allied naval vessels were the main target of the japanese kamikaze pilots.
allied naval vessels were the main target of the japanese kamikaze pilots.
what was the main target of the japanese kamikaze pilots?
allied naval vessels
, official name: , or were suicide attacks by military aviators from the empire of japan against allied naval vessels in the closing stages of the pacific campaign of world war ii, designed to destroy warships more effectively than was possible with conventional attacks. numbers quoted vary, but at least 47 allied vessels, from pt boats to escort carriers, were sunk by kamikaze attacks, and about 300 damaged. during world war ii, nearly 3,000 kamikaze pilots were sacrificed. about 14% of "kamikaze" attacks managed to hit a ship. the japanese high command exaggerated the effectiveness of the "tokko" attacks, claiming six aircraft carriers, one escort aircraft carrier and ten battleships had been sunk.
list of allied vessels struck by japanese special attack weapons
in the second sino-japanese war, chinese used suicide bombing against the japanese with explosive vests. a chinese soldier detonated a grenade vest and killed 20 japanese at sihang warehouse. chinese troops strapped explosives like grenade packs or dynamite to their bodies and threw themselves under japanese tanks to blow them up. this tactic was used during the battle of shanghai, where a chinese suicide bomber stopped a japanese tank column by exploding himself beneath the lead tank, and at the battle of taierzhuang where dynamite and grenades were strapped on by chinese troops who rushed at japanese tanks and blew themselves up. during one incident at taierzhuang, chinese suicide bombers obliterated four japanese tanks with grenade bundles. the pacific war of world war ii bore witness to the japanese kamikaze suicide attack pilots ("kamikaze" was not a term used by the japanese themselves). late in the war, as the tide turned against japan, kamikaze pilots were deployed to attempt to crash their aircraft into american and allied ships in the pacific. the japanese even developed specialized aircraft for the tactic, such as the yokosuka ohka flying bomb. a successful kamikaze attack would both kill the plane's pilot and damage the target ship, possibly even sinking it. related tactics included the kaiten suicide minisub, a human torpedo which a single japanese pilot would steer into an allied ship.
suicide weapon