Historical Kamikaze Discussion....

[redcoat]

ORIGINAL: timtom

In "Japanese Special Attack Aircraft and Flying Bombs", Ryusuke Ishiguro & Tadeusz Januszewski makes no mention of the G4M at all in the Special Attack role, seemingly supporting the above. The P1Y was deployed in some numbers, however, per the authors. Neither of the two Special Attack versions of the Ki-67 are descriped as having been intended for use against land targets, nor, according to this reference, were any of the aircraft specifically designed for that role deployed tactically unless one includes modifications of existing types. The Ki-21 is not listed as a type used for Special Attack.

Rene Francillon claims that as Ki-21s were retired from first line Jubaku (heavy bomber) sentais some of them were used for suicide attacks. I’ve only been able to find one example of a Sally making such an attack however: one deliberately dived into USS Telfair (APA 210) on 2nd April 1945.

After looking at the P1Y Frances again I’ve realised that they were used by several other Special Attack squadrons as well as the Azusa Special Attack Unit I mentioned earlier.

[ChezDaJez]

I do remember one account, of a betty that was going to attack either the Lexington or Yorktown during the Battle of Coral Sea, where it was shot up and attempted to crash into the carrier, missing it by a few feet and splashing into the ocean. Can anyone confirm this, been a while since I read it but I do know the photo is out there I will try to find it.

There is an excellent picture of a Nell with an engine shot off and piloted by Kazou Nakai who attempting to crash into the Enterprise during the Marshall Islands raid in Feb 42. His right wing clipped the tail of a SBD on deck and then sheared off, drenching the flight deck and island with gasoline. The plane itself crashed into the sea. The action is described in Lundstrom's "The First Team". Unfortunately, I don't remember where I saw the picture.

This was not a dedicated kamikaze attack however.

Chez

[spence]

There is an excellent picture of a Nell with an engine shot off and piloted by Kazou Nakai who attempting to crash into the Enterprise during the Marshall Islands raid in Feb 42. His right wing clipped the tail of a SBD on deck and then sheared off, drenching the flight deck and island with gasoline. The plane itself crashed into the sea. The action is described in Lundstrom's "The First Team". Unfortunately, I don't remember where I saw the picture.

This was not a dedicated kamikaze attack however.

I think it was in "The First Team" actually. Just happened to be looking over that book today.

[ChezDaJez]

ORIGINAL: spence

There is an excellent picture of a Nell with an engine shot off and piloted by Kazou Nakai who attempting to crash into the Enterprise during the Marshall Islands raid in Feb 42. His right wing clipped the tail of a SBD on deck and then sheared off, drenching the flight deck and island with gasoline. The plane itself crashed into the sea. The action is described in Lundstrom's "The First Team". Unfortunately, I don't remember where I saw the picture.

This was not a dedicated kamikaze attack however.

I think it was in "The First Team" actually. Just happened to be looking over that book today.

Just found the picture and realized its for an entirely different action, this one involving Lexington during the Bougainville raids. Nakai's Nell did attempt to crash into the Enterprise as I described. The second attempt was a few weeks later when LCDR Ito attempted to crash his crippled plane into Lexington but missed. The picture shows his Betty with its left engine shot entirely off the aircraft just before it plunged into the sea.

Chez

[redcoat]

ORIGINAL: ChezDaJez

Just found the picture and realized its for an entirely different action, this one involving Lexington during the Bougainville raids. Nakai's Nell did attempt to crash into the Enterprise as I described. The second attempt was a few weeks later when LCDR Ito attempted to crash his crippled plane into Lexington but missed. The picture shows his Betty with its left engine shot entirely off the aircraft just before it plunged into the sea.

Chez

[vonTirpitz]

Whilst investigating the merits of building the Hickory I happened upon a interesting title on google books called "Kamikaze Attacks of World War 2" by Robin L. Rielly which had this excerpt in addition to a lot of detail related to strategy and tactics. Thought I'd share with the thread.

[aprezto]

From what I understand of the typical kami pilot, they weren't very well trained. Take off, level flight and pointing the plane in the right direction. Landing, for obvious reasons, was brushed over.
 
Would the added difficulty of twin engine aircraft trimming and the like, to keep the effect of two engines under control, be enough of a hindrance to using these ACs in a quick fire training program?
 
Hypothesis with no fact to back it up