Today, suicide bombings are associated with terrorists, although this is not always true. Previously, suicidal bombing was used everywhere in the armies, and legends make up their effectiveness during World War II. The most famous example is Japanese kamikaze. These pilots were given direct instructions to send their planes to the ships of the Allies.
Also, more crazy cases of turning a person into a weapon of murder are known to history. For example, in the USA, they developed the idea of landing people inside rockets. It is good that it was not possible to realize it. We offer you 10 strange and inhuman cases when groups of people tried (and sometimes achieved their goals) to make suicide weapons from soldiers.
10
Kaiten
Kaiten is a peculiar underwater analogue of kamikaze aircraft from Japan. As in airplanes, pilots directed torpedoes from submarines to enemy ships, while inside, and preparing to die at the time of the explosion. Work on the creation of kaiten began in February 1944, and the first launch was already made in July. Kaiten equipped with torpedo engines, and being inside the pilot was dictated by the need to direct torpedoes to the ship. The first versions of the weapon were equipped with a catapult to eject the pilot, immediately before contact with the target. However, none of the pilots made any attempts to use the catapult. This made it possible for developers to produce torpedoes without ejection mechanisms.
The kaiten pilot was given two opportunities to hit the target. If two attempts were unsuccessful, he had to self-destruct by blowing up a torpedo (although the first version of the kaiten did not provide for this, and the poor fellow was simply dying from a lack of oxygen). The inability of the torpedo to go to great depths made it vulnerable, which was used by the Allies. Some torpedoes missed past an enemy ship, while others did not explode even after a collision.
Nevertheless, the use of kaiten gave a result. One of the significant victims was the USS Underhill, which was sunk on July 24, 1945 as a result of the hit of 6 torpedoes. Japan stopped using these weapons a week before its surrender.
9
Fieseler fi 103r
During World War II, Great Britain fell victim to German prototypes of the Fau-1 or V-1 cruise missiles. they were released directly from Germany to a distance of 250 km. Their effectiveness was simply terrifying, but the Fieseler Fi 103R, manned versions of the V-1, were even more terrifying.
Realizing the inevitability of defeat, German military engineers began to realize really crazy ideas. Someone suggested launching manned rockets from airplanes. The idea was picked up, but somewhat “modernized” by planting a living person inside the rocket. Since the V-1s showed successful results, new missiles were made on their basis. Initially, the pilot was not supposed to die in the rocket, catapulting before hitting the target. But such a scenario was not possible, since the "landing" of the pilot could shoot down the sight.
Unlike the V-1, aimed at the cities of Great Britain, the Fieseler Fi 103R headed for the Allied ships in the English Channel. In a short time, about 200 missiles were produced. Fortunately for the Alliance, not one of them was ever released, as the German command was not interested in the project.
8
Human bombing
While Islamic terrorist groups stupefy people's brains with ideology before they get blown up in a car, the IRA (Irish Republican Army) used a more terrible and, frankly, cowardly tactic during the many years of war with the United Kingdom government.
The IRA fighters found people associated with the British government, after which they took their families hostage and ordered the vehicles stuffed with explosives to be sent to selected objects. Often for the driver it ended in death. Sometimes they managed to jump out of the car before the explosion, but this did not always happen. Perhaps the most famous victim of the Irish Republican Army was a police cook named Patsy Gillespie. In the summer of 1990, the IRA was forced to fit his wife's explosive car to the police barracks. After the work done, Gillespie was able to live quietly ... only four months. After this time, representatives of the group ordered the man to send the car to the military checkpoint, as a result of which he died and took five more representatives of the British Army with him to the grave.
7
Maiale
Translated from Italian maiale means "pig." During World War II, the so-called pilot-controlled torpedoes. The Italians developed them 4 years before the outbreak of hostilities, to be ready to fight the British and French ships that surrounded the Mussolini fleet in the Mediterranean. In the very first year of the outbreak of war (1939), fascist Italy sent a manned torpedo on a combat mission.
The length of the torpedo was 5 meters, and it involved the deployment of two types of warheads. In the first case, it was one 300 kg shell, in the second two shells of 150 kg each. The torpedo was controlled by two crew members piloting a “miracle of technology” in the enemy’s harbor. In one case, the crew managed to conduct a torpedo under the Allied ships, attaching its front part, where the warhead was located, to the hull of an enemy ship, and hiding before the explosion.
The first experience with the use of "mumps" was unsuccessful. One torpedo was destroyed from the plane, the second was forced to flee after shelling. But there were also successful cases of using maiale, as in the winter of 1941, when torpedoes sank a tanker and two battleships armed with Great Britain off the coast of Egypt. True, the crew of that “pig” was captured during an attempt to escape.
Despite the many difficulties associated with the management of torpedoes, they remained in service with the Italians until their peace agreement with the coalition signed in 1943. By the way, because of the uncontrollability of the torpedoes, they were called "pigs." It is still impossible to calculate how much they drowned during the tests.
6
Yokosuka MXY-7 Ohka
The Yokosuka MXY-7 Ohka projectile is one of the world famous kamikaze aircraft. It was equipped with a rocket engine, which in itself was unusual for those times, since the engines of aircraft armed with other countries were screw. The idea of the Japanese was simple. Upon detection of an enemy ship, the heavy Mitsubishi G4M2e bombers took to the air with attached "Okami", which are released in the direction of the target. Planning in the direction of the ships, the kamikaze turned on the rocket engine in the immediate vicinity, directing the deadly plane to the deck.
The first test ended in failure. Due to the severity and poor maneuverability of the bombers, all 16 units were shot down on approach. Several gliders were still released, but their opponents were too far away. Over time, the Japanese managed to achieve little success in using the Oka, but the end did not justify the means. The project had to be scaled down due to the vulnerability of bombers carrying kamikaze aircraft.
By the way, most-beuaty.ru has an interesting article about the most reliable passenger aircraft in the world.
5
Sonderkommanda "Elba"
The Elbe Sonderkommando included Luftwaffe pilots (Third Reich Air Force), who underwent a special training course in which they trained to send their own aircraft to enemy bombers. As mentioned earlier, the Germans, sensing the loss of warfare, began to clutch at the craziest ideas, one of which was the Fieseler Fi 103R manned missiles. The next "masterpiece" of thought was the removal of protection and weapons from aircraft for ramming the coalition air force.
As they say, the best enemy of the good. Despite the superiority of German aircraft in technical equipment, they were not enough to compete with the Allies. Also lacked fuel and qualified pilots. With new tactics, the number of planes was reduced, and casualties grew. It was assumed that the pilots would catapult before the collision, but this turned out to be a rather problematic task.
The idea of ramming did not materialize. Despite the destruction of several bombers (it was they who represented a threat to Germany, bombarding German cities), the Luftwaffe suffered greater losses than the Allies, who quickly replaced the downed planes, which the Germans could not afford.
About the best fighters of both modernity and that time read an interesting article on our website!
4
Bomi
Bomi, this is a secret development of the US military engineers during the Cold War. The name consists of the first letters of two headwords: a bomber (Bomber) and a missile (missile). The purpose of the development was to ensure a nuclear strike on the enemy country. In this case, he was the USSR.
The author of the idea was Bell Aircraft Corporation, which proposed to put pilot soldiers in an intercontinental ballistic missile for its direction to Moscow. The crew of such an apparatus consisted of three pilots located in two different compartments (two people sat in the back, one in the front). The launch of the rocket was carried out from the rear compartment, which in the air “detached” from the front and returned to the launch station. The front compartment with one pilot on board was supposed to rise into space, and from there fly to Moscow. Agree, it sounds quite naive, especially when you consider that the ejected pilot should have remained within the radius of the warhead explosion, weighing almost 2 tons.
Calculations showed that the rocket could not reach Moscow, so the idea had to be abandoned. In addition, the US government was going to send nuclear weapons to the USSR either with missiles or with a bomber, and not with a hybrid aircraft.
3
Fukury
Do you think Japanese teisintai limited themselves to torpedoes and aircraft? At the end of the war, special detachments of suicide divers were created, who were called fukury. They were equipped with special canes 3.3 meters long, on which a 10-pound explosive was attached. Divers had to guard their own shores, convenient for landing, from the invasion of the Allies. Using a bamboo rod, the fukury hit the bottom of the ship, setting the explosives in action. During the explosion, the diver himself died.
In addition, many divers died before dropping bombs. This was caused by an updated oxygen supply system. Tubes departed from the helmet, one of which was supplied to the tank with alkali so that exhaled air could get there. Mixing with caustic, it again turned into oxygen for inhalation by a diver. The main reason for the death of divers was the imperfection of the scuba system. The point is that oxygen should be inhaled exclusively through the nose, and exhaled through the mouth. Having mixed up the order, the divers doomed themselves to alkali poisoning. Also, many fukuri lost consciousness. Only during training, about 50 suicide bombers died. Insufficient sealing of the tanks could turn alkali, mixed with water, into poisonous gas. Some divers simply became entangled in mud, others remained permanently disabled, suffering brain damage and respiratory illness until the end of their days.
2
Xingyo
We think it is foolish to deny the determination of the Japanese to defend their borders at the last stage of World War II. Therefore, the use of suicide bombers became commonplace for them. Shinyo boats with motor engines started with explosives and were supposed to blow up the Allied ships.
There were two options for suicide boats. The first type of shinyo exploded in a collision with an enemy ship, inflicting irreparable damage on it, also taking the pilot to the other world. The second involved the dropping of warheads around enemy ships, after which the boat “escaped” from the enemy. True, it was not possible to sail far, due to the low speed of the shinyo, he did not have time to leave the radius of action of the blast wave.
1
Marder
The ultra-small submarine Marder was invented in Nazi Germany in 1944. Despite the fact that she did not expect the death of the pilot, we put it on the list, since the reality was different from the plan. It was developed on the basis of the unsuccessful Negro boat project. Despite resolving some problems, the Marder was only slightly superior to its predecessor.
The main improvement was that Marder, unlike the Negro, could move under water, although not at great depths (only 30 meters). True, in fact, to sink to such a depth was suicide, so the submarines sank a maximum of 15 meters. Both versions of the human-controlled torpedo were supposed to release a charge before the pilot left the "crime scene", although this was quite problematic. Despite the damage done by the “Marders” to the enemy, the experience of using them was found to be unsuccessful, as more than 30% of the pilots died.