Aviation History - January 2016

january 2016 AH 51

OPPOSITE: NATIONAL ARCHIVES; ABOVE: U.S. NAVY

Point, knocking the venerable Saratoga practically

out of the war and sinking Bismarck Sea, all in one

day. In mid-March some two-dozen P1Y1s, each

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to attack the Navy base at Ulithi, 2,500 miles away

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rines to guide them across the trackless ocean.

Only one completed the mission, diving into the

carrier Randolph<PMM`XTW[QWVSQTTML[IQTWZ[

and wounded 105.

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became strongly encouraged, then required.

Pilots were permitted to return from missions due

to engine trouble or inability to locate the enemy,

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radio announced the names of fallen “hero gods”

and broadcast interviews with young Japanese

boys longing to grow up and kill themselves

against American warships. Imperial army troops

strapped on land mines and dived under Ameri-

can tanks, or joined “banzai” suicide charges into

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By the invasion of Okinawa, their home soil,

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world’s largest battleship, Yamato, on its own sui-

cide mission, attempting to beach the great ship

on Okinawa and bombard the Americans; it was

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pedoes and rocket-boosted, piloted glide bombs

(see sidebar, P. 53). Rather than face captivity,

Oki nawans hurled themselves off a precipice

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island’s population died. And almost every morn-

ing Japanese men tied on samurai headbands,

took a ceremonial sip of sake and ascended toward

the heavens, never to touch the earth again.

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pilots was to kill every last one of them, and

quickly, before they entered their death dives.

He devised the “Big Blue Blanket,” dawn-to-

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and guided to intercepts by outlying destroyers,

destroyer escorts, landing ships, minelayers, mine

sweepers—anything with radar—all bristling

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shells. Most kamikaze pilots never lived to reach

the target zone, and those who did often attacked

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percent, perhaps the deadliest surface duty in

the entire naval war and almost a suicide mission

itself. One picket-boat crewman countered the

desperate nature of his duty with black humor

when he painted a big white arrow on his ship’s

deck lettered +)::1-:;<0)<?)A!

On April 16 Intrepid was hit again, losing 40

planes, 10 men killed and 87 wounded. Bunker

Hill, hit by two kamikazes on May 11, burned so

hot that airplanes melted on deck and its elevator

buckled. It went out of action with almost 400

SUICIDE

FEVER SWEPT

JAPAN.

KAMIKAZE

DUTY BECAME

STRONGLY

ENCOURAGED,

THEN

REQUIRED.

ultimate test

On October 25, 1944,

the escort carrier St.

Lo becomes the first

warship sunk by a

suicidal air attack.