(Ebook) American Aces Against The Kamikaze by Edward M. Young ISBN 9781849087452, 9781849087445, 9781780968711, 1849087458, 184908744X, 178096871X

(Ebook) American Aces Against The Kamikaze by Edward M. Young ISBN 9781849087452, 9781849087445, 9781780968711, 1849087458, 184908744X, 178096871X

The Japanese High Command realised that the loss of Okinawa would give
the Americans a base for the invasion of Japan. Its desperate response
was to unleash the full force of the Special Attack Units, known in the
west as the Kamikaze ('Divine Wind'). In a series of mass attacks in
between April and June 1945, more than 900 Kamikaze aeroplanes were shot
down. Conventional fighters and bombers accompanied the Special Attack
Units as escorts, and to add their own weight to the attacks on the US
fleet. In the air battles leading up to the invasion of Okinawa, as well
as those that raged over the island in the three months that followed,
the Japanese lost more than 7,000 aircraft both in the air and on the
ground. In the course of the fighting, 67 Navy, 21 Marine, and three
USAAF pilots became aces. In many ways it was an uneven combat and on
numerous occasions following these uneven contests, American fighter
pilots would return from combat having shot down up to six Japanese
aeroplanes during a single mission. =