Did Anyone Watch...

[r5TPsooner]

the Kamikaze show last weekend on the Nation Geographic channel that documented the Kamikaze missions on Pearl Harbor? That was one great show, and the Japanese guys who flew the missions were just sick. They even interviewed the some of the higher ups who ordered the missions as well as touching on when the USA dropped the Atomic Bombs and how the Japanese continued one last Kamikaze afterwards but was later called off.

Well worth watching if you're into history or military history especially if you have HDTV.

[Miko]

I missed it and would have enjoyed that. I obviously would have learned something too. I thought Nippon didn't invoke the "sacred wind" until later in the war. I thought early on they had a considerable advantage in experienced pilots and superior torpedos (range/reliability) and had wiped out so much of our fleet that they didn't drop the landing portion of flight school for a few years.

[Harry Beanbag]

They interviewed Japanese pilots that carried out a Kamikaze mission?

[SOONER STEAKER]

They interviewed Japanese pilots that carried out a Kamikaze mission?

How do you interview a pilot who flew his plane nose first into the deck of a aircraft carrieer? :rolleyes:

Must have been a kamkaze pilot who never flew a mission or one that came back from the dead.

[Harry Beanbag]

How do you interview a pilot who flew his plane nose first into the deck of a aircraft carrieer? :rolleyes:



No ****. That's why I was asking for clarification.

[JohnnyMack]

I didn't think the Japanese used Kamikaze until very late in the war. Well after PH.

[SOONER STEAKER]

I've watched the WAR SERIES but I don't think it was National Geographic but I could be wrong. Some of those History CH have some pretty good stuff.

[GottaHavePride]

um, he only said they interviewed some of the officers who gave the orders for the missions. Not the actual dead pilots.

[r5TPsooner]

um, he only said they interviewed some of the officers who gave the orders for the missions. Not the actual dead pilots.



Reading comprehension is wonderful isn't it?:D

[Harry Beanbag]

Reading comprehension is wonderful isn't it?:D


So is the edit feature.

[JohnnyMack]

I didn't think the Japanese used Kamikaze until very late in the war. Well after PH.

Why yes, I think you're right, in fact I'm pretty sure the use of kamikaze tactics wasn't implemented until 1944 or so, but I haven't seen Homey in here to verify that fact.

[Harry Beanbag]

Why yes, I think you're right, in fact I'm pretty sure the use of kamikaze tactics wasn't implemented until 1944 or so, but I haven't seen Homey in here to verify that fact.


That's what I always heard. Around the time we started retaking the Phillipines.

[Okla-homey]

You are correct. The June '44 Phillippine Sea campaign broke their back.

We lost 123 planes destroyed (about 80 of whose crews survived.)

Contrasted with the fact the Japanese suffered 3 carriers sunk,
and about 600 planes destroyed. Their crews could not be rescued.

Overall 6-1 kill ratio in our favor.

On one two day period in particular, known in the lore of Naval Aviation as "The Great Marianas turkey Shoot" we enjoyed a 12-1 kill ratio.

In short, after the early summer of 1944, the Japanese still had some planes left, and the ability to build more, but they had no experienced guys left to fly them.

Thus, the concept of one-way suicide missions was born. Find some young go-getters, of which they had plenty, teach them flying rudiments, tell them they are doing a great thing, and send them out to become manned anti-ship cruise missiles.

Interestingly, a strategy adapted and used successfully on 9/11/01 by ALQ.

[LoyalFan]

And, not to be a prig about it...

Kamikaze translates as "Divine Wind", not "Sacred Wind" but kinda pretty much the same thing though?

Kami-Divine
Kaze-Wind

Some of the IJN (Imperial Japanese Navy) destroyers were named after various "kazes". A windy bunch to be sure. Them danged little fellers had more danged winds than yew could shake an anemometer at.
Why, there was the famous "Ichikaze" (Psoriasiswind), the dauntless "Scruyukaze" (Upyourswind), "Puikaze" (Whobrokewind), a vessel always deployed downwind of the rest of the fleet, and the ill-fated "SicEmkaze" (Neuterwind).
Lookie here (in all the various classes of Japanese tincans.) and you'll find "Lottakaze":
http://www.combinedfleet.com/dd.htm

Enjoy, Yankee devils!

I. Yamamoto
Admiral
Still dead as a mackerel

[tbl]

They did a 2 hour episode of "Dogfights" on Kamikaze's on THC. It was awesome.