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A kamikaze aircraft crashes into a U.S. warship in May 1945.. Kamikaze (神風, pronounced [kamiꜜkaze]; ' divine wind ' [1] or ' spirit wind '), officially Shinpū Tokubetsu Kōgekitai (神風特別攻撃隊, ' Divine Wind Special Attack Unit '), were a part of the Japanese Special Attack Units of military aviators who flew suicide attacks for the Empire of Japan against Allied naval vessels ...
Almost every make and model of aircraft were used as kamikazes. [3] The most often seen were the Mitsubishi A6M ("Zero," allied code name "Zeke"), Aichi D3A (Allied code name "Val"), Mitsubishi G4M (Allied code name "Betty"), Nakajima B5N (Allied code name "Kate"), Yokosuka P1Y (Allied code name "Francis"), although in the final months of the war, every flyable aircraft was used.
The destroyers Bush and Colhoun were sunk by kamikazes and the destroyers Newcomb and Leutze took heavy damage; the battleship Maryland and 10 other destroyers were targeted by kamikazes as well. The US Navy claimed the loss of 3 destroyers, 1 amphibious warfare ship and 2 munitions transports, along with over 10 other ships heavily damaged.
Various suicide craft were developed in the Japanese Special Attack Units. For the Navy, this meant Kamikaze planes, Ohka piloted bombs, Shinyo suicide boats, Kaiten submarines, and Fukuryu suicide divers or human mines. The Kamikazes were somewhat successful, and the second most successful were the Kaitens. [3]
The Raid on Yontan was an Empire of Japan military operation carried out on the night of May 24–25, 1945 against Yontan Airfield on Okinawa.The airfield was recently seized by American forces during the first day of the Battle of Okinawa and was being used by United States Marine Corps and Army Air Force squadrons.
Yukio Seki (関 行男, Seki Yukio, August 29, 1921 – October 25, 1944) was a Japanese naval aviator of the Imperial Japanese Navy during World War II.As a kamikaze pilot, Lieutenant Seki led one of the three fighter groups of the second official kamikaze attack in World War II (the first official attack was an unsuccessful attempt led by Yoshiyasu Kunō [] on October 21, 1944).
Masafumi Arima (有馬 正文, Arima Masafumi, 25 September 1895 – 15 October 1944) was an admiral in the Imperial Japanese Navy in World War II.An experienced aviator, he is sometimes credited with being the first to use the kamikaze attack, although official accounts may have been invented for propaganda purposes.
USS Laffey (DD-724) is an Allen M. Sumner-class destroyer, which was constructed during World War II, laid down and launched in 1943, and commissioned in February 1944.The ship earned the nickname "The Ship That Would Not Die" for her exploits during the D-Day invasion and the Battle of Okinawa when she successfully withstood a determined assault by conventional bombers and the most ...