Richard ONeill - Suicide squads : the men and machines of World War II special operations

In this study of suicidal missions during World War II, I have concentrated upon those operations in which purpose-designed suicidal or semi-suicidal weapons were employed. Thus, although I attempt a comprehensive account of the development and deployment of such weapons as midget submarines, human torpedoes, explosive motorboats and kamikaze aircraft, I do not describe the hazardous missions of such special forces as the various Allied and Axis Commando, Ranger and Assault Pioneer units. Although dangerous in the extreme, their missions were not truly suicidal; in that they were not undertaken with the expectation, or the intention, of certain death. For this reason, I have not included details of such near-suicidal missions as the USAAFs Doolittle Raid on Tokyo; the raid of 617 Squadron, RAF, on the Mhne and Eder dams; the Jaywick and Rimau operations of Lt Col Ivan Lyons commandos in the Far East; or the exploits of pro- and anti-Soviet commandos on the Russian Front. For obvious reasons, I have made exceptions to this rule by describing in some detail the development and operations of British, Italian and German small submersibles, explosive boats and experimental aircraft having obvious affinities with similar weapons deployed suicidally by the Imperial Japanese Navy and Army.

Inevitably, Japanese weapons and operations occupy a major part of this book. I have followed the usage of all but the most specialized western sources in giving the names of Japanese individuals in western style, with given name preceding family name.

In the case of warships, I have included the designations HMS, HMAS, USS, etc, only where the context makes such identification desirable. Similarly, I give the identification numbers of US Navy warships only when the context makes it necessary to establish the type of vessel eg, CVE, escort carrier; DE, destroyer escort or where more than one ship of the same name served during World War II; eg, USS Laffey (DD 459) and USS Laffey (DD 724).

In all cases, except where the context would render the practice otiose, imperial measurements are followed, in parentheses, by their metric equivalents. I have attempted always to indicate whether distances are given in nautical miles (nm) or statute miles: apologies are made for any inconsistencies caused by the necessity of reference to sources which fail to specify whether nautical or statute miles are quoted when dealing with naval subjects.

Richard ONeill

London, 1981

T his book could not have been written without the initial help and encouragement of Mr Ryohachi Ikeda, Deputy Chief Priest of Yasukuni Shrine, Kudan, Tokyo. In thanks to him, and in full accordance with my own belief, I respectfully urge the Government of Japan to restore state support to Yasukuni Shrine, where the men to whom Japan owes so great a debt are honoured.

Invaluable help was given by Mr Hideo Aita (former Lieutenant, Imperial Japanese Navy), who generously made available to me his operational history of Shinyo Squadron No 6. Among other veterans of the Special Attack units who provided information were several officers now serving with the Japanese Maritime Self-Defence Force. In accordance with naval custom, they prefer not to be named here. I make an exception, with his permission, of Commander Yoshio Masuda (former Lieutenant, IJN) of the Marine Science and Technology Centre, Yokosuka. For more than two years, in a correspondence that made great demands on his time and patience, Commander Masuda provided information based on his own experience and that of other veterans, as well as commenting on material I had gathered from other sources. His all too brief visit to me in London was a source of both pleasure and inspiration: I hope that one day we may together bow our heads at Yasukuni Shrine to honour the spirits of his fallen comrades.

Grateful acknowledgement is also made to the following individuals and organizations:

Mr Andrew Adams, Foreign Correspondents Club of Japan, Tokyo; Captain Alfredo Civetta and Commander S. Peroni, Italian Embassy, London; Mr N. J. Flanagan, Director, and the staff of the Australian War Memorial, Canberra; Miss Kyoko Funabashi; Mr Peter Hazelhurst; Herr H. Holzer, Deutsches Museum, Munich; Dr S. M. Instone; Captain Masayuki Koyama, JMSDF; Mr Bill Leary, US National Archives, Washington DC; Mr J. S. Lucas and the staff of the Department of Photographs, Imperial War Museum, London; the staff of the State Papers Room and Reading Room, British Library, London; Miss Phyllis Throssell and Captain E. J. Throssell; Ufficio Storico Della Marina Militare, Rome; the Librarian and staff of the War Studies Library, Kings College, London; Colonel John Weeks.

I received invaluable help and encouragement from all at Salamander Books; especial thanks are due to Mark Holt for his patient and expert design work and to Malcolm Little and Ray Bonds.

The views expressed in this book are not necessarily shared by the individuals and organizations whose help is acknowledged here. Any mistakes or misinterpretations of fact are the responsibility of the author alone.

In conclusion, my gratitude and my love go to my wife, Doreen Ehrlich ONeill, for her unfailing belief and support; and, for the pleasure of their company at all times, to my daughter Bekah and my son Danny.

B ecause much of this book deals with the operations during World War II of the Special Attack forces of the Imperial Japanese Army and Navy and their respective air arms, commonly known in the West as the kamikaze, it is necessary here to examine the ideals and beliefs that inspired the suicidal determination displayed by Japanese of all arms and ranks. It is possible to give only the briefest and most generalized account of the development of Japanese culture; yet such an account must be attempted if the reader is to have some answer to the questions most often asked concerning the kamikaze: Why did they do it? How could they do it?

The answer most frequently given by those Western writers who do not simply vilify the kamikaze as fanatics, barbarians or even sub-humans is that the suicide squads were inspired by bushido (the way of the warrior), the code that governed the behaviour of the samurai (originally called bushi-dan, warriors; samurai means literally one who is a servant; ie, the retainer of a feudal lord) of traditional Japan. This answer is, indeed, substantially correct but only if certain historical factors are taken into account. It must be realized that the 20th-century samurai and the bushido they followed differed significantly and not only in point of time from those of the formative, classical period of the warrior tradition.

The long-preserved ethnic purity and intense national pride of the Japanese were a vital element in their maintenance of morale, of Yamato-damashii (Japanese fighting spirit), in the most adverse circumstances during World War II. Yet the racial origins of the Japanese people remain unresolved. Recent studies suggest that the Neolithic peoples of the Japanese islands, the Jomon (of whom the Ainu, now surviving in small communities in the extreme north, may be descendants), were largely supplanted by immigrants from northern China. These, from around the 3rd century BC, formed the basis of the Yayoi culture and thus of historic Japan, to which migratory Polynesian peoples may also have contributed. A true and indigenous civilization was certainly extant in Japan by the 6th century AD, when the Buddhist faith was imported from China. The first Imperial capital was established in southern Honshu in 710; first at Nara and then, from 794, at Heiankyo (modern Kyoto).