"The “Crouching Dragons”" Topic

"The final manifestation of the spar torpedo concept were the `Crouching Dragons', or `Fukuryu', the weapon of a brave and dedicated group of young men of the Imperial Japanese navy's Special Service Corps in 1945. As seen in the illustration on the next page, here we have an explosive device on the end of a long pole, intended to sink a vessel by exploding against its underwater hull. To all appearances, this is a classic spar torpedo – and conceived as a desperate last resort against a vastly superior naval power, as was the very first spar torpedo.

Unbelievable as it may sound, these sailors were trained as suicide frogmen, prepared to wade out from the invasion beaches, or hole up in diving chambers hidden off the coast in wrecked ships or underwater caves, in order to thrust their spar torpedo into the hull of an Allied landing craft heading for the shores of Japan…"

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Amicalement
Armand

I simultaneously admire and am horrified by the suicidal devotion of these Japanese volunteers. Their attitude is almost incomprehensible and puts the decision for the use of the atomic bomb in perspective.

Where there some people on the ACW that did the same with a little submarine?…

Amicalement
Armand