Suicide pilots

Discussion in 'The War In The Air' started by robin bird, Jan 19, 2020.

  1. robin bird

    robin bird Well-Known Member

    Is it true that the cockpits on Japanese suicide aircraft were screwed down?
     
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  2. CL1

    CL1 116th LAA and 92nd (Loyals) LAA,Royal Artillery

    Were they not so fixated with their ridiculous emperor that they flew standard
    Ie cockpit bubble slidey slidey as per norm and parachute

    I think this is an urban myth
     
  3. Robert-w

    Robert-w Banned

    Yes and no. Pilots flying conventional aircraft were under orders to return to base and land if a worthwhile target could not be hit, so that they and the aircraft were available for another sortie. This is why some Kamakaze pilots survived the war. So the cockpit slide would remain as normal. However the air launched specialist suicide aircraft were on a one way trip whatever happened and for simplicity of manufacture the cockpit cover was bolted on.
     
  4. CL1

    CL1 116th LAA and 92nd (Loyals) LAA,Royal Artillery

    Robert thats fine
    can you show the bolted on bit I would be interested

    I just spoke to a mate whose thesis at university of the 3rd age was

    Titled
    From Zero to Hero

    and he said the bolting was a myth
     
  5. Dave55

    Dave55 Atlanta, USA

    It would seem a waste of resources to build sliding mechanisms on an plane without any landing gear but it looks like this one could be slid open and closed.

    upload_2020-1-19_7-41-36.png
     
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  6. Robert-w

    Robert-w Banned

    There was a K-1 trainer version of the Ohka with retractable skids (see Francillon, Japanese Aircraft of the Pacific War) and that would have to have a opening canopy. Over 40 of these were built. The drawing appears to be of the K-1 trainer preserved in the Air Force Museum and matches the photo in Francillon. The prototypes would also need to have opening cockpits for flight testing but production models were simplified as much as possible. They were pretty useless as the range was too short. The larger later Model 22 version with a primitive jet rather than solid fuel rockets would have had the range but only prototypes were completed.
     
    Last edited: Jan 19, 2020
  7. CL1

    CL1 116th LAA and 92nd (Loyals) LAA,Royal Artillery

    thats to stop him melting it down

    [​IMG]
     
  8. Dave55

    Dave55 Atlanta, USA

    It was not a trivial task to manufacture a sliding canopy. Considering how they made late war rifles, I'd be surprised if they made any non-training Ohkas with sliders.

    Late war Arisakas had a wooden buttplate.

    upload_2020-1-19_9-6-37.png
     
  9. Robert-w

    Robert-w Banned

    The majority of Ohkas had wooden framed canopies. AFAIK these were slid shut once the pilot was in and secured with a couple of bolts - not to keep him in but to prevent it coming open in during the attack phase. Once the plane was secured under the bomber it would have been impossible for the pilot to get out anyway

    Suicide pilots flying in conventional aircraft would have had parachutes for the simple reason that the pilots seat was designed so that he would be sitting of a parachute pack

    It should be noted that all but one of the American ships sunk by suicide attack were done so by conventional aircraft
     
  10. Harry Ree

    Harry Ree Very Senior Member

    There is an excellent publication ZERO...the Story of the Japanese Navy Air Force 1937-45 by two Japanese Navy Officers. Masatake Okumiya and Jiro Horikoshi with Martin Caidin providing the English version and a thorough check on the Japanese assertions.

    In the publication,a comprehensive chapter is devoted to The Kamikaze Suicide Attacks.From reading that I would say that there was no policy in place of ensuring a pilot did not deviate from from task....the pilots were all eager volunteers ,being devoted to the Emperor.

    Supplied data includes those Kamikaze aircraft returning for reasons as "Number of aircraft unable to complete suicide attacks because of weather,anti aircraft (that would be Ack Ack) and enemy fighter interception etc"....noted in the Philippines, 67 out of 447 Kamikaze aircraft dispatched.

    The Kamikaze concept was that of the new Manila based naval commander of the First Air Fleet.Vice Admiral Takijiro Onishi. Appointed to his position in October 1944,he found that his offensive aircraft availability was down to 30 Zekes and by patching up Betty bombers,he could put up about 60 aircraft.Down to 30 Zeros,Onishi realised attacks on USN surface vessels would not get through the US screen of Hellcats and mused that an unorthodox method of bombing might be the answer using the Zeke fighter armed with a 550 lb bomb.Despite the Japanese military culture where surrender could not be tolerated,he could not order his pilots to commit mass suicide,his move could only be achieved by consent.On the evening of 19 October spoke to his pilots at the Clark Field and obtained their consent and following that Onishi,formed the suicide unit,the Kamikaze Tokubetsu Kogekitai (Divine Wind Special Attack Squad)...the name Kamikaze honouring the Japanese history of the defeat of the Mongolians twice in the 13th century.Kamikaze operations soon followed,the first on 21 October 1944.

    The publication records that after March 1945,half of the operations against the enemy fleet were Kamikaze attacks.

    Operational data is given on the various phases the Kamikaze policy in the Philippines and later in Formosa..from this data the Japanese Navy claimed USN vessels sunk by Kamikaze strikes in the Philippines...the light carrier,Princeton,the escort carriers Gambier Bay and St Lo....destroyers Johnson and Hoel and the destroyer escort,Samuel B Roberts.Such was the popularity of the policy that the Japanese Army Air Force adopted the practice.

    Glide bombs......the Zeke was restricted to a 550lb bomb load which was thought to be inadequate for achieving a better level of destruction against enemy surface vessels.The solution was the Marudai glide bomb,the Oka (Allies identification, Baka ,Japanese for Fool) which would carry a 2645 lb warhead and be launched from aircraft such as the Betty...the first being designated the Oka 11 and first used on 21 March 1945 against USN carriers off Japan's western coast.The only other occasion that the weapon was used was on Okinawa.There was some Japanese naval disappointment that the Oka could have not been used more widely as planned, as it was envisaged that the weapon had the ability to cause widespread destruction to enemy fleets.There was still intensive development taking place in August 1945 for Oka variations using the German BMW 003 turbojet engine.The glider version,the MXY7 was used for pilot training.

    The Japanese publication uses Oka rather than Ohka .the official Zeke is used rather than the popular Zero of the west .Having said that,the publication is titled "ZERO",probably on account of Martin Caidin's English version.
     
    Last edited: Jan 20, 2020
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  11. Dave55

    Dave55 Atlanta, USA

    One nitpick with your excellent post. Zeke was was the western term, wasn't it? English language male names for fighters.
     
    Last edited: Jan 20, 2020
  12. Tricky Dicky

    Tricky Dicky Don'tre member

    Mitsubishi A6M Zero - Wikipedia

    The official Allied reporting name was "Zero", although the use of the name "Zeke" (from Type 0) was used colloquially by the Allies as well.

    TD
     
  13. Robert-w

    Robert-w Banned

    Other way round - Dave is correct
     
  14. Tricky Dicky

    Tricky Dicky Don'tre member

    Maybe write to Wiki then and have them correct it

    TD
     
  15. CL1

    CL1 116th LAA and 92nd (Loyals) LAA,Royal Artillery

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  16. Dave55

    Dave55 Atlanta, USA

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  17. Robert-w

    Robert-w Banned

    Yokosuka MXY7 was the official designation for the type as a whole and not the glider version
    MXY7 Model 11 was the original version with solid fuel rockets and the only model used in action
    MXY7 Model 22 was slightly larger and powered by the TSU-11 an Italian (Campani) designed form of jet that used a piston engine to power the compressor stage. Prototypes were built but the only test flight ended in disaster
    MXY7 Model 33 was intended to be turbo jet powered but only reached the mock up stage
    MXY7 K-1 was the training glider with water ballast in the nose
    It was also intended to build a pulse jet powered version to be catapult launched from bunkers at an invasion fleet.

    In addition the Japanese built the Nakajima Ki 115 suicide bomber. This was a single seat single engined monoplane with an open cockpit and a droppable under cart. It had a multi fit engine mounting capable of taking a variety of time expired reconditioned engines and carried a single bomb.It was intended to attack Allied beach heads dropping the bomb on one target and diving into another. The prototype was found to have very poor handling on take off and production was delayed whilst this was rectified and had only started when the war ended

    The Kawanshi Baika was a pulse jet engined aircraft loosely based on the German piloted V1 - however the U-boat bearing the design and an example was sunk before it got to Japan and a new design had had to be made. It was still on the drawing board.
     
  18. CL1

    CL1 116th LAA and 92nd (Loyals) LAA,Royal Artillery

    Pulse Jet

    contrary to the popular saying and words of advice "dont try this at home"
    I did and the fireball that followed was quite spectacular which to be honest ,an old large pickled onion jar full of unleaded petrol plus not really following the youtube instructions plus lighting with a garden flame weedkiller wand added to the explosion but it did bring somewhat of a divine wind.




     
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  19. SDP

    SDP Incurable Cometoholic

    A jar of Bonne Maman jam (jar #3) will never be the same again!
     
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  20. Harry Ree

    Harry Ree Very Senior Member

    Zero was the western name which became popular, in quote, song titles,war fiction and of course,opponents who referred to it as the Zero on account of it's Type 0 experimental number,being the first aircraft type number,thought to be the Mishsubishi S-00, allocated in the Japanese year of 2600. However this did not extended to intelligence where it was referred to as the Zeke.Up to 1939,the Japanese year 2599,both the Army and Navy aircraft carried the last two numbers to indicate the type number.

    The navy version of the Zeke was designated A6M with variants A6M1 to A6M9 plus a number of sub variants where:

    A is "Carrier Fighter"
    6 is that it relates to the 6th design by:
    M...Mitsubishi
    Figure indicating Version

    A further letter "K" for Trainer might be added or "N" for Fighter Seaplane,the latter referenced as in the A6M2-N Rufe,the Fighter Seaplane version of the Zeke.

    The names and types of Japanese aircraft encountered by the Allies were difficult to learn so after consultation they agreed to use codenames for identification purposes....thus the identification codeword Zeke was officially adopted finally, after there had been some confusion with the codeword stemming from the Zero Model 3-2 .

    This model was first given the codeword"Hap",later changed to "Hamp" to avoid similarity between "Hap" and "Jap".When the generic codeword Zeke was allotted to the Zero, Model 3-2,"Hap" or "Hamp" became known as the Zeke 3-2..The Japanese aircraft nomenclature was that Models were designated on the airframe and subsequent modifications and on the engine and subsequent modifications.Thus the first aircraft would be Model 1-1 followed by 2-1,2-2,3-2 and so on....must have had an impact on spares.

    Japanese aircraft identification by Allies was based on the following.

    Boys'names allotted for fighters and float planes.
    Girls' names allotted for nearly all other aircraft,including bombers,trainers and flying boats.
    Transports were allocated codenames beginning with the Letter "T"although Tojo seems to be the exception.
     
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