I recently read a book called Brave Ship Brave Men. It was an interesting book in that it essentially was reconstructed from the official Deck Logs and survivors of the USS Aaron Ward. The Aaron Ward was a Destroyer Minelayer which survived 6 hits from kamikaze May 1945. I am curious, which small boy took the most damage from the kamikaze and survived?
The Ship That Would Not Die by F. Julian Becton with Joseph Morschauser III Pictorial Histories Publishing, 1980, 295 pages read it back when it first came out great book.
It depends on how you define effective. They did a huge amount of damage, and even sank a few ships, but they failed to sink any /major/ ships unless you count CVE's. The problem with the kamikaze was it generally didn't put a hole in the hull, and they weren't able to hit the big carriers fast enough to knock them all out for any length of time. It was just one or two here or there, and when the fast carrier force is running upwards of 15 bird farms, one or two isn't going to change the amount of pressure they put on you. Japanese aircraft also weren't tough enough to penetrate CAP then the ships AA, then actually hit.
The fear of a blind side/ unforseen casualty (i.e. kamikaze) I would say is much more intimidating than a flood or fire. We had a switchboard go up in flames and catch the overhead (ceiling) in AMR (Auxiliary Machine Room) on fire on my wood hulled minesweeper. Everyone stayed cool and it was under control in minutes. However, a small boat crashing into the side of us in the Arabian Gulf would be FAR scarier. Not to mention it is something you can't really train for, except for generic DC training. On the subject of DC training... Wet (flooding) Trainer in Groton, CT is amazing! Sooooo much fun. I did it in the middle of wiinter so the water in the storage tank was nice and cold (I'd guess 50-60F). One kid got his head busted open by a wrench caught in a water stream. Very realistic, very scary. Those guys spending all that time at GQ in WWII being constantly attacked. Those were iron men! Many of our experiences were childs play compared to that! Das Butts
Mike, I know what you are talking about. DC trainers are pretty realistic, but nothing compared to the feel of a real casualty. I was stationed onboard USS Inflict (MSO-456). I was always worried about fire or flooding especially on that little leaking wood hull boat.
There's the psychological aspect as well. Americans are not conditioned to a tactic like that, and it's hard to wrap your mind around which adds extra fear. My grandfather was a 20mm gunner on the Pittsburgh, and even though the Pitt was never hit, Grandpa wouldn't talk about it. Being at battlestations all day long, and watching the other guys deliberately kill themselves on you is a lot of strain.
Amen to that Mike, Amen to that! They are the reason we exercised all the time, so we deal half as well (hopefully) as they did. J
Nothing about kamikazes, but the japanese cruiser Kumano took something like 17 bombs and 4 torpedoes and a typhoon to sink.
Hmm... I'll take a swarm of kamikazes over flooding casualty at 400ft deep any day. One sub I read the incident report from was on the surface, and a huge wave came over the top of the sail, and pushed a column of water down the sail from the bridge. Took on a great quantity of water, driving the nose of the sub deeper under (with the hatches still open, remember), and only thru heroic efforts did they not all die right there. And that was on the surface already. To say nothing of the Thresher incident. Far scarier than something I can try to dodge and shoot at. NOT to disparage the guys who fought off kamikaze swarms and slept at the guns on 72 hour battlesations. Those guys defined hardcore. Just saying that flooding is way scarier to me than homicidal pilots
I was watching an older episode of Sons of Guns, with Woody Williams the last surviving Marine Medal of Honor receipiant from World War II. He carried a flame thrower in Iwo Jima. His citiation is is incredible. I can not image walking around with an 80 lb can of napalm on my back while people were shooting at me.