The Nazi Kamikaze Squadron

What this episode is about

On April 1, 1945, the Battle of Okinawa marked a brutal phase of World War II, characterized by fierce Japanese resistance and devastating kamikaze attacks against Allied forces, highlighting the desperation of Japan's wartime strategy. Simultaneously, less recognized is the near-catastrophic potential of Nazi Germany's own version of aerial suicide attacks against Allied fleets during earlier operations, revealing the broader scope of military desperation and innovation among Axis powers in their final efforts of the war.

Key takeaways

• Okinawa's ferocity: where desperation unleashed kamikaze bombs, not just on ships but on hope itself.
• Strange bedfellows: while Japan launched manned missiles, Germany dreamed of kamikaze jets – both symbolic of defeat's grim creativity.
• Hitler's delusion led to children's plywood fighters – a tragic twist in war where naïveté met technology.
• The Luftwaffe's late-stage panic: from high-tech V1s to reckless airframes, a diversion fueled by despair.
• Kamikaze tactics reveal the perils of desperation: both nations mastered the art of sacrificing their own for fleeting gain.

What is discussed, and when

1. 0:00 – 5:00: Adolf Hitler, USS West Virginia, Leona Squadron, Yokosuka MXY7 Ocera
2. 5:00 – 10:00: Adolf Hitler, V1 flying bomb
3. 10:00 – 15:00: Adolf Hitler, Hannah Reich, Heinrich Himmler, V1 flying bomb
4. 15:00 – 20:00: Leona Squadron, V1 flying bomb, Kawanishi Baka
5. 20:00 – 25:00: Mitsubishi G4M, USS West Virginia

Notable quotes from "The Nazi Kamikaze Squadron"

• American and British Empire fleet peered off Okinawa, the southernmost of the Japanese home islands. Operation Iceberg, the final napal battle of the Second World War, was…

  about Operation Iceberg · at 0:02

• Effectively a man's rocket propelled bomb designed for a single one-way mission, the Ocera was one of the most ghoulish weapons of war ever devised and a perfect distillation of the sheer desperation which fueled late war Japan.

  about Yokosuka MXY7 Ocera · at 1:20

• This is the story of Leona Squadron, the forgotten Nazi Hamakazis. By early 1944, it was becoming clear that for Nazi Germany, the war was effectively lost.

  about Leona Squadron · at 2:08

• Was now on the defensive. Hitler insisted that his forces remain on the offensive. As a result, development pushed forward on the so-called var or vengeance weapons like the V1…

  about V1 flying bomb · at 2:59

• Disturbing proposition was the least of Messid's problems for early flight tests, many carried out by Hannah Wright herself, revealed a troubling flaw with the design. The twin…

  about Hannah Reich · at 7:28

• The minuscule but nonzero chance of Ryberg pilots being able to safely bail out allowed Scorzani to convince Himmler and Hitler that Leonad squadron was not in fact an…

  about Otto Skorzeny · at 10:13

• Advanced and specialized aircraft specifically designed for the kamicazi role. Among the first was the Kawanishi biker or plum blossom, a singleseat pulsejet powered aircraft…

  about Kawanishi Baka · at 18:13

• Mother ship, whereupon it and its pilot, sealed inside the cockpit before takeoff, would be released. The pilot would glide most of the way to the combat zone before aiming his craft at an enemy ship and igniting the rockets.

  about Mitsubishi G4M · at 22:07

Who and what is mentioned in this episode?

People

• Adolf Hitler — Person · Referenced leader / decision-maker · 8 mentions · first at 2:47
  Presented as the central political-military authority whose strategic decisions and approvals shaped late-war German desperation projects (e.g., V-weapons emphasis, approval/suspension of suicide/ramming-style programs).
  Question was when and where. Still, the increasingly delusional and extremely drugged up, brained Adolf Hitler refused to accept reality and ordered his commanders to fight on.…
• Otto Skorzeny — Person · Referenced advocate / organizer · 6 mentions
  Described as an SS commando leader who pushed for reappraisal of the manned V1 concept and helped persuade leadership that the unit was not explicitly suicidal, influencing the creation of Leonidas Squadron.
• Heinrich Himmler — Person · Referenced senior leader / skeptic · 1 mention · first at 10:18
  Portrayed as a top Nazi leader who was skeptical of deliberate suicide-style missions and called for abandonment of the project, later being lobbied alongside Hitler by Skorzeny.
  Tradition and the substed with great skepticism by senior Nazi leaders including Hitler and Reich Furer SS Heinrich Hima who called for the project to be abandoned. However…
• Hannah Reich — Person · Referenced test pilot / technical participant · 1 mention · first at 11:45
  Cited as a famous test pilot involved in dangerous flight testing of the Reichenberg (manned V1) prototypes and used to correct myths about earlier V1 stability test flights.

Products & tech

• Yokosuka MXY7 Ocera — Product · Case study · 1 mention · first at 1:06
  A Japanese kamikaze aircraft used during World War II.
• USS West Virginia — Product · Case study · 3 mentions · first at 0:50
  A battleship that was attacked by a Yokosuka MXY7 Ocera during the Battle of Okinawa.
  Director, setting off a massive explosion that killed four sailors and wounded seven. West Virginia had been struck by a Yokasuka MXY7 Ocera.
• V1 flying bomb — Product · Referenced work · 5 mentions · first at 3:08
  A German cruise missile that inspired the development of kamikaze aircraft.
• Mitsubishi G4M — Product · Case study · 3 mentions · first at 20:01
  A Japanese bomber used as a mother ship for kamikaze aircraft.
• V2 ballistic missile — Product · Referenced work · 1 mention · first at 3:11
  A German ballistic missile mentioned in the context of Nazi Germany's vengeance weapons.
  Pushed forward on the so-called var or vengeance weapons like the V1 flying bomb and the V2 ballistic missile which Hitler hoped to strike back at the British Isles with. And…
• Kawanishi Baka — Product · Referenced work · 1 mention · first at 18:17
  A Japanese kamikaze aircraft inspired by German designs.

Places & events

• Leona Squadron — Event · Core topic · 2 mentions · first at 2:08
  The main subject of the podcast, detailing the Nazi's attempt to create a kamikaze squadron.
• Operation Iceberg — Event · Setting · 1 mention · first at 0:06
  The battle for Okinawa, which was the context for the use of kamikaze tactics.

Full transcript with timestamps

0:00 On the 1st of April 1945, a combined American and British Empire fleet peered off Okinawa, the southernmost of the Japanese home islands. Operation Iceberg, the final napal battle of the Second World War, was about to begin as hundreds of aircraft roared overhead and enormous shells fired from battleships pounding the shore. Landing craft steamed ashore, carrying tens of thousands of troops into battle. The battle for Okinawa is remembered as among the most savage of the Pacific campaign, marked by extreme resistance by Japanese soldiers and civilians alike. Equally savage was the aerial battle which raged over the invasion fleet as pilots of the Japanese special attack units better known as the kamicazi brought their bombladen aircraft screaming down into the allied ships. While by this time Allied sailors had weathered kamicazi attacks for nearly 6 months, the battle of Okinawa brought with it a terrifying new threat.

0:48 Just after 7 p.m. on April the 1st, the crew of the Colorado class battleship USS West Virginia, a veteran of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, saw a tiny white aircraft screaming towards them at terrifying speed. A fountain of flames streaming from its tail. Though West Virginia's gunners quickly filled the sky with the wall of traces, the aircraft rocketed through the defensive screen and slammed into the battleship just forward of her number two gun director, setting off a massive explosion that killed four sailors and wounded seven. West Virginia had been struck by a Yokasuka MXY7 Ocera.

1:20 Effectively a man's rocket propelled bomb designed for a single one-way mission, the Ocera was one of the most ghoulish weapons of war ever devised and a perfect distillation of the sheer desperation which fueled late war Japan. But while the kamicazis have become infamous, less wellknown is that halfway across the world, the Allied fleet, which invaded Normandy in June 1944, nearly suffered a similar fate at the hands of Imperial Japan's Axis ally, Nazi Germany. In the desperate dying days of the Third Reich, the Nazis attempted to assemble their own kamicazi squadron, whose pilots, like modern-day Viking Berserkers, were to ram their jet powered flying bombs into enemy ships and bombers, inflicting, it was hoped, such horrific casualties that the Allies would be forced to sue for peace. Thankfully, however, a lack of resources and ideological differences among the German high command prevented

2:06 this insane plan from being carried out. This is the story of Leona Squadron, the forgotten Nazi Hamakazis. By early 1944, it was becoming clear that for Nazi Germany, the war was effectively lost. Operation Barbarosa, the invasion of the Soviet Union, had been blunted and reversed at Salenrad with the Soviet Red Army pushing the German armies in the east into an irreversible retreat. Meanwhile, British and American strategic bombers were pounding German cities round the clock, killing thousands and inflicting severe shortages of weapons and material of all kinds. In Italy, Allied troops were pushing ever northward, and all signs pointed to an imminent amphibious landing in northern France. The only question was when and where. Still, the increasingly delusional and extremely drugged up, brained Adolf Hitler refused to accept reality and ordered his commanders to fight on. Unfortunately,

2:53 Defura's warped strategic vision undermined the Reich war effort at every turn, refusing to accept that Germany was now on the defensive. Hitler insisted that his forces remain on the offensive. As a result, development pushed forward on the so-called var or vengeance weapons like the V1 flying bomb and the V2 ballistic missile which Hitler hoped to strike back at the British Isles with. And instead of the fighters and interceptors desperately needed to stave off the Allied bombing campaigns, German aircraft factories already stretched to their limits continued to produce bombers and ground attack aircraft. Even the Meesmid ME262 Schwabber, the world's first operational jet fighter, was initially pressed into service as a bomber, a role to which it was ills suited. It was not until Germany's situation became truly desperate that Hitler and other high officials authorized the deployment of

3:40 cheap and easily manufactured emergency fighters in a vain bid to stem the tide of Allied bombers. These included some truly outlandish designs that were often more dangerous to their pilots than the enemy, including the Meshmid ME163 Comet and Bacham BA349 NATA and the Hikl H162 Volkaga or People's Fighter, a plywood jet designed to be flown by hastily trained members of the Hitler Youth. Because I mean, surely nothing could go wrong with putting virtually untrained children into plywood planes with a jet engine bolted on. Nothing at all wrong there.

4:13 However, repelling the anticipated Allied naval landing in France would require a different type of weapon, one that could penetrate a dense screen of anti-aircraft fire and deliver a large enough explosive warhead to sink a major warship. While the Luftwaffer had developed advanced radioguided munitions like the Fritz X and Henchel HS293, the ancestors of modern smart bombs, these had to be launched close to their targets by slower bomber mother ships, which were highly vulnerable to enemy attack. And while the marine or navy had assembled a flotilla of explosive motorboats called Linen and sneaky tiny submarines like the neger mosh hacked bber and seund in actual combat these proved embarrassingly ineffective.

4:53 Instead, key figures in the armed forces, including Luftwaff bomber pilot Hyman, commando leader SS Orbin Stobanfura Otto Scozeni and famous test pilot Hannah Reach, suggested developing a man's version of the Fisler FI 103 flying bomb, better known as the V1. An early form of cruise missile, the V1 was powered by an Argus AS 109 pulsejet engine, an extremely simple and cheap jet engine that used a set of spring-loaded shutters to generate a rapid series of combustion pulses, hence the name. Launched from a steam powered catapult, the missile was held at a specified heading and altitude by a simple autopilot until a small propeller-driven odometer in the nose indicated it was over its target. A special mechanism then pulled it into a steep dive, sending it and its 850 kg high explosive warhead plunging into the target below. Between June 1944 and March 1945, the Germans launched over 8,000 V1s against targets in

5:47 Britain and Allied occupied Belgium, killing or wounding nearly 23,000 people. Despite enthusiastic support from such prominent figures, the man V1 proposal was initially passed over in favor of a rival program, the Meshmid Me 328. Originally conceived in 1941 as a parasite aircraft carried by Lufoa bombers in order to defend them against Allied aircraft. Later in the war, the Me28 was reimagined as a cheap, easily manufactured emergency fighter for use against Allied bomber formations. And to learn more about the surprisingly long and fascinating history of parasite aircraft, please do check out our previous video, the real life marvel flying aircraft carriers. Now, at Hitler's insistence, ground attack versions were also proposed because I mean, of course, they were measuring only 7 m long and 7 m wide and built mainly out of wood, the dimmutive aircraft was to be powered by a 24 Argus

6:38 AS014 pulsejet engine, similar to those used by the V1, giving it a top speed of 805 km an hour. Originally, the aircraft was meant to be armed with a pair of MG-15120 20 mm automatic cannons, but this was later changed to a single 500 kg high explosive warhead in the nose. In combat, the M328 would either be air launched from a carrier aircraft or ground launched from a steam catapult, whereupon the pilot would guide the aircraft into the middle of an allied bomber formation, set the fuse on the warhead, and bail out, at which point the warhead would detonate and hopefully take out multiple bombers at once. That was the plan anyway. In reality, the pilot's chance of surviving such an attack were dimminionive, effectively making the ME328 a shelter, or to say it in a way that won't get this video age restricted, an aircraft in which the pilots would not have any additional missions afterwards. But this

7:28 disturbing proposition was the least of Messid's problems for early flight tests, many carried out by Hannah Wright herself, revealed a troubling flaw with the design. The twin pulsejet engines produced excessive resonance, thrust asymmetry, and vibration, which not only made it unpleasant to fly, but also threatened to shake the fragile airframe apart. This led to at least one prototype and its pilot being lost during flight testing. No matter what meshes engineers tried, the problem could not be resolved, and in mid 1944, the project was cancelled in favor of the man V1, dubbed the Fisolar Fi 103R Reichenberg. Development of the Reichenberg began in the summer of 1944 at the German Research Institute for Sail plane flight or DFS in Iron Ring, Bavaria. The missile was fitted with a small single seat cockpit and canopy just forward of the PulseJet intake, an area which normally held compressed air cylinders for operating

8:20 the missiles controls. These were replaced by a single cylinder fitted further aft in the space normally occupied by the missile's now redundant autopilot. The cockpit was very spartan with a plywood bucket seat, simple controls, and rudimentary flight instruments. While the canopy was fitted with an armored windscreen, the wooden wings were also fitted with reinforced metal edges to cut the cable of barrage balloons. No landing gear was provided for like the ME328, the Ryenberg was meant to be air launched from beneath the wings of a mother ship bomber such as the Hankl H111, which had already been used to launch unmanned V1 missiles. Once launched, the pilot would fly under power towards the target area before entering a steep dive and bailing out at the last minute, allowing the missile and its 850 kg high explosive warhead to impact the ship, bridge, or other target it was aimed at.

9:06 Unsurprisingly, as with the ME328, the pilot's chances of surviving such a maneuver were realistically slim to none, especially as the intake for the pulsejet engine was located right above the pilot's head. I mean, what could go wrong? Indeed, while the Nazis praised extreme bravery in battle and became increasingly fanatical as the war dragged on, deliberate, unintentional, abrupt retiring pilots from life attacks were not part of Germanic warrior tradition and the substed with great skepticism by senior Nazi leaders including Hitler and Reich Furer SS Heinrich Hima who called for the project to be abandoned. However, Alto Scorzeni lobbied hard for the program's reappraisal and eventually Hitler approved the formation of a special unit known as Leonidus Squadron, named of course after the legendary Spartan king who held off the Persians at the 480 B.CE battle of the Mopoly.

9:59 Leonida squadron was the fifth star of campus shader or KG200, a highly specialized luftwafa unit formed in February 1944 to carry out secret missions like infiltrating secret agents behind enemy lines. Allegedly, the minuscule but nonzero chance of Ryberg pilots being able to safely bail out allowed Scorzani to convince Himmler and Hitler that Leonad squadron was not in fact an unaliving squadron. However, its pilots or volunteers were required to recite the following oath, but you know, in no doubt super angry sounding German and substituting the ceasing to continue to exist word for something else because certain words are taboo on YouTube. I hereby voluntarily apply to be enrolled in the voluntarily ceasing to exist group as part of a human glider bomb. I fully understand that employment in this capacity will entail my own death. Flight testing of the first prototype Rikenbergs began in September

10:51 1944 at the Luftwaffer's main proving ground at Reclin in Pomerania. Unfortunately, the first test flight ended in a fatal crash thought to have been caused by the pilot accidentally jettisoning the canopy. The second flight the following day also ended in a crash, prompting experienced test pilots Hannah Rich and Hans Kencher to be called in. Even for such experienced pilots, the Reichenberg proved treacherous with Reich surviving several violent crashes. On November the 5th, 1944, engine vibration caused one of the prototypes to shed a wing and spiral to the earth. Thankfully, Caner was able to bail out, but only with great difficulty due to the aircraft's cramped cockpit.

11:28 These dangerous flight tests revealed that Reichenberg had an unusually high stall speed and that previous test pilots had attempted to land too slowly and had crashed as a result. They also spawned a popular myth about the development of the V1 flying bomb, one perpetuated by, among other sources, the 1965 British spy thriller Operation Crossbow. In the film, Hannah Reich is shown piloting a man V1 far earlier in the war in order to correct stability issues with the unmanned missile. In reality, such test flights never happened. While the Reichenbergs flown by Reich in 1944 were all launched from Hikl H111 bombers, not from a steam catapult as depicted in the film.

12:03 Meanwhile, the men of Leonadora squadron underwent extensive training to prepare them for their deadly missions. This began with training flights in gliders whose wings were shortened to simulate the handling of the Reichenberg. Trainee then moved to the FI 103R2, an unpowered training variant with a second cockpit and dual controls for an instructor and a vententral skid for landing. This was followed by flights in the R3 pulset powered two-seater and finally the R1 unpowered singleseat trainer. While the flying bomb's high stall speed made it difficult to land, by the fall of 1944, some 70 pilots were successfully trained. Meanwhile, a production line was established at Darnenburg in Lower Saxony, which ultimately turned out a total of 175 Reichenbergs. However, Leonard Desquadron continued to face opposition from key figures including Minister of Armaments and War Production Albert Spear and Ubust Vera Barbach,

12:53 commander of KG200, who argued that deploying the unit against the Allied invasion fleet at Normandy was a waste of brave men and precious resources. Several alternative deployments were considered such as using Reichenbergs against Soviet power stations on the Eastern Front or ramming them into Allied bomber formations, but ultimately Hitler ordered the project suspended in October 1944 before any missions could be flown. It was finally canceled on March 15th, 1945, barely a month and a half before the end of the war in Europe. Instead, KG200 adopted the only slightly less retirement from breathing missile or mistletoe composite aircraft developed by Vera Bambach. This consisted of a bomber such as a Junka's Ju88 stripped of its seats, flight controls, guns, and other equipment and fitted with a giant two-tonon-shaped charge warhead. A single seat fighter such as a Meshmid BF 109 or Fauler Wolf

13:42 FW190 was fixed to the top of the explosive laden drone using special brackets and the controls of the two aircraft linked allowing the pilot of the fighter to guide the combination to the target area. He would then align the composite aircraft with the target, activate the drone's autopilot, and detach the fighter from its mounting brackets using explosive bolts, allowing the drone to fly on alone to its fiery destiny. While mistrols were deployed on several occasions against Allied ships and harbor facilities in Normandy and Soviet power stations, armament factories and bridges on the Eastern Front, as covered in our previous video, Mistl Nazi Germany's bizarre piggyback attack aircraft, these operations were largely unsuccessful.

14:19 The slow unwieldly combinations proving horribly inaccurate and extremely vulnerable to Allied fighter aircraft. But the cancellation of the Reichenberg man V1 program was not the end of the Leontor squadron or of Nazi aerial ceasing to exist attacks. As the Allied bombing offensive against Germany continued to intensify, the Luftvafa high command realized it would have to achieve kill ratios on the order of 3:1 in order to have any hope of turning the tide. Unfortunately, the standard weapons carried by German fighter aircraft, typically a combination of 8 mm machine guns and 20 mm cannons, were simply not up to the task. While heavier weapons like the MK 108 30mm cannon and the 21 said tome Vera Granite rocket capable of taking down a bomber with one shot were developed and deployed. These were either too inaccurate or available in insufficient numbers to make any real difference. So in desperation, the Luftwaffer turned to

15:11 an extreme tactic which had been used to great effect by Soviet pilots on the Eastern Front. Ramming. In early 1945, a new unit was formed. Initially dubbed werewolf, but later renamed Sonda Commando Ela to avoid confusion with the stay behind guerrilla unit of the same name. S Commando Ela comprised 183 Meesmid BF 109G fighters stripped of nearly all armor and armaments save for a single MG131 machine gun in the nose. supplied with a mere 30 rounds. Their pilots based at Stendel airfield west of Berlin were trained to ram their aircraft into vulnerable areas of Allied bombers such as the tail, engines, and cockpit in order to inflict maximum damage. As with Leonard Squadron, these pilots technically had a tiny chance of surviving such rammings and successfully bailing out, helping to maintain the fragile delusion that the unit was anything other than an afterlife accelerator squad. S Commander Ela saw

16:05 action only once on April the 7th, 1945, flying against Boeing B7 flying fortresses and consolidated B-24 Liberators of the First, 2nd, and third divisions of the American 8th Air Force on their way to Berlin. The results were dismal with all 183 attacking aircraft and all but 27 of their pilots being destroyed. In return of the 1,34 bombers and 792 fighters that attacked Berlin that day, only 29 were brought down. no more than were typically lost on an average mission. Strangely, the Reich Propaganda Ministry of Dr. Joseph Gobles failed to make any mention of Sondo Commander Ela's heroic sacrifice, and as a result, Allied pilots mistook the ramming attacks for accidental collisions caused by inexperienced pilots. Less than 2 weeks later, it was finally Leona Squadron's turn to fly into battle. Re-equipped with Faulerville 190 fighter bombers loaded with as many bombs as they could carry

16:59 between April the 17th and 20th 1945. The unit under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Hain Langa carried out a series of sheltoffer and starts or self-sacrifice attacks against bridges on the Oda River in a desperate bid to slow the Soviet advance towards Berlin. 35 pilots were lost in the process and while the Luftwaffer claimed 17 bridges were taken out, later researchers revealed that only the railway bridge at Kustrin was definitively destroyed. In the end, however, the Nazis were reluctant to pursue full-on pilot body exploding attacks and the few operations that were carried out had next to no impact on the outcome of the war. This all was however a fixture of the Japanese warrior tradition and the armed forces of Imperial Japan pursued this doctrine to a far greater extent than their German allies. Though these aerial units officially designated Shinpu Tcoetssu Kakitai or special attack units but

17:52 better known as the kamicazi or divine wind. Such attacks were carried out using a variety of vehicles and other methods including motorboats, tiny submarines and even divers. Initially, the aerial kamicazi units made use of whatever existing aircraft were available from fighters and torpedoes to dive bombers to rickety old training biplanes. In the final year of the war, however, Japanese engineers set about developing a variety of more advanced and specialized aircraft specifically designed for the kamicazi role. Among the first was the Kawanishi biker or plum blossom, a singleseat pulsejet powered aircraft inspired by the German Meshmmit 328 and the Fisella FI 103R Reichenberg.

18:29 Throughout the war, Germany and Japan enjoyed a limited but useful trading relationship with Japan supplying Germany with muchneeded raw materials like rubber and tin in exchange for advanced German military technology. As the war dragged on and the allies gained air and sea superiority over more and more of the globe, an increasing amount of this trade was carried out by submarine. The technology supplied to Japan by Germany included jet engines like the Junka Yumo 004 used on the Meshmmit ME262 fighter, the Meshmmit ME163 comet rocket interceptor and the V1 flying bomb and its Argus AS-014 pulsejet engine. But while the Japanese soon created their own versions of the Me262 and ME163, the Nakajima Kika and the Mitsubishi J8M Shushui, respectively, material shortages and an ever worsening strategic situation severely delayed their development, prompting a search for simpler, more readily produced alternatives. The biker

19:23 was such an aircraft measuring 7 meters long with a wingspan of 6.5 meters. The single seat biker was powered by a Maru 3500 kilon thrust KA10 pulsejet engine, a close copy of the German Argus AS-014 mounted above and behind the cockpit which gave it a theoretical maximum top speed of 650 km/h and a range of 280 km. Three different versions of the aircraft were designed. The type one which had jettisonable landing gear and rocket boosters for conventional ground takeoff. The type two designed to be launched from aircraft carrier submarines like the I400 class. and the Type 3, which had no landing gear and was designed to be air launched from a bomber mother ship like the Mitsubishi G4M Betty. In all cases, the pilot would carry out a powered dive all the way to the target, delivering the aircraft's only weapon, a 250 kg high explosive warhead. However, the biker was still on the drawing board when the war

20:14 ended, and none were ever built or flown. However, the Japanese did manage to deploy an even simpler unaliving aircraft, the OCAP MXY7 OA or cherry blossom. The concept for this aircraft was dreamed up in mid 1944 by Naval Enen Otter, a pilot of the 405th Cockatai Air Transport Unit. Having limited engineering experience, Otter submitted his idea to the Aeronautical Research Institute at the University of Tokyo, who then passed it on to the Imperial Japanese Navy's Yokosuka Naval Air Technical Arsenal near Yokohama for further development. The finalized aircraft measured 6 m long with a wingspan of 5 m and weighed 2,000 kilos, more than half of which was accounted for by the,200 kg ammon explosive warhead mounted in its nose.

21:01 Several different versions of this ghouish man missile were designed. For example, the Model 22, which was powered by an Ishi Kawajima TSU11 thermojet, a primitive type of jet engine in which fuel is injected and burned in a turbine driven by a conventional piston engine in order to give it a greater range.

21:19 The model 33, 43A, 43B, and 53 were all powered by N20 turbo jet engines. A copy of the German BMW 003 with these various versions being specially modified for air launch, submarine launch, catapult launch from caves, and aerero tow respectively. An interceptor version known as the Suzuka 24 was also developed, powered by an NE20 engine, and armed with a pair of 20 mm automatic cannons. These were allegedly deployed once on April the 3rd, 1945 against a flight of American B-29 Superfortress bombers, but this claim has been disputed by historians. The only version of the OE to definitively see combat was the Model 11. Powered by three Type 4 solid fuel rocket boosters mounted behind the cockpit, the Model 11 was designed to be carried within around 30 km of its target by a Mitsubishi G4M mother ship, whereupon it and its pilot, sealed inside the cockpit before takeoff, would be released. The pilot

22:13 would glide most of the way to the combat zone before aiming his craft at an enemy ship and igniting the rockets. These would generate 7,850 kontons of thrust for around 4 minutes, accelerating the oer to a blistering 960 km an hour and making the tiny craft extremely difficult to shoot down as it careened toward its target. Such was the desperate need for weapons that full-scale production of the Arca began in late 1944 before flight testing had even finished. Various components were manufactured by private firms including Dan Ichiqen, Fuji and Hitachi. Yes, that Fuji and Hitachi. While final assembly took place at the Yokasuka and Kasamagara naval arsenals. By March 1945, 852 oasis had been completed of which 755 were model 11s. The rest were largely training gliders such as the model 11 K1 and the model 43 K1. The former was a single-seater which carried water ballast in place of the warhead

23:07 and rocket motors while the latter featured twin cockpits for a student and instructor and a single type four rocket motor for limited powered flight. Both were fitted with flaps and eventual skid to allow them to land. A single experimental model 21 was also produced featuring steel wings made by the Nakajima aircraft company. The first hawkers and their pilots, members of the awesomely named Ginry Bhutai or Thunder God Corps, were deployed to the Philippines in October 1944 to participate in the Battle of Lady Gulf, the largest single naval battle of the Second World War. However, the aircraft carriers transporting the Ocasers and their mother ships, the Chin and the Ouya, were sunk by the US Navy submarines USS Archerfish and USS Redfish before they could reach Laty. It would not be until April the 1st, 1945 that the Ocasers would be deployed again during the Battle of Okinawa. As mentioned at the start of the video, the

24:00 first Allied ship to record being hit by an ocer was the battleship USS West Virginia. Though given the relatively minor damage inflicted, it is likely that the aircraft only scored a near miss. The attack also demonstrated a fundamental flaw in the OCA concept, the extreme vulnerability of the slow, unmaneu mother ship. Of the six G4M Betties that attacked on April the 1st, none made it back to base. But the attacks kept coming and on April the 12th, the Oca scored its first combat victory off Okinawa, sinking the Sumnclass destroyer USS Manard Labili and killing 84 of her crew. During the same action, the Gleeves class destroyer USS Jeffers destroyed an attacking oer with anti-aircraft fire, but the aircraft's warhead detonated close to the ship, causing extensive damage. The Fletcher class destroyer USS Stanley was also attacked by two ocasers with one punching right through the ship's hull

24:51 and detonating in the water on the other side and the other barely missing knocking down the Stanley's Enen or its flag from its mast. By this time, American sailors had taken to calling the Finnish man missiles back bombers after the Japanese word for fool or crazy. More rocker attacks followed on April the 14th, 16th, and 28th, but none achieved any hits and only three of the 17 mother ships deployed returned to base. It was not until May 4th that Robert H. Smith class destroyer USS Sher and the admirable class mine sweeper USS Gayy was successfully struck by OAS suffering severe damage. One week later on May the 11th, the SEC class destroyer USS Hugh W. Hadley was struck and damaged so badly that she was deemed irreparable and later decommissioned and sold for scrap. In response to the backbomb threat, the US Navy expanded its aerial patrols in order to shoot down the mother ships before they could

25:40 get within launching distance of the fleet. Thanks to these measures and upgraded anti-aircraft defenses aboard Navy warships, the number of successful attacks dropped off sharply. In the end, the Ocas like the Kamicazi campaign as a whole proved a costly failure. Of the 300 Ocasers deployed to Okinawa, only 74 were actually launched against the enemy. Of these, only 18 carried out successful attacks. The rest being destroyed by American fighter aircraft or anti-aircraft guns. And for all this senseless sacrifice, only one ship was sunk and five were damaged. And so ended the brief and terrifying reign of the purpose-built unaliving aircraft.

26:15 Perhaps more than any other weapon, the Yokosuka Aka Fisler Ryikenberg and their brethren encapsulate in wood metal and explosives and flesh the heights of fanaticism, desperation, and sheer madness which drove the most destructive conflict in modern history.

Questions about this episode

What is "The Nazi Kamikaze Squadron" about?

On April 1, 1945, the Battle of Okinawa marked a brutal phase of World War II, characterized by fierce Japanese resistance and devastating kamikaze attacks against Allied forces, highlighting the desperation of Japan's wartime strategy. Simultaneously, less recognized is the near-catastrophic potential of Nazi Germany's own version of aerial suicide attacks against Allied fleets during earlier…

What is mentioned in this Today I Found Out episode?

12 people, works and ideas are mentioned, including Leona Squadron, Adolf Hitler, Otto Skorzeny, Yokosuka MXY7 Ocera, USS West Virginia, Heinrich Himmler. Each one on this page links to its own page with every episode that mentions it.

How long is "The Nazi Kamikaze Squadron"?

The episode runs 27 min; the transcript is about 4,773 words in 35 timestamped sections.

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