Four U.S. warships sunk as Japs unleash suicide attacks
JAPANESE aircraft sank four more U.S. light warships in a furious 90-minute battle off Okinawa in southern Japan yesterday.
The news came from Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, fleet admiral of the U.S. navy. However, ships’ guns and fighters destroyed 54 Japanese planes, including a suicide glider.
Enemy suicide boats laden with explosives, 15 of which were destroyed, damaged other light warships later.
Another 150 enemy planes were shot down during a Japanese landing behind U.S. lines: 600 of the landing party were wiped out.
Though Okinawa and its neighbouring islands are 325 miles south of the mainland, the American assault is seen as the start of the battle for Japan. Okinawa is of vital strategic importance, as it can be used as a base from which to intensify attacks.
The losses for the Americans indicate that the Japanese are starting to fight back with increasing desperation.
The greatest threat are the lethal ‘kamikaze kids’, Japan’s flying fools who crash their bomb-laden planes on the decks of Allied ships. They are being hunted constantly by U.S. and British carrier and land-based fighter planes.
It has been reported that the Japanese are building a new type of suicide plane with a ton of explosives in the nose. The pilot is sealed into the plane before takeoff, he does not have a parachute and the wheels of the plane fall off in flight. The plane is designed to explode when its nose or wing touches a solid object. As it can reach 600 mph in a dive, it makes an extremely difficult target for the U.S. and British naval gunners.
The Japanese are even using women disguised as male troops to attack American units. It has been reported that 11 women took part in an assault on an airfield, but all were killed in the fighting or — imbued with the same fanaticism as their male counterparts — killed themselves rather than be captured.
But despite these low tactics, the U.S. invaders have the upper hand. Last week’s advance on southern Okinawa resulted in the deaths of 21,269 Japanese, according to a communique issued by Admiral Nimitz. A mere 399 have been taken prisoner — proof of the Japanese will to fight to the death.
Such figures will no doubt be trivial compared to those that will result when the U.S. launches its assault on the Japanese mainland.
Specially edited and adapted from the original Daily Mail of May 5, 1945.