IMPERIAL JAPANESE NAVY HUMAN TORPEDO

Deze bouwdoos bestaat uit 2 Torpedo's!

The Kaiten (Japanese; literal translation: "Return to the sky", commonly rendered as: "The turn toward heaven", "The Heaven Shaker" or "Change the World") were manned torpedos and suicide craft, they were used by the Imperial Japanese Navy in the final stages of World War II.

Arguably the most successful attack by kaitens was that on the USS Underhill commenced on 24 July 1945. She was a unit of the numerous Buckley class and at the time of sinking was escorting several supply and troop ships. Subsequent to being spotted by a Japanese naval reconnaissance plane; submarine I-53 attached to the Tamon group and carrying six kaitens was redirected to the expected location of the convoy.

The submarine launched a decoy mine ahead of the convoy's position causing the convoy to shift bearing to avoid the mine. This, however, was just diversionary and the mine was a dummy. The USS Underhill after realizing this noticed several sonar contacts, which were later revealed to be a Japanese submarine and several kaitens. A depth charge run was made which did not succeed in killing the submarine although it is suspected that it did succeed in neutralizing one of the kaitens. The depth charge run was followed by a ramming attempt on a submarine at periscope depth.

As the Underhill rammed the surfaced vessel (later revealed to be a kaiten) it was struck by a second kaiten waiting in ambush. Both pilots detonated their charges, one of which led to the detonation of the destroyer's boilers, which led to the her being torn in half by the explosions. The sinking resulted in the loss of almost half of her complement including most of the officers.

One of the attacking kaitens did also attempt an attack on a cargo vessel LST-991, but for some reason glided cleanly under the ship's keel. This very same kaiten could be the one which successfully rammed and sank the Underhill.

Yutaka Yokota, a kaiten pilot whose three missions had been canceled due to damage to his weapon or faults with the weapon, was a witness to the attack on Underhill.

Following the successful attack on the Underhill, I-53 launched a further kaiten at an unnamed vessel 6 days later. The attack was unsuccessful. On August 3, I-53 was detected by USS Earl V. Johnson and the destroyer began a series of unsuccessful Hesgehog attacks. I-53 launched two Kaitens separated by 30 minutes, explosions were heard and it was confirmed that the destroyer was damaged in the attack. She escaped pursuit and returned home.

The I-58 was patrolling the Guam-Leyte route on July 28 when she was forced to dive by an aircraft. A tanker and the USS Lowry were spotted and the commander decided to attack. Two kaitens were launched but one was sunk by gun fire and the other when the destroyer rammed it, although the destroyer was lightly damaged in the process. A day later the I-58 spotted the USS Indianapolis and resolved to make an attacking run; the commander ordered 2 kaitens prepared for attack. Once in firing range the commander realized that it would be a waste of a kaiten to attack such an easy target and instead launched a spread of six type 95 torpedoes, three of which hit causing the cruiser to sink rapidly. On August 9 the I-58 noticed a convoy led by the USS Salamaua and readied three of her kaitens to attack, although two failed. One kaiten was launched followed by another heading towards the USS Johnnie Hutchins. One narrowly missed the destroyer, however both were destroyed by gun and depth charge fire. The convoy hunted for further submarines but the I-58 escaped. On August 12 a kaiten attack was made on the USS Oak Hill and her escort the USS Thomas F. Nickel, the kaiten passed under the destroyer, then surfaced and self-detonated. A second object was spotted by the destroyer and depth charges were launched, after which an explosion occurred. Whether this was a kaiten is unknown, as all six of I-58's weapons were accounted for, but with two failures, perhaps one was repaired and launched.

On the eleventh of August, I-366 spotted and attacked a convoy north of Palau. The commander attempted to launch all of his kaitens, however two of them failed to launch and the ones that were launched never recorded a hit or even exploded. Less than a week later, Japan surrendered and all submarines were ordered home, thus the I-366 never saw any further action.

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