Who knows what an Ohka is/was?

[berto64]

Just watched a neat slideshow about them and other aircraft that shared their mission.

Go here and check out the heading, "Suicide blossoms off Okinawa."

http://www.military.com

[Xracer]

Well, you didn't give us a link Berto......but the Ohka was a rocket powered piloted suicide bomb, and it wasn't very sucessful. Most of the Kamakazie attacks were carried out by conventional Jap aircraft loaded with bombs.

BTW, the Allies called the Ohka bombs "Baka" bombs ("Baka" = Japanese for "foolish").

[Pistolenschutze]

Originally Posted by Xracer

BTW, the Allies called the Ohka bombs "Baka" bombs ("Baka" = Japanese for "foolish").

What one might also call, "not-so-smart bombs." Very few of them were actually used since they were primarily intended to attack an American invasion force off the coast of Japan, an event which never happened due to the atomic bombs over Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

[polishshooter]

Actually, if you think about it, it was nothing but a "guided missile," which everyone was trying to develop, just with a much different "Guidance system" than us or the Germans were using....

After the war we found out they had more of them than we thought, from the few they actually used, the assumption is they were saving them to use against us when we invaded the home islands....

It COULD have been effective, except there wasn't really any "training flights" and they usually put "green" pilots in them....it would have been a handful to even an EXPERIENCED pilot (*which by then were in short supply) to control once that rocket kicked in...and we learned how to deal with them, intercept the "Mother" Betty BEFORE it could launch.

[Pistolenschutze]

Polish, didn't the Germans encounter those during the Polish campaign of 1939? I heard they didn't have much effect . . . since the Germans bombed the main Polish kite factory early in the campaign.



Ut oh. Paybacks are hell, huh?

[polishshooter]

Now, PS, the Chinese were using kite bombs as weapons long before any European monks were even dreaming about gunpowder formulas, so if the Polish did use them, it musta been because of the Mongol blood mixed in over the ages....

That's why Michener claims that while most Polaks are strapping blonde/blue eyed specimens of manhood , you every so often find a scrawny looking dark haired dark skinned guy with a "ski" at the end of his name....(the ITALIANS never made it up there, ) it was just the fact the Mongols took a shine to the pretty "Polkas" during all their bi-annual invasions of Europe and didn't kill them after they raped them like they did to the rough and homely German girls, and when the Polaks and their sons came back from hiding in the swamps and forests they just "adopted" the new offspring that appeared 9 months later into the family....(one more field hand to tend the turnips!)

You know, come to think of it, over the years since the Teutonic Knights, the Germans might have been more successful if they would have learned and practiced just a little of the 'restraint' and civility shown by the Mongol and Tatar hordes over the ages....

Although come to think of it, the idea of "Polish Kamikazes" is not that adverse an idea if you look at Polish Military History The main difference is the "suicides" were "incidental," not "planned." Put a German or a Russian in front of an armed Pole on a horse with a lance, (Heck, a Polish PEASANT with a pitchfork for that matter.... ) and it really DIDN'T matter to the Pole that the other guy was behind armor and MGs....


And actually giving the devils their due, the Germans were the first ones to actually come up with R/C guided missiles, and actually got them operational off of Sicily in 1943, but it is amazing at how quickly the US came up with countermeasures, a DE with a rudimentary 'jammer' was assigned to every fleet after that and they turned out to be just another spectacular failure, just like every other "Super Weapon" the Germans came up with that they didn't have the money, time, or resources to be messing with in time of war....and which of course it took the US to later perfect.....

[Pistolenschutze]

Originally Posted by polishshooter

And actually giving the devils their due, the Germans were the first ones to actually come up with R/C guided missiles, and actually got them operational off of Sicily in 1943, but it is amazing at how quickly the US came up with countermeasures, a DE with a rudimentary 'jammer' was assigned to every fleet after that and they turned out to be just another spectacular failure, just like every other "Super Weapon" the Germans came up with that they didn't have the money, time, or resources to be messing with in time of war....and which of course it took the US to later perfect.....

True, Polish. The Germans did develop a fairly accurate radio controlled anti-shipping missile during the war. It had to be guided by an operator located in the attacking aircraft, and as it neared the ground it could no longer be effectively controlled. Still, it was pretty effective against cargo ships as they neared the coast. Like so many other German weapons though, it was never developed sufficiently and the Germans never had enough of them to make a serious difference in their war effort.