crsutton
Posts: 9590
Joined: 12/6/2002 From: Maryland Status: offline
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quote:
ORIGINAL: wdolson Most of what we have about kamikazes are from western sources. What exactly Japan was doing for kamikaze attacks is very confused from the Allied side as the Japanese regularly sent fighters and more conventional bombers along with attacks that included kamikazes. The fighters were there to try and help the kamikazes get through. From the modeling world, some after market decal sets have been issued for the Special Attack Units. From what I have seen of those, all the aircraft depicted are single engine aircraft. Most were obsolete fighters, training planes, even float planes as well as carrier aircraft that were no longer needed. Aircraft fuel was at a premium at that point in the war and what multi-engine aircraft were flying were flown on other missions like launching Okhas, ASW, maritime search, or night fighters combating B-29s.. The goal was for the kamikazes to get through and multi-engine planes were both bigger targets as well as less maneuverable than single engine planes. If twin engine planes were ever expended as kamikazes, I suspect it was very rare. Throughout the war sometimes pilots of fatally damaged planes decided to crash into the nearest Allied ship. There were probably a few instances of this happening in the late stages of the war which were chalked up as kamikazes by the Allies, but that was not the originally intended mission. I see Osprey has a history of the kamikazes and the aircraft they used out. Their books are usually pretty good for details on the types of equipment used. Bill In my last campaign, one of Viberpol's betty pilots decided to die for the emperor and hit the Alabama. Got a magazine explosion for his efforts. Well, you know the rest... But it was a conventional bombing attack.
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