Aviation History - January 2016

PHOTOS: XXX XXXXXXX

january 2016 AH 49

to launch torpedo bombers when at 0740 hours an

A6M Zero, plunging so swiftly that the ship’s gun

crews could not reach their posts in time, hurtled

through its port side into the hangar bay. It killed

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Special Attack Unit. Half an hour later a Japanese

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a 25-foot hole in the hangar deck below. (Its engine

was later found down in the lower compartments.)

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It was left to Lieutenant Yukio Seki, who had

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Special Attack Unit, he had insisted on leading

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married just a few months earlier, he dedicated

his death not to the emperor but to his wife, and

in samurai tradition left her a lock of his hair.)

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hit the escort carrier St. Lo a little before 1100 that

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dozen secondary explosions. The ship’s torpedo

and bomb magazines detonated, blasting smoke

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than 100 men were killed. In 30 minutes St. Lo

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by suicide attack. Within hours kamikazes dam-

aged the carriers Kalinin Bay, Kitkun Bay and White

Plains, Onishi’s handful of planes and pilots caus-

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FOR ONCE

AMERICA

HAD COME

UP AGAINST

A WEAPON

IT COULDN’T

ROLL OFF

ASSEMBLY

LINES.

rites of passage Kamikaze pilots

don samurai headbands (top) and take

part in a saki ceremony (above) before

setting out on one-way missions—in

this instance, taking off from Kyushu in

Nakajima B6N torpedo bombers.