In the heat of battle during World War II, a Japanese suicide bomber,
or Kamikaze, was hit before reaching the English heavy cruiser HMS Sussex
and impacted the vessel’s toughest spot: its belt armor.
The event became the only recorded account of an aircraft hitting such a spot.
Its indelible mark became a testament to the desperate attempt by Japanese forces
to stop the American advance towards their land.
The cruiser, on the other hand, remained intact.
A Desperate Idea
After the Battle of Midway in the summer of 1942,
the Japanese expansion over the Pacific and Southeast Asia came to a halt.
From there on, the crippled Empire shifted its strategy and adopted a defensive posture.
By the summer of 1944, Japan began to grow desperate.
Their Air Force was decimated, and the Allied air dominance was unstoppable.
The Japanese also had a shortage of aircraft and skilled pilots.
After the US captured Saipan in July of 1944,
the skies were clear for B29 bombers to unleash hell on Japanese cities.
The civilian population was terrorized by the American bombings,
and the Japanese Army and Navy resorted to a new strategy.
Japanese naval Captain Motoharu Okamura, in command of the Tateyama Base in Tokyo
and the 341st Air Group, proposed the use of suicide pilots to stop the American fleet.
During an inspection, he told Vice Admiral Shigeru Fukudome (QUOTE):
“In our present situation I firmly believe that the only way to swing the war in our
favor is to resort to crash-dive attacks with our planes. There is no other way.”
“There will be more than enough volunteers for this chance to save our country, and I would like
to command such an operation. Provide me with 300 planes and I will turn the tide of war.”
Kamikaze Pilots
Contrary to popular belief, not all Japanese soldiers
shared the way of the Samurai when it came to sacrificing themselves.
The so-called volunteers were not part of the military elite. They were educated farm boys
or college students who preferred serving in the Air Force rather than the infantry.
Still, the Kamikaze pilots, named after the legendary divine winds that saved Japan
from Kublai Khan’s Mongol horde during the invasions of the late 13th century,
descended from the sky for the very first time during the Battle of Leyte Gulf.
It was October of 1944, and the first 24 volunteers of Japan’s 201st Navy Air Group
deliberately flew their Zero fighters into American vessels.
The escort carrier Saint Lo sank in less than an hour, taking the lives of more than 100 sailors.
During the course of the battle, more than 5,000 Kamikaze pilots
sacrificed themselves to take down 34 ships.
Captain Motoharu Okamura would later compare the pilots to bees when he said that,
like a swarm of bees, they (QUOTE): “die after they have stung.”
More than 1,300 Japanese aircraft would crash-dive into Allied warships
during the war, claiming more than 3,000 American and British lives.
Nonetheless, the number of aircraft that failed to reach their objective was even higher.
And one such misfortune occurred to the British Country-class heavy cruiser HMS Sussex.
Impact
On July 26, 1945, an American naval force was attacked by Kamikazes in the Pacific.
HMS Sussex was one of the targets.
Although the Sussex crew managed to hit one of the Japanese aircraft,
the Kamikaze crash-dived into the roughest spot in the warship: its belt armor.
Thanks to its layer of reinforced metal armor made to withstand projectiles,
torpedoes, and artillery shells, the ship barely felt the impact.
The strike only left a dent in the vessel, and to the surprise of the men on board,
an impressive imprint of the Mitsubishi Ki-51 Sonia.
The aircraft sank upon impact, and the imprint left on the
Sussex became a legendary stamp of the battles of the Pacific Theatre.
In a curious turn of events, General Seishirō Itagaki, the commander of the Japanese garrison
in Singapore, signed the Japanese surrender aboard HMS the Sussex only a few months later.
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