Editor in Chief Bill | 27 Aug 2014 3:47 p.m. PST |
I've heard that the Japanese organized suicide units not only for air attack, but also for ground attack. However, I've not read many examples of actual use. (I think I read about an attack on Okinawa, by "drugged" Japanese soldiers, easily ambushed – only possible case I can think of.) |
durnford1879 | 27 Aug 2014 4:20 p.m. PST |
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Tankrider | 27 Aug 2014 4:34 p.m. PST |
Japanese soldiers used lunge mines, shaped charges on a bamboo pole, to destroy US armored vehicles in the Phillipines. They were killed by the explosion, too. |
Sundance | 27 Aug 2014 4:44 p.m. PST |
There were cases where Japanese, rather than surrendering, just walked into American fire wholesale, particularly on Oki, IIRC. |
skippy0001 | 27 Aug 2014 5:45 p.m. PST |
Also, Russians linked arms and charged positions. ChiComs in Korea did so as well. |
hocklermp5 | 27 Aug 2014 5:54 p.m. PST |
In Burma they would dig a hole in the middle of a road and put a man in there with an aerial bomb and a rock. When a tank passed overhead he was to strike the fuse with the rock. On Leyte Japanese paratroopers crash landed on a US airfield and raised hell until they were wiped out. On Saipan when the campaign was all but over they gathered up anyone that could walk and a horde of 5,000 started south and over ran a US battalion one night and kept going until all were dead. |
ZULUPAUL | 27 Aug 2014 6:03 p.m. PST |
I have read that Japanese tanks used ramming attacks against US tanks, mostly because their tanks were outclassed so badly. |
Ditto Tango 2 9 Echo | 28 Aug 2014 6:42 a.m. PST |
Also, Russians linked arms and charged positions. And… And…. They did it while goose stepping! DDT
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Jemima Fawr | 28 Aug 2014 6:54 a.m. PST |
Yes, the Japanese lunge-mine was very much a suicide mission, though it could be effective, penetrating 150mm of armour. One Indian tank commander was so incensed at their use that he hit one Japanese prisoner with his own mine… killing both of them, as well as the two Indian soldiers holding the prisoner… As has been said, Japanese soldiers were encountered in Mandalay, squatting in holes with an aerial bomb between their knees and a hammer in their hand… However, I don't recall any successful use of that 'weapon'. Earlier in the war (1942), the Japanese had made use of glass phials filled with hydrocyanic acid, which forms a lethal gas on contact the air – very nasty stuff. 7th Armoured Brigade recorded attacks from these weapons, but none were succesful. Such attacks were invariably fatal for the attackers. |
deephorse | 28 Aug 2014 9:53 a.m. PST |
Get yourself a copy of "Suicide Squads" by Richard O'Neill Bill and read that. |
The Virtual Armchair General | 28 Aug 2014 11:44 a.m. PST |
An Uncle who served in the Philippine Scouts on Luzon in the last year of the war spoke of seeing at least one "failed" lunge-miner who must have struck SOMETHING only to have the bamboo pole blown backwards, piercing him rather like a particularly grisly bug in a decidedly horrific collection. Hard to write a haiku that makes that seem "spiritual"…. TVAG |
Jemima Fawr | 29 Aug 2014 2:52 a.m. PST |
Take that Blitish pig! The Bang's more than expected! Ballhooks I'm kebab'd. |
The Virtual Armchair General | 29 Aug 2014 11:11 a.m. PST |
Ah! Blissful, spiritual, soul-piercing (among other parts) satisfaction…. I stand reproved. TVAG P.S. Jamima! Do you do headstone epitaphs? |
Etranger | 29 Aug 2014 4:49 p.m. PST |
Actually the same thing tended to happen to 'successful' lunge mine operators…. |
Bowman | 31 Aug 2014 5:02 a.m. PST |
On Leyte Japanese paratroopers crash landed on a US airfield and raised hell until they were wiped out. I think you mean the "Giretsu" raid on Okinawa. The raid at Leyte was the last actual Japanese paratrooper drop, I believe. The Giretsu were certainly considered a suicide commando squad. And while they did arrive by air, they were ground troops. Tank units were not considered official suicide squads in the same way as the Kamikaze or Giretsu. That is notwithstanding their suicidal Banzai charges at Saipan and Peliliu. Reading up on Japanese sniper doctrine shows that they were expected to die in the course of their duty. Does that count? |