NARRATOR: Kamikaze,
a terrifying weapon conceived in desperation. Japanese pilots committed
to an unthinkable mission, a violent end as a human bomb. Now through startling
computer animation, an unprecedented
view of these suicide attacks, on deck with
horrified American sailors, and inside the
Kamikaze's cockpits as suicide airplanes and
rockets hurtle towards oblivion. Experience the battle. Dissect the tactics. Kamikaze, next on "Dogfights." [music playing] October 25, 1944, 10:00 AM,
nine Japanese zero fighters streaked towards Leyte
Gulf in the Philippines. The planes fly at wave top
level to avoid detection by American radar. Theirs is a special mission,
historic, yet terrifying. It is the first organized
Kamikaze attack of World War II. Five of the zeros
carry a 550-pound bomb in place of the usual
long-range fuel tank. The extra weight makes
them unfit to Dog fight, so four other zeros fly escort. Japanese fighter
ace, Kunio Iwashita, flew similar escort
missions for Kamikazes. [speaking japanese] TRANSLATOR: I was
a fighter pilot, so my job was to accompany the
Kamikaze forces when they went on a mission and shoot
down the Americans if they got in the way. Also we were supposed to
see what sort of results came from the Kamikaze
attacks and report what we had seen back to base. NARRATOR: Leading
the suicide planes is Lieutenant Yukio Seki. His orders are to seek
out the ships protecting the Allied invasion
force on the Philippines, a small US Navy task
group called Taffy 3. Only hours before,
these same vessels had come under withering
gunfire from the Japanese Navy. The escort carrier USS St. Lo is
one of the few ships of Taffy 3 not hit during the battle. Planes are now returning to St.
Lo from the morning's combat and are quickly
moved below decks for rearming and refueling. No one can imagine what
is about to befall them. Orville Bethard is a 21-year-old
electrician's mate on the St. Lo. I never heard of a Kamikaze. I've heard of bombers and
all those kind of things, but somebody purposely doing
this didn't even occur to me. NARRATOR: 10:45 AM,
the Kamikazes spot the unsuspecting American ships. They climb quickly to 5,000 feet
positioning for a high speed dive. The Japanese pilots select their
targets, the vulnerable flight decks of the escort carriers. Escort carriers became
the target of choice due to the fact that they had
a thin wooden flight deck that could be penetrated by incoming
Kamikazes and their bombs. NARRATOR: At 10:49, Lieutenant
Seki sees his opening. He rocks his wings
to signal the attack. Diving on the USS White Plains,
Seki is hit by flack and veers towards the St. Lo. But we've been bombed before
and everything, you know? Oh, from this way,
but this guy was low. It was hitting force
like he was going to make a landing on our flight deck. Somebody behind me opened
up with a 20 millimeter gun. It may hit him, but
it didn't stop him. NARRATOR: Captain Francis
McKenna orders full right rudder, but the 10,000 ton
vessel is slow to respond. This thing's doing
300 miles an hour, and he's coming in in
a matter of seconds. Now you can try
to turn the ship, but there's not much
you can do about it. NARRATOR: At 10:53, Seki
sweeps in over the stern then dives on to St.
Lo's flight deck. I didn't get the
effect of the explosion, but I did get the fireball. And it come sweeping over my-- where I was located,
so I ducked real low and it would skid
on over and out. NARRATOR: Seki's
armor-piercing bomb has sliced through
the wooden flight deck and detonated below. What happens next is aircraft
start exploding in the hangar deck, and each explosion
begets another. One explosion will set
off a torpedo over here, will set off some
exposed fuel over here, and before you know it, half
the hangar deck is ablaze. Men are burning. It's a horrific,
frightening scene. NARRATOR: Valiant crewmen try
to contain the raging inferno, but just seven minutes after
the first Kamikaze hit, St. Lo is in shambles. Captain McKenna orders the
abandoned ship at which point the lines go overboard, and
men start jumping into the sea swimming away from the ship
trying to gain some distance before the ship goes down
and sucks them under with it. NARRATOR: At 11:20 AM,
an eighth explosion. The aircraft bomb magazine
detonates ripping apart the St. Lo. I could feel a big concussion
from that in the water, and I turned around. And I looked, and
I watched it then. The ship had turned
about like that and was going down stern first. I don't know how many live
people were still on there, and I was thinking-- well, I was thinking
there goes my home. NARRATOR: At 11:25,
the once proud ship slips beneath the surface. Of a crew of over
850, 114 are lost. USS St. Lo was the
first American ship sunk by Kamikazes, a hideous
scenario that will be repeated nearly 3,000 times before the
war's end claiming 5,000 lives. The idea for suicide
attacks was first considered nearly 20
months earlier in the wake of Japan's humiliating loss of
Guadalcanal in February 1943. JAMES HORNFISCHER: The Kamikaze
program was born of desperation when they realized that there
was not much they could do against the overwhelming
strength being deployed by the Americans. There wasn't much they could do
in the conventional traditional sense. NARRATOR: The concept
was originally rejected as defeatist, but
with the Allied invasion of the Philippines, the decision
is made to unleash the suicide weapon. The goal is to inflict
sufficient casualties to destroy the
Americans will to fight. The new strategy is called toko. They referred to the
tactic as tokubetsu kogeki, which means, literally
translated, special attack. NARRATOR: Vice Admiral
Takijiro Onishi is charged with implementing
toko operations immediately. He enlists volunteers from
the 200 First Naval Air Group in the Philippines. There's no time for
specialized training. Many of the first volunteers
are dive bomber pilots. It is hoped that
their experience in near vertical dives will
translate into the toko mission. The high command understands
that turning sons of Japan into human bombs will have to
be carefully sold to the people. They skillfully manipulate
Japan's ancient history to envelop toko in
the idealized Warrior tradition of the samurai
and their bushido code. MG SHEFTALL: In the so-called
code of the warrior, or bushido, there was
no tradition or heritage of organized suicide tactics. If there was any kind of
codification of suicide in this so-called bushido, it
was to kill yourself rather than being captured. There was never anything in it
about making a suicide attack. NARRATOR: The success of
the initial Kamikaze mission on October 25, 1944 unleashes
a tidal wave of attacks. The Navy and Army high command
draft inexperienced pilots into practically any
flyable airplane. By the time of the Okinawa
invasion in April 1945, massive Kamikaze raids are
bringing a glimmer of hope to Japan's desperate situation. JAMES HORNFISCHER:
It spreads the idea that a single man,
a single aircraft, can trade itself for a US
carrier, which is truly a glorious sacrifice
for the emperor. NARRATOR: April 16, 1945,
the destroyer USS Laffey accompanied by support
ships LCS-51 and 116. It's patrolling waters 50
miles north of Okinawa. The ship is on radar picket
duty, a new defensive tactic that positions a
ring of destroyers around the main invasion force
to create an early warning system against
incoming aircraft. Laffey is manning station number
one, the closest to Japan. The last four destroyers
to patrol this area were slammed by Kamikazes. Ari Phoutrides is a 19-year-old
quartermaster on Laffey. We knew that being the
first in the line of defense was dangerous, but we didn't
realize to what extent. NARRATOR: At 7:44 AM, radar
picks up a solitary Val dive bomber six miles out
approaching off the port bow. Laffey's five inch
guns quickly open fire. At three miles, the
Val jettisons its bomb and turns away. Probably came in just
to look over the situation and then took off. NARRATOR: Then at 8:29 AM, a
swarm of 50 Japanese planes appears on the horizon. The attackers circle
ominously like vultures. The USS Laffey is about to face
the most unrelenting Kamikaze attack in history. April 16, 1945, 50 Kamikazes
surround the destroyer USS Laffey. The swarm includes Val and Judy
dive bombers and Kate torpedo planes, older aircraft
equipped for suicide attack. These were outmoded
aircraft that could be loaded with explosives. They were relatively easy
to fly and stable platforms for doing what they had to
do, which is to aim at a ship and try to hit it. NARRATOR: Al Dorris watches
the terrifying procession from his 40
millimeter gun mount. Well, they were just
about everyplace you looked, you know? You could see a Japanese plane. NARRATOR: Suddenly, four Vals
break formation and bear down on Laffey. They were coming in low on the
water, and somebody on our gun said, oh, here they come. They're coming now. NARRATOR: Two head
for the starboard bow. Captain Julius Becton orders
Laffey to come about hard left 30 degrees to bring
all his guns broadside to the attackers. Laffey unleashes an
anti-aircraft barrage. First, the main battery, five
inch radar-directed guns. And then they get in a little
closer, and then the 40s. And they get a little closer,
then the 20 millimeters will start rattling at them. We just try to stop
them as best we could. NARRATOR: Laffey splashes
the first two attackers, but the other two
Vals wheel around to come in from the stern. One Val sheds pieces of fuselage
until it's fixed landing gear catches the water. Tracers converge
on the second Val. Laffey is barely spared
a moment's respite before a Judy screams in
from 90 degrees to starboard. Judies are a fast dive bomber. Top speed, 340 miles
per hour, but this one's heading in at a
poor attack angle. All of Laffey's guns can train
their fire on the Kamikaze. But, immediately,
another Judy barrels in on the opposite side. The destroyer's top speed is 35
knots, and it can turn sharply. Captain Becton orders 30
degrees hard right rudder. This diving Judy was also
strafing with its guns trying to take out personnel
on the command bridge, and so we had briefly a
two-way gunnery duel between an oncoming Kamikaze and
the defending gunners. NARRATOR: The Judy is no match
for Laffey's main battery. The aircraft
disintegrates, but its bomb detonates in the water
spewing killing shrapnel over exposed areas of the ship. Planes are coming in from every
angle using specialized tactics developed over
months of experience. KUNIO IWASHITA:
[speaking japanese] TRANSLATOR: A Kamikaze attack
isn't exactly an easy thing to do. You have about 500 kilos
of explosives on board, and you are going at exceedingly
fast speeds from very high up. To actually hit the target,
it's very difficult. NARRATOR: The Japanese
have determined that the most effective
attacks are from extremely high or extremely low angles. In the high angle
attack, the Kamikazes approach at 20,000 feet, angle
20 degrees down to 5,000 feet, then a steep 50-degree
high speed dive. For the low angle
attack, the Kamikazes approach below 40 feet
to hide under radar. When they near the
target, the pilot pulls up to 1,500 feet for the
final plunge relying on speed and gravity to reach the target,
even if his aircraft is hit. The ideal toko mission can
muster enough Kamikazes to use all approach tactics
together, precisely what Laffey is facing now. At 8:39 AM, a Val approaches
from the port side directly amid ships. Laffey maneuvers violently
to throw off the pilot's aim. Laffey now presents
a smaller target. The ship is 377 feet long,
but only 41 feet wide. KARL ZINGHEIM: This did
have an effect, apparently, on the Val pilot because he
was having to constantly change his aim in order to keep
his aircraft heading for the mass of the ship. Eventually, because of
the swing of the Laffey, the Val was now coming in
from almost dead stern. NARRATOR: It's as if
Laffey is in a dogfight with the Kamikaze. AAA hits home, but the Vals
momentum carries him in. It's a glancing blow, but the
plane's ruptured gas tanks spew a lethal arc
of combustible fuel. Then a ninth Kamikaze boars in. The Val approaches at wave
top level, too low an angle for the main gun battery. The plane rips into
a 20 millimeter gun mount amid ships
killing three men. Another Val approaches
dead astern obscured by the billowing smoke. The carnage reaches below decks. Crewmen enveloped in
flames race topside. Sailors aboard LCS-51
steaming nearby witness the terrible scene. Several men, who were
working below decks, came roaring out of there and
jumped over the side just full of flames. We picked two of them up. It was nasty. It was nasty. NARRATOR: At 8:47, 17
minutes into the attack, gun mount 53 takes a direct hit. The Val's engine lodges in the
five inch gun knocking it out. Aviation fuel engulfs the
gun mount and ignites. There were 14 men inside
that gun mount at that time, and six of them were killed. It seemed like a
constant pattern of attack. In fact, at one point, I
remember thinking to myself, oh my god, will this never end? NARRATOR: In the furious action,
one of the Kamikazes swings passed the Laffey and
targets LCS-51 steaming off the port side. One of the planes came in
maybe 10 feet off the water, and, of course, our guns
on that side of the ship were all on it. Some of us-- one of us
hit the bomb about 20, 30 feet from the ship. The bomb detonated
and blew the plane to smithereens, the engine
right into the side of our ship. My spotter, who was in with
the director tub with me, put his arm up to
shield his face. He put his arm up. When it was all over, he had
three or four aluminum rivets in his arm that
came from the plane. NARRATOR: Back on Laffey, fires
are blazing on the fantail. Captain Becton is
forced to cut his speed. If you run too fast, you're
going to fan the flames and make them stronger,
but if you go too slow, then the enemy's going to
be able to hit you better. So what he would do,
he would slow down so they could fight the fire,
and as the enemy got closer, he would increase his speed. NARRATOR: But another
Val is lining up high astern drawn to the raging
fires like a shark to blood. The ship takes evasive action
and swings hard to port. This Val is making a bomb run. Kamikaze formations
were often accompanied by conventional bombings. A single, 500-pound bomb
hits the destroyer jamming the rudder 26 degrees to port. KARL ZINGHEIM: Having the
rudders jammed permanently in this location meant
that the ship could only steam in a left-hand circle. Captain Becton could
come up with variations, such as changing engine speed
in order to broaden or tighten the turn, but, still, this
was a severe limitation on his defensive abilities. NARRATOR: Fires are raging. Steering is damaged. Laffey is fading fast. April 16, 1945, USS
Laffey is being hammered by a swarm of 50 Kamikazes. Now four FM-2 Wildcats from
Navy Squadron BC-94 flying off the carrier Shamrock
Bay are vectored in to try to save the ship. Flight leader Carl Rieman
has witnessed other Kamikaze attacks and understands
the urgency of his mission. I seen him come down and
hit the different ships, and, boy, I'm telling you,
when they hit a ship, she blew. NARRATOR: Rieman wings in
and sizes up the situation. The odds are 50 against four. The FM-2s only carry
1,600 rounds of ammo, about 45 seconds worth. His big enemy is the time. How is it going to be well
managed so that he gets bullets on target, does not waste
bullets, does not waste energy? NARRATOR: Rieman must use the
speed and agility of the FM-2 to counter the long odds. The FM-2 is an updated version
of the venerable F4F Wildcat. The new airplane has a more
powerful 1,260 horsepower engine. It could easily outfly the
obsolete planes attacking the Laffey. Rieman and his
wingman, Dick Collier, climb 500 feet above
the Kamikaze formation, target a Val, and quickly
dive in from the side. Rieman hurdles in aiming his
.450 caliber machine guns, but his wingman unknowingly
drifts into the line of fire. Collier, he was right on my
wing, and he got in between us. So I couldn't shoot
after that because I would have shot Collier. NARRATOR: Collier gets the kill. Rieman quickly lines
up behind another Val, opens fire, and explodes
the enemy's wing tanks. CARL RIEMAN: We were
on them so fast, they didn't have time
to really do anything. They had no place
to go except down. NARRATOR: There are still over
40 Kamikazes attacking Laffey. The massive formations
ensure suicide planes will get through. Like a swarm of mosquitoes,
you can kill a lot of them. You can kill them easily, but
there are enough mosquitoes. One's going to bite you. NARRATOR: Horrified
at the carnage below, Rieman singles out
a Kamikaze for payback. His tracers light up the enemy's
canopy killing the pilot. I watched him just slump
over and, bing, in he went. NARRATOR: These Kamikaze pilots
are little more than trainees. Most of Japan's
experienced aviators have been lost during
three years of war. They were given two
days of takeoff training, two days of formation flying,
and three days of actually how to dive in to destroy
an enemy ship. These kids have been
trained for a week. And now they're going out
there, and they're basically becoming a human bomb. NARRATOR: Two Kamikazes break
through the fighter screen and pitch over into a
death dive on the Laffey. AL DORRIS: Well, when
I got in close enough, you could see the pilot
sitting right in the cockpit, and he's not looking
one way or the other. He's looking right
straight ahead, and he's aiming that
plane right at you. You can't imagine what goes
through somebody's mind that does that. Both planes hit their mark. Pressing the attack, Rieman
sweeps behind a Kate torpedo plane and smokes the engine, but
he's used the last of his ammo. Well, If would've
had more ammo, I could've shot
down more airplanes. In the vernacular,
I was just totally pissed off because there
was a lot more to shoot at. NARRATOR: Rieman
makes diving passes at Kamikazes forcing some
to break off their attacks. But, finally, low
on fuel, his flight must return to the Shamrock Bay. I shot down six airplanes,
and that's six airplanes that didn't hit the Laffey. We're just only sorry we
couldn't keep all of them off of it. She was burning, burning bad. I thought she was gone. NARRATOR: Laffey has now
been struck by five Kamikazes and taken three bomb hits. ARI PHOUTRIDES:
Skipper sent me down to get an assessment
of the damage back aft, and then I saw what
these planes had done. I saw the gun mounts. I saw that there were fires. I saw a lot of human carnage. I think I might have
been in a state of shock when you see things like that. NARRATOR: When a crewman
suggests throwing in the towel, captain Becton responds
with indignation. I will not abandon ship as
long as a single gun can fire. Then just as all seems lost, a
dozen American Corsair fighters roar in. They are the last hope
for the burning Laffey. USS Laffey has taken
repeated Kamikaze hits, and at least 30 Japanese planes
are still waiting to pounce. Now, not a moment too soon,
Marine Corps F4U Corsairs scream in. When we looked
up and saw them, well, that took a lot
off of us because they kept them busy from then on. NARRATOR: The F4U Corsair was
one of the most advanced Naval fighters of the Pacific War. Its distinctive bent wing
derived from the clearance needed from its huge
13-foot propeller. The shape also reduced
aerodynamic drag. The Corsair had a clear
advantage over any Japanese aircraft-- high speed,
tough, very maneuverable, take a lot of punishment. NARRATOR: Time and
again, the Corsair pilots risked their own lives
chasing the Kamikazes down through Laffey's unceasing
anti-aircraft fire. One is hot on the
tail of a KI-43 Oscar. This Japanese
plane was coming in, and they get Corsair
come up underneath of it. Tried to freeze him up to
get him away from the ship. NARRATOR: The Oscar shears
off the port yardarm. The Corsair hits the ship's
radar antenna and careens away badly damaged. The courageous American
pilot manages to bail out. Suddenly, a Val looms
menacingly towards the bridge, Ari Phoutrides' battle station. It was very vivid
in my mind there was a huge bomb under his belly, and
as he approached, the bomb got bigger, and bigger, and bigger. And I really felt
at that point that I was going to be a statistic. NARRATOR: But at
the last second, gun mount 52 traverses
from port to starboard. He hit the plane directly on
the nose, and it disintegrated. That, I remember very vividly. NARRATOR: Finally, the 22nd
and last attacker, a Judy, streaks in. A Corsair blast the
Kamikaze before it could strike the ship. Now only the roar of the
Corsair's 2,000 horsepower engines fill the sky. After 80 minutes of non-stop
combat, six Kamikaze strikes, and four bomb hits, incredibly,
Laffey is still afloat. Of a crew of 355, 32 men have
died, and 71 more are wounded. But the destroyer will
survive to fight another day. I lost a lot of good
friends, and a lot of the guys were wounded. And it was-- it made you
think how lucky you were not to get a scratch. I think there were
several factors involved in our survival. I always point to the competency
of our commanding officer and the way he maneuvered
the ship during the attack. There was the combat air
patrol, which helped us out. Our crew, it was a brave
crew, especially the gunners, and, finally, I am
convinced in my own mind that we had a little
help from above. NARRATOR: The Okinawa campaign
saw many brutal Kamikaze raids of the type endured by Laffey. It also marked the
brief appearance of the most insidious suicide
weapon of World War II called Ohka. April 12, 1945, radar picket
station 14 off Okinawa, destroyer Mannert L. Abele is
battling fires after being hit by a zero Kamikaze. The plane went through
the deck and down and broke both our
shafts of our screws on the ship, which put us
about dead in the water. NARRATOR: Just five minutes
after the Kamikaze strike, three Japanese Betty
bombers are spotted inbound from the north at 20,000 feet. What the Americans don't
know is that suspended within the open
Bombay of each Betty is an appalling
new suicide weapon, a single-seat, rocket-powered
piloted bomb developed by the Japanese Navy. It's called Ohka
or cherry blossom. The Americans derisively
nicknamed the weapon baka or idiot, but they will
discover to their horror that the piloted missile
is virtually unstoppable. April 12, 1945, three Betty
bombers carrying Ohka Kamikaze rocket planes approach the
crippled destroyer Mannert L. Abele. Inside one of the bombers,
Lieutenant Saburo Dohi is awakened from a
nap and climbs down into the Ohka's cockpit. The human guidance
system is now in place. The Ohka is released. Its plunge begins as
an unpowered glide. One minute from
impact, Lieutenant Dohi kicks in his solid
rocket boosters. The Ohka makes its final
sprint to the Abele at over 500 miles per hour. Able Seaman Jim
Morris spots something he's never seen before. Somebody said, look
at that, and I look up. And that's when I saw
the Baka bomb coming in. It was coming in from
our starboard quarter, and I watched that rascal. I didn't-- to me, it looked
like a flying torpedo. I had no idea what it was. NARRATOR: The destroyer's
five inch mounts can't move. 40 millimeter and
20 millimeter guns opened fire at the
mysterious incoming object. [music playing] The ship's midsection
is obliterated. When it hit, that whole
ship just shook all over, and that's when I
went over the side. It went down in two pieces. The stern came down, and
the bow came down like that. NARRATOR: Within three minutes,
Mannert L. Abele vanishes. 79 men are lost. The Ohka has left its
murderous calling card. The piloted bomb program,
known as the Divine Thunder God Corps, was approved by the
Japanese Navy in August 1944. Newly-minted pilot Hideo
Suzuki was asked to volunteer. HIDEO SUZUKI:
[speaking japanese] TRANSLATOR: The commander
described the weapon as most innovative, most
powerful, and damaging but requires our
absolute sacrifice. I knew all along that a
death awaits war-going pilots one way or another. If my trusted commander
is asking for men, then I will volunteer. [drums] NARRATOR: The Ohka is
ingeniously simple-- aluminum fuselage, wooden
wings, and, directly in front of the pilot, 2,600
pounds of high explosive, five times the amount carried by
the zero that sank the St. Lo. Each Ohka volunteer is allowed
one risky orientation flight in an unpowered, unarmed Ohka. HIDEO SUZUKI:
[speaking japanese] TRANSLATOR: First, I
fell just like a bomb, and I had to gain
momentum before the flight controls would operate
and I could start flying. The training Ohka had no
rockets, so we had to glide in. In a real operation, I
would fire three rockets to strike the target. NARRATOR: Having survived
his training drop, Suzuki is ready to
fulfill his destiny. HIDEO SUZUKI:
[speaking japanese] TRANSLATOR: If I am to die, I
will die the most effective, most glorious death by
inflicting the greatest damage on our enemy. NARRATOR: Not far
from the Abele, another of Suzuki's cohorts
hurtles towards the picket destroyer USS Stanley. On board the ship, radar
operator Irvin Brewer spots the strange flying object. It was on the
deck when I saw it. I mean, it was
right off the water. Just as low as it could get. I just hit the deck
and started praying. NARRATOR: The Ohka
impacts the starboard bow five feet above the waterline. I don't know if I saw
it the instant it hit, but I sure as hell felt it. NARRATOR: The missile's
armor-piercing nose section punches right through
Stanley's steel bow plates and out the other side. They plotted it, I think,
at 500 miles an hour. We knew it had to be some
jet-propelled thing because, I mean, we didn't have
anything go that fast. NARRATOR: Within minutes,
another Ohka bores in. Stanley's guns are blazing. The pilot, perhaps
wounded or killed, releases pressure on the
stick for a brief instant. The Ohka rises slightly just
enough to miss the ship. Unlike the Abele, the Stanley
suffers only minimal damage with three crewmen wounded. Ultimately, the Ohka
program never lived up to its lethal potential. The bomber transports were easy
prey for American fighters, and only seven American
ships were damaged by Ohkas during the war. Hideo Suzuki was never selected
for his glorious death. Although, the
Kamikazes arrived too late to be militarily
significant, they exacted a terrible cost. Some 2,800 Kamikaze attacks
killed nearly 5,000 Americans and wounded 4,800 more. Ominously, Japan had reserved
more than 5,000 suicide aircraft to be used against the
expected invasion of the home islands, a gruesome scenario
that would have magnified the immense human
toll of the Kamikaze.
