defended targets like carrier task groups, forced the Japanese to re-evaluate their tactics in late 1944. The solution they arrived at was simple – crash their aircraft into American ships. This notion of self-sacrifice fit well within the Japanese warrior psyche and proved terrifying to the American sailors subjected to it. These tactics brought immediate results, and proved effective until the end of the war. This book examines this terrifying new way of waging war, revealing how the US Navy was forced to adapt its tactics and deploy new weapons to counter the threat posed by kamikaze attacks, as well as assessing whether the damage caused to American naval strength by the loss of so many pilots and aircraft actually had a material impact.
Author: Mark Stille
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1472812743
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 84
Get Book Here
Book Description
The ineffectiveness of conventional air attacks on US Navy surface ships, particularly heavily defended targets like carrier task groups, forced the Japanese to re-evaluate their tactics in late 1944. The solution they arrived at was simple – crash their aircraft into American ships. This notion of self-sacrifice fit well within the Japanese warrior psyche and proved terrifying to the American sailors subjected to it. These tactics brought immediate results, and proved effective until the end of the war. This book examines this terrifying new way of waging war, revealing how the US Navy was forced to adapt its tactics and deploy new weapons to counter the threat posed by kamikaze attacks, as well as assessing whether the damage caused to American naval strength by the loss of so many pilots and aircraft actually had a material impact.
Author: Robin L. Rielly
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 0786457724
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 386
Get Book Here
Book Description
"This book details more than 400 kamikaze attacks performed by Japanese aircraft, manned torpedoes, suicide boats and suicide swimmers against U.S. ships during World War II. Part One focuses on the traditions, development and history. Part Two details the kamikaze attacks on ships. Appendices list all of the U.S. ships suffering kamikaze attacks"--Provided by publisher.
Author: Robin L. Rielly
Publisher: Casemate
ISBN: 1935149911
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 449
Get Book Here
Book Description
The untold story of ferocious air and naval combat during the WWII Battle of Okinawa—drawn from primary sources and survivor interviews. This is the story of an overlooked yet significant aerial and naval battle during the American assault on Okinawa in the spring of 1945. While losses to America’s main fleet are well recorded, less well known is the terrific battle waged on the radar picket line, the fleet’s outer defense against Japanese marauders. Weaving together the experiences of the ships and their crews—drawn from ship and aircraft action reports, ship logs, and personal interviews—historian Robin L. Reilly recounts one of the most ferocious air and naval battles in history. The US fleet—and its accompanying airpower—was so massive that the Japanese could only rely on suicide attacks to inflict critical damage. Of the 206 ships that served on radar picket duty, twenty-nine percent were sunk or damaged by Japanese air attacks, making theirs the most hazardous naval surface duty in World War II. The great losses were largely due to relentless kamikaze attacks, but also resulted from the improper use of support gunboats, failure to establish land-based radar at the earliest possible time, the assignment of ships ill-equipped for picket duty, and, as time went on, crew fatigue. US air cover during the battle is also described in full, as squadrons dashed from their carriers and land bases to intercept the Japanese swarms, resulting in constant melees over the fleet.
Author: Steven J. Zaloga
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1849083541
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 49
Get Book Here
Book Description
The destruction of much of the remainder of the Japanese fleet and its air arm in the later half of 1944 left the Japanese Home Islands vulnerable to attack by US naval and air forces. In desperation, the Imperial Japanese Navy proposed using “special attack” formations, or suicide attacks. These initially consisted of crude improvisations of conventional aircraft fitted with high-explosive bombs that could be crashed into US warships. Called “Divine Wind” (Kamikaze), the special attack formations first saw action in 1944, and became the scourge of the US fleet in the battles for Iwo Jima and Okinawa in 1945. In view of the success of these attacks, the Japanese armed forces began to develop an entire range of new special attack weapons. This book will begin by examining the initial kamikaze aircraft attacks, but the focus of the book will be on the dedicated special attack weapons developed in 1944. It also covers specialized suicide attack weapons such as anti-tank lunge mines.
Author: Mike Yeo
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1472829433
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 354
Get Book Here
Book Description
By the middle of 1944, Imperial Japan's armed forces were in an increasingly desperate situation. Its elite air corps had been wiped out over the Solomons in 1942–43, and its navy was a shadow of the force that had attacked Pearl Harbor in 1941. But the Japanese had one last, desperate, card to play. The Japanese High Command decided that the way to inflict maximum damage on the superior enemy forces was to get the poorly trained Japanese pilots to crash their explosive-laden aircraft onto their target, essentially turning themselves into a guided missile. The kamikazes announced themselves in the immediate aftermath of the Leyte Gulf naval battles, sinking the USS St. Lo and damaging several other ships. The zenith of the kamikaze came in the battle of Okinawa, which included ten kikusui (Floating Chrysanthemum) operations which involved up to several hundred aircraft attacking the US fleet. Fully illustrated throughout, Desperate Sunset examines the development and evolution of the kamikaze using first-hand accounts, combat reports and archived histories.
Author: Mike Yeo
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1472829417
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 354
Get Book Here
Book Description
In a last, desperate bid to stave off defeat, Japan's High Command launched the terrifying kamikaze attacks. This fully illustrated book examines Imperial Japan's last throw of the dice. Fully illustrated throughout, Desperate Sunset examines the development and evolution of the kamikaze using first-hand accounts, combat reports, and archived histories. By the middle of 1944, Imperial Japan's armed forces were in an increasingly desperate situation. Its elite air corps had been wiped out over the Solomons in 1942-43, and its navy was a shadow of the force that had attacked Pearl Harbor in 1941. But the Japanese had one last, desperate, card to play. The Japanese High Command decided that the way to inflict maximum damage on the superior enemy forces was to get the poorly trained Japanese pilots to crash their explosive-laden aircraft onto their target, essentially turning themselves into a guided missile. The kamikazes announced themselves in the immediate aftermath of the Leyte Gulf naval battles, sinking the USS St. Lo and damaging several other ships. The zenith of the kamikaze came in the battle of Okinawa, which included ten kikusui (Floating Chrysanthemum) operations that involved up to several hundred aircraft attacking the US fleet.
Author: Jeffrey Veesenmeyer
Publisher: CreateSpace
ISBN: 9781499322224
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 320
Get Book Here
Book Description
Merriam Press Naval History NH3 First Edition (2014) USS Hugh W. Hadley (DD-774) was an Allen M. Sumner-class destroyer which served in the United States Navy during World War II. Commissioned in November 1944, and after extensive shakedown training off the coast of California, Hadley sailed for Ulithi where she joined the Okinawa invasion force. In early May 1945 Hadley was assigned to radar picket duty along with the USS Evans. The following day a large force of Japanese aircraft attacked. The two ships fought off these attackers, but not without damage to themselves. Evans took several hits and was dead in the water; Hadley fought on, but was hit by a bomb and three kamikaze aircraft. Hadley shot down a record 23 aircraft that day and aided in splashing many others, but lost 30 crew members. A determined crew kept her afloat and she was towed back to the States. She was decommissioned in December 1945 and scrapped in 1947. In addition to one battle star for her World War II Service, Hugh W. Hadley received the Presidential Unit Citation for her performance in the action off Okinawa 11 May 1945. This new book by a relative of a crew member killed that day off Okinawa, tells the story of the ship, and that fateful day, through the words of many of the survivors, which the author interviewed. This is not just a story about a ship, but about the men that made that ship a legend in the annals of U.S. Navy history. 9 appendices, bibliography, 112 B&W photos, 6 illustrations, 6 maps, color painting.
Author: Worrall Reed Carter
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Logistics, Naval
Languages : en
Pages : 514
Get Book Here
Book Description
Author: Mark Stille
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1472808509
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 81
Get Book Here
Book Description
As the Pacific War approached a crescendo, the clashes between swarming US Navy carrier aircraft, and the gigantic Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) Yamato-class battleships became symbolic of the fortunes of the two nations. They also served as a metaphor for the profound changes in naval technology and doctrine that the war had brought about. The two opposing forces were the most powerful of their kind - the Japanese Yamato and Musashi were the biggest most heavily armored and armed battleships ever built, while US carrier aviation had evolved into a well-oiled, war-winning machine. With detailed analysis of the technical features of the opposing war machines and a gripping account of the fighting itself, this vividly illustrated work presents views from the cockpits of US Navy Divebombers, and down the sights of IJN anti-aircraft guns, during two of the most dramatic naval engagements ever fought.
