The Kamikaze Campaign 1944–45: Imperial Japan's last throw of the dice (Air Campaign)

By 1944/45 conventional bomb, torpedo and fighter attacks by the Japanese on the US Navy had become all but suicidal. They faced American radar, combined with lethal numbers of superior fighter aircraft and pilots, then devastating ak ak fire from the ships themselves. Even if they survived and successfully bombed or torpedoed a ship, they were almost certainly shot down as they tried to escape.Unlike the Germans and Americans, the Japanese lacked an electronics industry capable of developing stand-off, precision-guided bombs and rockets. The logical answer was to substitute human guidance, the more so since warfare was decimating and redecimating Japan's experienced pilots and she lacked the aviation fuel and time to train effective replacements. In comparison, a kamikaze pilot was easily trained, since he didn't have to land, and needed no navigational training since an experienced pilot could guide him and his colleagues into visual range, then leave them to it. Once in a dive, they were also relatively difficult to hit and needed only enough fuel for a one-way trip. And, yes, obsolescent aircraft fitted the bill.Had these roles been reversed, I'm sure that many patriotic young Americans, Brits, Anzacs, Canadians, Poles, Czechs, French, etc would have volunteered to plunge into Japanese ships, albeit possibly not in Japanese quantities. Buy the book! you'll see what I mean. I was particularly struck by America's development of a radar-triggered 5" calibre proximity shell. This would have dealt with many a ship, let alone any aircraft. Ergo, the steeper and speedier a death-dive, the better, short of ripping the wings off before momentum finished the job.