Download or read book KAMIKAZE TERROR 2 written by Jeffrey R. Veesenmeyer and published by Blurb. This book was released on 2019-05-22 with total page 302 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: During the final days of World War II, the U.S. Navy faced their worst nightmare; the kamikaze. Special Attack Kamikaze Units became Japan's primary weapon against the U.S Navy in 1945. At Okinawa, their battle cry would be "One man, one ship." Massive attacks by hundreds of planes became their preferred tactic. Sailors watched in horror as kamikazes carrying a 500-pound bomb crashed and exploded on their ships. It was incomprehensible to Americans that men would voluntarily die to deliver death and destruction. Kamikazes created a terror greater than anything the Navy had ever faced. "Kamikaze Terror" describes the epic air/sea battles at Okinawa. You'll learn new details about ships and sailors who fought and died during this last great battle of the war. Read the personal accounts of shipmates from the Hadley, Laffey, Bache, Drexler, Aaron Ward, The Sullivans, Bunker Hill, Bennington, plus amphibs, hospital ships and a dozen more.
Download or read book Kamikaze Attacks of World War II written by Robin L. Rielly and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2010 with total page 386 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This book details more than 400 kamikaze attacks performed by Japanese aircraft, manned torpedoes, suicide boats and suicide swimmers against U.S. ships during World War II. Part One focuses on the traditions, development and history. Part Two details the kamikaze attacks on ships. Appendices list all of the U.S. ships suffering kamikaze attacks"--Provided by publisher.
Download or read book Kamikaze Destroyer USS Hugh W Hadley DD774 written by Jeffrey R. Veesenmeyer and published by Lulu.com. This book was released on 2020-01-15 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Merriam Press World War 2 History. The Hadley was a destroyer which served in the U.S. Navy and in early May 1945 was assigned to radar picket duty at Okinawa. On 11 May, a large force of Japanese aircraft attacked. Hadley fought off these attackers, but not without damage to itself. Hadley fought on, but was hit by a bomb and three kamikaze aircraft. Hadley shot down a record 23 aircraft that day and aided in splashing many others, but lost 30 crew members. A determined crew kept her afloat and she was towed back to the States. This new book by a relative of a crew member killed that day off Okinawa, tells the story of the ship, and that fateful day, through the words of many of the survivors, which the author interviewed. This is not just a story about a ship, but about the men that made that ship a legend in the annals of Navy history. 9 appendices, bibliography, 112 photos, 7 illustrations, 6 maps.
Download or read book At War With The Wind written by David Sears and published by Citadel Press. This book was released on 2008 with total page 536 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the last days of World War II, a new and baffling weapon terrorized the United States Navy in the Pacific. To the sailors who learned to fear them, the body-crashing warriors of Japan were known as "suiciders"; among the Japanese, they were named for a divine wind that once saved the home islands from invasion: kamikaze. Told from the perspective of the men who endured this horrifying tactic, At War with the Wind is the first book to recount in nail-biting detail what it was like to experience an attack by Japanese kamikazes. David Sears, acclaimed author of The Last Epic Naval Battle, draws on personal interviews and unprecedented research to create a narrative of war that is stunning in its vivid re-creations. Born of desperation in the face of overwhelming material superiority, suicide attacks-by aircraft, submarines, small boats, and even manned rocket-boosted gliders-were capable of inflicting catastrophic damage, testing the resolve of officers and sailors as never before. Sears's gripping account focuses on the vessels whose crews experienced the full range of the kamikaze nightmare. From carrier USS St. Lo, the first U.S. Navy vessel sunk by an orchestrated kamikaze attack, to USS Henrico, a transport ship that survived the landings at Normandy only to be sent to the Pacific and struck by suicide planes off Okinawa, and USS Mannert L. Abele, the only vessel sunk by a rocket-boosted piloted glider during the war, these unforgettable stories reveal, as never before, one of the most horrifying and misunderstood chapters of World War II.
Download or read book Hell from the Heavens written by John Wukovits and published by Da Capo Press, Incorporated. This book was released on 2015-04-07 with total page 338 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From acclaimed historian John Wukovits, the untold story of the USS Laffey and her crew, who heroically withstood twenty-two kamikaze attacks at Okinawa which the US Navy describes Òas one of the great sea epics of the warÓ
Download or read book The Sacred Warriors written by Denis Warner and published by Avon Books. This book was released on 1984 with total page 404 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Kamikaze Nightmare written by Ron Burt and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2013-01-08 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: BOOK REVIEW BY: Tin Can Sailors - The National Association of Destroyer Veterans Reviewer: Bernie Ditter Overall Rating: Four Stars: Highly recommended. An excelllent book. Ron Burt writes a compelling story about his older brother's heroism and injuries received at the hands of Kamikaze direct hits on two ships, about his brother's recovery from those injuries and about his own efforts to gather the information necessary to support the process to have his brother awarded the Navy Cross and Silver Star. His brother, Pete Burt, was on the USS OMMANEY BAY (CVE-79) when it was sunk by a Kamikaze attack. While he was in the water following the order to abandon ship he gathered ten non-swimmers and kept them together until rescued. The officer on the whaleboat told Pete that he planned to recommend him for the medals. Following his rescue he was transferred to the USS COLUMBIA (CL-56) where two days later it too was struck by a Kamikaze attack resulting in the injuries sustained by Pete Burt. He was to survive fifty surgeries and twenty-two and one half months in hospitals and nearly a lifetime of post traumatic stress syndrome (PTSD). During much of this time his brother Ron, a four year Navy veteran of the Korean Conflict and a tin can sailor (USS SHELTON (DD-790), spent years of research and writing his account of his efforts to locate veterans who could corroborate Pete's heroism. He contacted the Navy, veteran's organizations, his congressman, placed ads in veterans magazines and contacted numerous veterans by phone, mail and in person. He went to the reunion of the survivors of the OMMANY attack in 1990 and spoke to the nearly 120 veterans and their families who were there. The result is a book that is unique in that it puts a face to the Kamikaze pilots who committed these atrocities, provides vivid first person accounts of the experience (as painful as they are) and gives us a hero that we can all identify with, one who was there and who lived through it with grace. This is a book that will make you think about war in all of its ugliness. Availability: Amazon.com * * * This book (with 28 photographs) is about my brother, Pete Burt, a survivor of four Japanese kamikaze crashes while on board the USS Ommaney Bay (CVE-79) and the USS Columbia (CL-56). These two ships encountered countless attacks from the kamikazes. The Ommaney Bay was sunk while the Columbia sustained three hits, seriously injuring Pete. He was pronounced dead twice, unconscious for 7 days and hospitalized for 22 1/2 months, undergoing 50 operations during that period. He suffered from PTSD for 32 years. For 44 years, he contended that the kamikaze pilot was a woman. Research uncovers a unique aspect of the kamikaze that has remained dormant for years. * * * The Dept. of The Navy has deposited "Kamikaze Nightmare" in their Operational Archives Branch to allow for its preservation and availability to researchers. The book is a fine addition to the Center's World War II Collections and is especially valuable because it adds a personal dimension that is lacking from the official records. Ltr. Aug 1995. * * * Ron Burt holds a Bachelor of Science in Commerce degree from Texas Christian University. A Korean War Veteran, he served on board two vessels, a patrol frigate, the USS Burlington (PF-51) and a destroyer, the USS Shelton (DD-790), from December 1950 to May 1954. He made four cruises to the Far East during that period and earned five combat stars while in Korea. He was on board the Shelton on February 22, 1952, while that ship was defending the island of Yang Do, near Songin, North Korea, from further invasion attempts by the North Korean Communists. The Shelton suffered four direct hits and fifty near hits from five mobile shore battery guns resulting in twelve casualties.
Download or read book Kamikaze Terror written by Jeffrey Veesenmeyer and published by . This book was released on 2017-08-22 with total page 298 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The kamikaze became Japan's primary weapon against the U.S. Navy in 1945. At Okinawa, their battle cry would be "One man, one ship." Massive attacks by hundreds of planes became their preferred tactic. Sailors watched in horror as kamikazes carrying a 500-pound bomb crashed and exploded on their ships. It was incomprhensible to Americans that men would voluntarily die to deliver death and destruction. Kamikazes created a terror greater than anything the Navy had ever faced. "Kamikaze Terror" humanizes the air/sea battles at Okinawa. Read stories from shipmates of the Hadley, Laffey, Bache, The Sullivans and dozens of other ships. Learn how sailors battled the kamikazes in the last big battle of WWII. Feel the fear these young men felt going into battle and the total relief of finally going home. Author Jeffrey R. Veesnemyer told the story of his uncle's ship, the USS Hadley in "Kamikaze Destoryer." New information about the Hadley adds to this expanded story of how sailors and kamikazes fought in a life and death struggle. Now his new book honors the other ships and crews who battled the Divine Wind. Many of these ships were sunk or damaged beyond repair. He tells their stories through words of the surviving sailors. "Kamikaze Terror" includes 21 chapters with photos, maps, diagrams and appendices. It's a must read for anyone with a connection to the Battle of Okinawa, the U.S. Navy or an interest in preserving WWII history.
Download or read book Divine Wind written by Rikihei Inoguchi and published by Naval Institute Press. This book was released on 2013-11-12 with total page 298 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A classic and poignant treatment of Japan's struggle between recognition of the kamikaze's futility and the country's pride in having made the attempt to stem the tide of the American advance in 1944-1945, this account, given by two former Kamikaze pilots, testifies to Japanese perspective of the last days of World War II. This book stands out among English-language translations of Japanese accounts of the Pacific war, and was translated by a former American officer who fought against the Japanese in the Pacific.
Download or read book Blossoms in the Wind written by M. G. Sheftall and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2023-05-09 with total page 497 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A revelatory and groundbreaking account of Imperial Japan’s kamikaze—the suicide pilots of World War II—as told through the eyes of the survivors In the final year of World War II, a horrific new weapon was unleashed in the Pacific: the kamikaze. Idealistic, young Japanese men had been taught that there was no greater glory than to sacrifice one’s life to defend the homeland. Now, with the war all but lost, thousands of these determined warriors were hastily trained in the basics of piloting an airplane, then sent out in waves to crash into enemy warships, suicide attacks that killed altogether some seven thousand American sailors. But what of those men who took the sacred oath to die in battle and lived? In the wake of 9/11, ethnographer M. G. Sheftall was given unprecedented access to the cloistered community of Japan’s last remaining kamikaze survivors. As an American fluent in Japanese, Sheftall was the only westerner to ever sit face-to-face with these men and hear their stories. The result is a fascinating journey into the lives, indoctrination, and mindsets of the kamikaze, through the eyes of participants who are now lost to time.
Download or read book Rain of Steel written by Stephen Moore and published by Naval Institute Press. This book was released on 2020-09-01 with total page 471 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The last Pacific campaign of World War II was the most violent on record. Vice Admiral Marc Mitscher’s Task Force 58 carriers had conducted air strikes on mainland Japan and supported the Iwo Jima landings, but his aviators were sorely tested once the Okinawa campaign commenced on 1 April 1945. Rain of Steel follows Navy and Marine carrier aviators in the desperate air battles to control the kamikazes directed by Vice Admiral Matome Ugaki. The latter would unleash ten different Kikusui aerial suicide operations, one including a naval force built around the world’s most powerful battleship, the 71,000-ton Yamato. These battles are related largely through the words and experiences of some of the last living U.S. fighter aces of World War II. More than 1,900 kamikaze sorties—and thousands more traditional attack aircraft—would be launched against the U.S. Navy’s warships, radar picket ships, and amphibious vessels during the Okinawa campaign. In this time, Navy, Marine, and Army Air Force pilots would claim some 2,326 aerial victories. The most successful four-man fighter division in U.S. Navy history would be crowned during the fight against Ugaki’s kamikazes. The Japanese named the campaign tetsu no ame (“rain of steel”), often referred to in English as “typhoon of steel.”
Download or read book The Kamikazes written by Charles River Charles River Editors and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2018-02-24 with total page 78 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: *Includes pictures *Includes diary entries and other accounts written by kamikaze pilots *Includes a bibliography for further reading One of the most fascinating aspects of World War II was Japan''s use of suicide pilots known around the globe as kamikazes, though the Japanese referred to them as Tokubetsu kogekitai ("Special Attack Units"). Translated as "God Wind," "Divine Wind" and "God Spirit," kamikazes would sink 47 Allied vessels and damage over 300 by the end of the war, but the rise in the use of kamikaze attacks was evidence of the loss of Japan''s air superiority and its waning industrial might. This method of fighting would become more common by the time Iwo Jima was fought over in early 1945, and it was especially prevalent during the invasion of Okinawa in April 1945. The "privilege" of being selected as a kamikaze pilot played directly into the deep-seated Japanese mindset of "death before defeat." The pilot training manual assured each kamikaze candidate that when they eliminated all thoughts of life and death, fear of losing the earthly life can be easily overcome. Still, not all cases of those chosen to be kamikazes were equally noble. Recruits were trained with torturous regimens or corporal punishment, and stories of mental impairment caused by drugs or saki abound. Some were described as "tottering" and dazed, being carried to their planes by maintenance officers, and forcibly pushed in if they backed down. Pilots who could not find their targets were told to turn around and spare their own lives for another day, but if a pilot returned nine times, he was to be shot. At the moment of collision, he was instructed to keep his eyes open at all times, and to shout "Hissatsu" ("clear kill"). Altogether, nearly 4,000 kamikaze pilots died in combat between October 1944 and August 1945, and about one in seven managed to hit his target. At their peak, they did far more damage to the American Navy than did conventional air attacks, and they undoubtedly placed a significant new obstacle in the path of the American forces slowly encircling the Japanese home islands. However, the widespread use of kamikaze tactics darkened and hardened attitudes toward Japan within the American military and helped to set the stage for the total war on Japanese civilians that the American military waged in the closing months of the war. The Marine Corps Gazette noted, "The ruthless atrocities by the Japanese throughout the war had already brought on an altered behavior (deemed so by traditional standards) by many Americans resulting in the desecration of Japanese remains, but the Japanese tactic of using the Okinawan people as human shields brought about a new aspect of terror and torment to the psychological capacity of the Americans." As one sailor aboard the USS Miami recalled about kamikaze attacks at Okinawa, "They came in swarms from all directions. The barrels of our ship''s guns got so hot we had to use firehoses to cool them down." The kamikazes were the most effective weapon the Japanese had in terms of sinking ships, but they only appeared in the final year of the war. The fact that Japan''s military leadership concluded it was both necessary and justified to establish special units of pilots trained to sacrifice their own lives by crashing their planes into enemy vessels was a mark of their own desperation. In the heat of battle, individual soldiers occasionally risked certain or near-certain death to protect their comrades or advance their mission, but organized unites devoted to suicide tactics were virtually unknown before 1944. They appeared only once the course of the war had turned decidedly against the Japanese. The Kamikazes chronicles the history of Japan''s famous suicide pilots and explains when, why, and how Japan resorted to their use near the end of war. Along with pictures of important people, places, and events, you will learn about the kamikazes like never before.
Download or read book Fire from the Sky written by Robert Cecil Stern and published by Seaforth Publishing. This book was released on 2010 with total page 392 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: By late 1944 the war in the Pacific had turned decisively against the Japanese, and overwhelming Allied forces began to close in on the home islands. At this point Japan unveiled a terrifying new tactic: the suicide attack, or Kamikaze, named after the Divine Wind which had once before, in medieval times, saved Japan from invasion. Intentionally crashing bomb-laden aircraft into Allied warships, these piloted guided missiles at first seemed unstoppable, calling into question the naval strategy on which the whole war effort was based. This book looks at the origins of the campaign, at its strategic goals, the organization of the Japanese special attack forces, and the culture that made suicide not just acceptable, but honourable. Inevitably, much mythology has grown up around the subject, and the book attempts to sort the wheat from the chaff. One story that does stand up is the reported massive stock-piling of kamikaze aircraft for use against any Allied invasion of the home islands, if the atomic bombs had not forced Japans surrender. However, its principal focus is on the experience of those in the Allied fleets on the receiving end of this peculiarly alien and unnerving weapon how they learnt to endure and eventually counter a threat whose potential was over-estimated, by both sides. In this respect, it has a very modern resonance.
Download or read book Memoirs of a Kamikaze written by Kazuo Odachi and published by Tuttle Publishing. This book was released on 2020-09-15 with total page 253 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: **Independent Publisher Book Award (IPPY) Winner** An incredible, untold story of survival and acceptance that sheds light on one of the darkest chapters in Japanese history. This book tells the story of Kazuo Odachi who--in 1943, when he was just 16 years-old--joined the Imperial Japanese Navy to become a pilot. A year later, he was unknowingly assigned to the Kamikaze Special Attack Corps--a group of airmen whose mission was to sacrifice their lives by crashing planes into enemy ships. Their callsign was "ten dead, zero alive." By picking up Memoirs of a Kamikaze, readers will experience the hardships of fighter pilot training--dipping and diving and watching as other trainees crash into nearby mountainsides. They'll witness the psychological trauma of coming to terms with death before each mission, and breathe a sigh of relief with Odachi when his last mission is cut short by Japan's eventual surrender. They'll feel the anger at a government and society that swept so much of the sacrifice under the rug in its desperation to rebuild. Odachi's innate "samurai spirit" carried him through childhood, WWII and his eventual life as a kendo instructor, police officer and detective. His attention to detail, unwavering self-discipline and impenetrably strong mind were often the difference between life and death. Odachi, who is now well into his nineties, kept his Kamikaze past a secret for most of his life. Seven decades later, he agreed to sit for nearly seventy hours of interviews with the authors of this book--who know Odachi personally. He felt it was his responsibility to finally reveal the truth about the Kamikaze pilots: that they were unsuspecting teenagers and young men asked to do the bidding of superior officers who were never held to account. This book offers a new perspective on these infamous suicide pilots. It is not a chronicle of war, nor is it a collection of research papers compiled by scholars. It is a transcript of Odachi's words.
Download or read book Kamikazes Corsairs and Picket Ships written by Robin L. Rielly and published by Casemate. This book was released on 2008-09-05 with total page 449 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The untold story of ferocious air and naval combat during the WWII Battle of Okinawa—drawn from primary sources and survivor interviews. This is the story of an overlooked yet significant aerial and naval battle during the American assault on Okinawa in the spring of 1945. While losses to America’s main fleet are well recorded, less well known is the terrific battle waged on the radar picket line, the fleet’s outer defense against Japanese marauders. Weaving together the experiences of the ships and their crews—drawn from ship and aircraft action reports, ship logs, and personal interviews—historian Robin L. Reilly recounts one of the most ferocious air and naval battles in history. The US fleet—and its accompanying airpower—was so massive that the Japanese could only rely on suicide attacks to inflict critical damage. Of the 206 ships that served on radar picket duty, twenty-nine percent were sunk or damaged by Japanese air attacks, making theirs the most hazardous naval surface duty in World War II. The great losses were largely due to relentless kamikaze attacks, but also resulted from the improper use of support gunboats, failure to establish land-based radar at the earliest possible time, the assignment of ships ill-equipped for picket duty, and, as time went on, crew fatigue. US air cover during the battle is also described in full, as squadrons dashed from their carriers and land bases to intercept the Japanese swarms, resulting in constant melees over the fleet.
Download or read book Kamikaze written by Steven J. Zaloga and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2011-09-20 with total page 95 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The destruction of much of the remainder of the Japanese fleet and its air arm in the later half of 1944 left the Japanese Home Islands vulnerable to attack by US naval and air forces. In desperation, the Imperial Japanese Navy proposed using “special attack” formations, or suicide attacks. These initially consisted of crude improvisations of conventional aircraft fitted with high-explosive bombs that could be crashed into US warships. Called “Divine Wind” (Kamikaze), the special attack formations first saw action in 1944, and became the scourge of the US fleet in the battles for Iwo Jima and Okinawa in 1945. In view of the success of these attacks, the Japanese armed forces began to develop an entire range of new special attack weapons. This book will begin by examining the initial kamikaze aircraft attacks, but the focus of the book will be on the dedicated special attack weapons developed in 1944. It also covers specialized suicide attack weapons such as anti-tank lunge mines.
