The kamikaze Japanese paras in Yontan

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Sewer King
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Re: The kamikaze Japanese paras in Yontan

#31

Post by Sewer King » 20 Mar 2011, 06:04

Sewer King wrote:... Is there any knowing if the documentary was made [about the air-landing raid at Yontan]?
I hadn't realized at first, maybe the documentary was that same feature that can now be seen on YouTube?

====================================

Thanks, now I see that the Ki-67 could have been a camera plane. The good amount of film footage makes me wonder where the prints were found. It gives the impression that this particular raid was given especial coverage, to be shown for the inspiration of future special attack fliers. Maybe to inspire the homefront too, to meet the coming Allied invasion?

Not only is the Ki-67 unmarked on tail and unarmed, but it also seems to have a "solid" nose instead of the normal glazed one. Maybe it only appears this way in the photo, since only the plane's heavy interceptor (Ki-109) and special attack {Ki-57-Kai) had solid noses?

-- Alan
Last edited by Sewer King on 20 Mar 2011, 13:33, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: The kamikaze Japanese paras in Yontan

#32

Post by Luftflotte2 » 20 Mar 2011, 06:41

Ki-67-Kai* :wink: as in the Ki-167 or the kamikaze version of the basic bomber (Ki-67 To-Go)? The Ki-167 had a solid nose and so did the Ki-109. Only 2 Ki-167s were made, one of which carries the markings of the Fugaku Tai special attack corps.


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Peter H
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Re: The kamikaze Japanese paras in Yontan

#33

Post by Peter H » 20 Mar 2011, 11:58

From: http://www.pacificwrecks.com/airfields/ ... index.html
Roughly 8-12 commandos using explosives destroyed aircraft and set 70,000 gallons of fuel on fire, before they were all located and killed. On the bodies of some of the raiders, detailed maps were found, that included the most recent constructions. In total, the attackers destroyed 9 aircraft and damaged 29 more, including: VPB-109 PB4Y-2 Privateer destroyed and another damaged beyond repair. One survived and around June 12 joined the Thirty-Second Army on Okinawa.
One commando survived,got thru to Japanese lines?
Source: IJN Confidential Telegram No.121340 ,12 June 1945



Film still---determined
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Akira Takizawa
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Re: The kamikaze Japanese paras in Yontan

#34

Post by Akira Takizawa » 20 Mar 2011, 14:06

Peter H wrote:One commando survived,got thru to Japanese lines?
It is only a rumor. Not confirmed.

Taki

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Sewer King
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Re: The kamikaze Japanese paras in Yontan

#35

Post by Sewer King » 20 Mar 2011, 14:57

Luftflotte2 wrote:Ki-67-Kai* :wink: as in the Ki-167 or the kamikaze version of the basic bomber (Ki-67 To-Go)? The Ki-167 had a solid nose and so did the Ki-109. Only 2 Ki-167s were made ...
I was going by the listings in Francillon's book (page 190-191). A fine book, but the fine ones might have mistakes too. Looking again, the "solid" nose might in fact be caused by two things:
  • Like their German counterparts, Japanese bombers had heavily-framed nosecaps rather than the one-piece blown acrylic ones of some medium US bombers.

    We are seeing it blurred through the arc of a spinning propeller, as well as on a film still.
So probably my first impression was mistaken to begin with.

====================================

One of the PacificWrecks.com sources is a booklet from the "Marines in World War II Commemorative Series:"
Final Campaign: Marines in the Victory on Okinawa wrote: ...The surviving plane made a wheels-up belly landing on the air strip, discharging troops as she slid in sparks and flames along the surface.
This seems near-impossible, although the famous "fog of war" can continue into some after-action reports. Hadn't the commandos blown out their Ki-21's nosecap glazing to run out of it?

I can't yet find an account which says that the defenders could hear the giretsu screaming a battle cry together, as their plane came in on its final run to crash-land. This seems likely to have been done, but not that it could be heard from there, could it? More likely it would have been done as they jumped from the plane.

Some maps were reportedly recovered from the dead commandos. What if more or all of their planes had landed on target? It would be interesting to see the full plan of the Yontan raid drawn out on maps, if it hasn't already been done.

-- Alan

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Peter H
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Re: The kamikaze Japanese paras in Yontan

#36

Post by Peter H » 20 Mar 2011, 22:19

Akira Takizawa wrote:
Peter H wrote:One commando survived,got thru to Japanese lines?
It is only a rumor. Not confirmed.

Taki
Thanks Taki
Peter

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Re: The kamikaze Japanese paras in Yontan

#37

Post by Jayslater » 29 Mar 2011, 16:32

Wow! This would make a greatn topic for a book.

Any takers? :-)

Jay
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Peter H
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Re: The kamikaze Japanese paras in Yontan

#38

Post by Peter H » 09 Apr 2011, 11:31

From ebay,seller geeindustry
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Re: The kamikaze Japanese paras in Yontan

#40

Post by ShindenKai » 10 Jul 2013, 10:47

In regards to the pic of the Ki-67 variant posted on page 2, seems to be Kamikaze modified verison, w/solid nose. Notice also the lack of waist blister gun positions (which should be visible, immediately in front of hinomaru), another indicator of a Kamikaze mod... Lack of unit/tail markings, most likely the work of a wartime censor or it hadn't been delieved to its unit yet..

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Re: The kamikaze Japanese paras in Yontan

#41

Post by steve f » 13 Nov 2014, 22:03

I thought I'd add a reply to this topic even though the thread is pretty old.

My dad was a member of the U.S. Navy 87th Construction Battalion (Seabees) who were building the Yontan airfield when the night attack took place. He was there that night and is still alive today, 91 years old. I have his battalion cruise book, which is kind of an official company scrapbook (professionally done, a bound volume of over 300 pages of photos and narrative). The caption at the top of the narrative in the book for that night says "Night Shift Are Ringsiders For Airborne Invasion".

The narrative of the cruise book pretty much agrees with other accounts, after making it through the outlying picket line, 4 'Sally' bombers were shot down near the landing strip, with one actually exploding over a section of the landing strip. It must have been a huge explosion because a photo taken the next day shows metal parts scattered over a large area, with few of the pieces being larger than a football. One bomber made it through and executed a wheels up landing. According to the cruise book there were 15 commandos in each of the bombers.

Per the book, 20 U.S. planes parked at the airfield were destroyed by the Giretsu in the attack, and a large fuel dump was blown up. There is a photo in the book taken from two miles away showing the night sky lit up from the burning fuel. The night crew who were working on the airstrip were trapped on the field and grabbed their weapons (mostly 1903 Springfield rifles) and took cover under the heavy equipment.

There isn't any mention of U.S. casualties. There are individual pictures of two Japanese Giretsu lying dead on the airstrip, one wearing two ammo belts and the other with a haversack said to contain dynamite and fuses. All the Giretsu on the plane were killed during the firefight that followed the landing.

My dad remembers it as a night of chaos. Along with the fuel dump, planes alongside the airstrip were exploding and burning and there was constant gunfire from all directions. Friendly fire was as much of a threat as the Japanese, some of the Marines and Seabees were shooting at anything that moved. In the morning the planes and fuel dump were still smoldering, the bodies of the Japanese Giretsu were scattered all over the airstrip and overall it was a very grim scene.

According to my dad, a day or two before the attack a group of Seabee replacements arrived and were doing a lot of macho griping about being late to the war and 'missing the action'. The day after the attack they were all quiet as church mice and none expressed any desire to see more action.

Tucked away in the back of my dad's cruise book is an aging two page letter of commendation dated 16 June 1945 given to members of the 87th Battalion for completion of the Yontan Airfield with multiple endorsements from officers up and down the chain of command. The letter was well deserved I would say.

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