At the end of World War II, when Japan was defeated by the US military in the Pacific, and seeing that the US military was about to land on the Japanese mainland, the Japanese commander actually developed a weapon that the world spurned, and this weapon even caused Japan to lose countless college students. Interested partners can like the comments and add a follow!
Japan attacks Pearl Harbor
The Torpedo was conceived
In 1941, japan sneaked attack on Pearl Harbor, completely angered the US military, the Pacific War officially broke out, the US military in order to retaliate against Japan's sneak attack, the two sides in the Philippines Leyte Gulf, the largest naval battle in modern times, the number of warships invested by both sides as many as 21 aircraft carriers, 21 battleships, 170 destroyers and nearly 2,000 military aircraft.
But how could Japan, which was already at the end of its rope, be an opponent of the powerful Allies? In this battle, Japan lost nearly half of its sea power, and the remaining warships were also damaged to varying degrees, making Japan's sea power completely unable to resist the Allied offensive, and also laying the foundation for Japan's defeat in the future Battle of Iwo Jima and the Battle of Saipan.
Kamikaze Agents
However, in order to deal with the offensive of the American army, the almost crazy Japanese created a special unit called the Kamikaze Special Force on the basis of the "Banzai Charge", which would fly a fighter jet and carry a large amount of ammunition, and would detach the landing gear from the aircraft at take-off, because their mission was to drive the aircraft into the US warships in order to end up together.
However, there are very few who can really succeed in this way, most of them are shot down in the air by us military anti-aircraft guns, or they are intercepted by the carrier-based aircraft of US aircraft carriers. The Japanese believed that men must win a battle, otherwise they should kill themselves, and once they join the army, then their lives are dedicated to the emperor, so for Japanese soldiers, they are either killed or cut off.
Japanese submarines
Seeing that the kamikaze task force could not be stopped, the pace of the US military's advance, the Japanese Navy thought again, using submarines to launch torpedoes to destroy US warships, but at that time, the level of weapons of the US military was already among the best in the world, and Japan at that time because it was deeply mired in the quagmire of war, it was impossible to compare with the US military in terms of weapons level, and the torpedoes launched by Japanese submarines would basically be intercepted by the US ships.
At this time, the submarine pilot, Captain Hiroshi Kuroki, and Lieutenant Shinoko Seio put forward a hypothesis, if the torpedo can automatically dodge, then the hit rate will not be greatly improved? However, with the level of production in Japan at that time, and the realization of science and technology, this technology is simply a fool's dream, not to mention that the pace of the Allied offensive has become closer and closer.
Small submarines
So they decided to design a single-man submarine with a small target and a fast speed so that they could move to a very close distance to the enemy battleship to fire torpedoes, and finally they could hit the enemy ship with the submarine, so that the US ship would be sunk by the submarine even if it intercepted the torpedo.
And this small submarine is the predecessor of the Huitian torpedo, and can this kind of whimsy really turn the tide of the war and move back to the disadvantages of the Japanese Navy in the Pacific Theater? And why was this kind of forward-thinking spurned by the world after the war?
Back to the sky torpedo
The Torpedo was born
At first, the Japanese Navy did not look at this weapon, but by 1944, the Japanese Navy had been beaten by the Allies and even had no pants left, so this cheap and lethal weapon became the japanese Navy's fragrant food at that time.
So just in February 1944, this strange weapon was manufactured, but the effect in actual combat was very unsatisfactory, and many times it would be found and sunk by the US warships in advance, but this was not because of design problems, but because of the low productivity of Japan at that time, so the design would be castrated during manufacturing, which led to the submarine not being able to exert real combat effectiveness, which made the Japanese high-level very angry.
Seeing this, Hiroshi Kuroki and Shinko Kano took inspiration from the kamikaze team and decided to transform the entire submarine into a torpedo, and the escape pod used for escape in the submarine was also removed because of the cost savings, and in this way, the torpedo pilot became, a "one-way ticket" that had no return, don't look at this torpedo manufacturing so simple.
At that time, Mitsumasa Minouchi, who was the Minister of the Japanese Navy at the time, also gave this torpedo a very domineering name, and the meaning of "Huitian Torpedo" means "to save the sky and fall soon", which can also see how much the Japanese minister at this time gave to this torpedo.
Mitsumasa U.S.
Because the design of this torpedo was complex, the driver had to have a relatively high level of knowledge to use, so when it was manufactured, they wantonly recruited students who had just graduated from college in The country and began to learn to drive torpedoes, but as far as the Japanese veterans at that time told, in order to possibly pack more explosives, the driving space was very narrow, and the operation was also very complicated, and the operation could not be more than a few hands.
Therefore, when learning to drive, there will be many unlucky eggs who will lose their lives because of operational mistakes. As fanatical Japanese soldiers, Hiroshi Kuroki and Shinko Sekio were also on the driver list, but an accident occurred during Hiroshi Kuroki's first test drive.
Test the back-to-sky torpedo
At that time, they were testing the Huitian torpedo in the inner seas, but what people did not expect was that the weather at sea suddenly changed, and the torpedo was eventually overturned by the waves because it could not maintain balance, lost power, and eventually sank to the bottom of the sea, but in order to save costs, the Huitian torpedo did not design an escape device, so Kuroki Hiroshi finally boiled alive in the cockpit of the torpedo because of lack of oxygen.
Even the designer of the Huitian torpedo eventually lost his life because of the terrible performance of the Huitian torpedo. It can be seen how unreliable this torpedo was at that time, so at the beginning of the design, this torpedo was known for giving priority to killing oneself. And because of the cumbersome production process of this torpedo, only two can be made a day. Therefore, the failure rate of this weapon is also high.
However, such an unreliable weapon became the killer of the Japanese army at that time, because of its small size and speed, it was difficult to be discovered, and the US warships were found, even if they were found, they could also rely on their superb flexibility to evade, so in the early days, Japan relied on torpedoes to successfully delay the pace of the US Navy's advance, and what kind of method would the US military use to crack Japan's strange weapons?
Torpedoes are hard to return to heaven
When this kind of torpedo was just used in actual combat, it still achieved great results, because the US military was unfamiliar, at that time the US military had a 10,000-ton tanker, and a destroyer was tragically killed, while the US military on other ships did not find any submarines, aircraft to sneak attack, all this seemed very strange, then the commander-in-chief of the Pacific Fleet Nimitz, ordered the US Marine Corps to search for the surrounding island reefs.
Nimitz
It wasn't long before the Marines captured two Japanese frogmen on a reef, and after interrogation, it was learned that it was because the newly developed Japanese torpedoes were piloted by humans, which was why they quietly launched the attack.
After the analysis of the US military at that time, the weakness of the Huitian torpedo was quickly found, because the Huitian torpedo was equipped with an excess of explosives in order to pursue greater destructive power, and it was precisely because of the power of the Huitian torpedo that it became a weak link, so he could only attack some transport ships, and in the face of powerful aircraft carriers, such combat ships had no choice.
And because of the weight problem, the torpedo must be installed on the submarine, and the submarine can be launched by the submarine, and the US military can attack the submarine responsible for transport before the torpedo is launched.
Torpedoes mounted on submarines
At this time, the Japanese army was still doing the illusion of relying on the Huitian torpedo to defeat the US army, and when the Japanese attacked again, the US army directly attacked the transport submarine, and because the torpedo carried a large amount of explosives, it issued an explosion beyond imagination, but all this was hidden by senior Japanese officials, and those students who had just graduated from college were in the dark and embarked on the road of suicide attack.
There are even some torpedoes that sink to the bottom of the sea because of power problems, and the young people in the cockpit can only slowly die of lack of oxygen in endless panic, because at the beginning of the design, there was no escape pod, but under the fanatical Japanese education, there are still a group of Japanese college students who have embarked on this road of no return.
Japan surrendered
In 1945, the Japanese Emperor announced the news of Japan's unconditional surrender, and just after Japan's surrender, the US military still found hundreds of unused Huitian torpedoes in a hidden base, if it were not for the early end of the war, then how many ignorant students were seduced and driven, and this disgusting weapon went to death?
From this point of view, Japan's defeat in the war is inevitable, and how can a country that does not take the lives of its own soldiers seriously be victorious? All unjust wars are bound to fail, wars are cruel and merciless, cherish the hard-won peace in front of you, and pay tribute to the martyrs who gave their lives for the peace of the day.