[Military Martial Plane] Author: FriedrichLau
At the end of World War II , the Japanese army was already in a state of defeat on Pacific battlefield . The unwilling Japanese army established Kamikaze Special Attack Team with the support of a group of deadly militarists represented by Oshiki Takijiro . They played the slogans such as "one bullet for one ship" and created a variety of suicide weapons. Although these weapons ended up having little effect on the battlefield, they still caused great psychological shock to the US soldiers participating in the war, and also led to many Japanese young people who were brainwashed by the spirit of Bushido to embark on a path of no return and become a funeral for Japanese militarism. This article will introduce to you a special attack weapon of Japanese Navy : the torpedo of the torpedo.
▲1 Type 1 Restoration Human Warning Torpedo
As described in this name, this suicide weapon is improved based on conventional torpedoes, but unlike unguided torpedoes, Restoration Torpedo can be manipulated by a soldier in the cockpit, constantly changing directions during the navigation until the target hits. The name " Huitian " also represents the Japanese army's hope to turn the situation around.
▲Renake Guanfu Navy Lieutenant
The idea of a torpedo to be returned to the sky was first born in 1943. It was proposed by Captain Hiroki Kuroki and Lieutenant INKOKO, who were affiliated with the Japanese Navy submarine force. His main idea was to modify the 93 torpedo , which was active in the Japanese army at that time, and then install mechanical devices that can be controlled by humans and launch a suicide attack on the US military. At first, the plan was not approved by the Japanese base camp, but as time entered 1944, the unfavorable development of the war situation caused the Japanese army to re-examine the plan, and secretly started research and development at the Wu Haijun factory in February 1944, and completed the production of the first prototype torpedo on July 25 of the same year.
▲Type Nine-Three Torpedo
Recovery Day torpedo is about 14 meters long, 1 meter in diameter, a displacement of 8.5 tons, a speed of 30 knots, a maximum range of 40 nautical miles, and is equipped with 1,550 kilograms of high explosives, three times that of ordinary torpedoes. According to the functional attributes, the torpedo consists of 3 parts. The first part is filled with explosive and the contact detonation device. The second part is a narrow cockpit. In addition to the driving wheel that controls the direction and a small amount of instruments, there is also an periscope that can observe the water surface. The third part is the power part, which can provide 550 horsepower to the torpedo. There are six different modifications in total. Except for the first batch of Type 1 torpedoes, other models are designed to lock the driver immediately after entering the cockpit. If the target is not hit, the driver can also press the self-destruct button and die together with the torpedo. Even if there is an escape device, no driver has ever had the idea of escaping.
▲Periscope of 1 type torpedo
▲ Schematic diagram of the submarine carrying urging torpedo
When the prototype torpedo was completed, the Japanese army was eager to sign the first batch of 100 production orders, and the training of drivers was also carried out at the same time. According to statistics, before Japan's defeat and surrender, the Japanese army produced a total of 420 ured torpedoes, and a total of 1,375 people received torpedo operation training. Most of the selected personnel were between the ages of 17 and 28. The training included basic navigation knowledge training and sailor training, deep diving exercises, basic and advanced torpedo control training, etc. However, during the torpedo testing, the accident continued, and 15 people lost their lives before they even entered the battlefield. Even Captain Kuroki, one of the proposers of the plan, was not spared.
▲The type 1 torpedo experiment conducted by the Japanese army on the Northbound light cruiser
▲On May 23, 1945, the sky-return torpedo carried by the I-361 submarine
Although the Japanese army had high hopes for it, in actual combat, the submarine mothership carrying the sky-return torpedo could not perform deep submarine, and the range of the torpedo was limited, so when facing the US military's strict anti-submarine firepower, the actual effect of the sky-return torpedo was very limited, and the mothership and the torpedo were often sunk. At the end of Pacific War , Huitian achieved 8 effective damage results, including 3 sinking, 1 severely injured and 3 slightly injured.The most successful battle example was the besiege of the USS Underhill destroyer on July 24, 1945, and six torpedoes siege and successfully sank it. On the same day, the Japanese army also achieved the results of slightly injured destroyer R.V Johnson.
▲U.S. Navy U Destroyer
▲On November 20, 1944, the US oil tanker Misiniva
, which was sunk by a torpedo of Huitian in August 1945, the Japanese army pulled all the torpedoes of Huitian back to the country and announced their surrender in the same month. Afterwards, the US military landed in Japan and basically destroyed the torpedoes they found. At present, some of the torpedoes are on display in the Torpedo Memorial Hall in Otsushima, Japan, and other places. Otsushima is a training base for training the torpedo drivers. He is also telling the world about the last madness of the Japanese army back then.
▲The old museum of the infamous Yasukuni Shrine in Japan also contains the torpedo of the sky
