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Built to Kill (Once) - Japan's Special Attack Aircraft

Red Wrench Films

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Find the naval kamikazes on my Patreon: Patreon: RedWrenchFilms

By 1944, Japan was losing. Badly. Their answer was as desperate as it was terrifying — sending pilots out on missions with no intention of coming home.

But this isn't just a story about sacrifice, it's also about engineering. Modified Zeros, rocket-boosted Judys, giant shaped charges, and purpose-built flying bombs designed to sink the enemy at any cost.

This is the aircraft of the Kamikaze.

Chapters:
00:00 Intro
01:46 Origins (Leyte Gulf)
05:51 Single Engine
08:20 Twin Engine
10:20 Initial Reports
12:18 MXY-7 Ohka
17:02 Sabre & Spear
19:24 Allied Reaction
21:03 Outro

All content is presented in historical context for educational purposes. All footage is owned by its copyright holder and is used in this channel under "fair use".

Music by Epidemic Sound.

20 Comments

@RedWrenchFilms Creator 5 months ago Pinned

Check out the second part of this video series on my Patreon! And it helps support the channel in these dark times of AI slop :)

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/RedWrenchFilms?utm_campaign=creatorshare_creator

@FreePalantir 5 months ago

Shaped charge being behind the pilot is diabolical

@Aaradorn 5 months ago

The Sakura shaped charge positioning is sending me, if the impact won't kill you, that thing will melt your atoms to bits.

@JGCR59 5 months ago

Seriously that shaped charge on the Ki-67 pointing basically directly at the pilot from behind is sick.

@fatfreddyfreekowtski6896 5 months ago

That shaped charge in a plywood hump is mental!

@martinhulin 5 months ago

When is the M60 red wrench? When is it? Jokes aside, yay, one of my favourite youtubers posted another interesting video

@a_catfish5180 4 months ago

I’m sorry a 2.9 ton shaped charge? As in 2900 kilograms? That’s a big HEAT warhead right there

@flutter8712 5 months ago

Im a simple man, I see no Ai, i like

@Weasel7980 4 months ago

2:06 “survivability” in this context is funny to me, I get what he means, but it’s just funny.

@Mark-es7bn 5 months ago

Basically the insane version of the trolley problem

@1977Yakko 5 months ago

My late grandfather's ship, USS Stanley DD478, was hit by an Ohka/Baka bomb while on radar picket duty off Okinawa. Luckily, it didn't explode but punched clean through. A second was a near miss. So close, it reportedly ripped the ensign (US flag) off the mast with its wing.

@kylecooper4812 5 months ago

1:25 The shaped charge in the ki-167 pointing directly at the pilot is really funny to me for some reason.

It’s funnier than “normal” Tokkō aircraft. Like conceptually, it’s all the same. But something feels different between piloting a bomb and having a giant death beam pointing at the back of your head.

It’s like the difference between running up to somebody with a grenade, and duct-taping a pistol to the back of your head and head-butting your enemy to kill them.

@JGCR59 5 months ago

At 2:31, the fitting of a 250 kg bomb was not a kamikaze modification. The A6M5 could carry this bomb regularly, in fact the ill fated japanese carrier strike at the Marianas included a significant number of bomb armed fighter bomber Zeros

@Foxyfox4101 5 months ago

Honestly the most absurd part of it is that 2-cockpit trainer glider for the Ohka.

@mnguy98 5 months ago

Not gonna lie, the little Kokusai critter looks like it could've made a half-decent recreational kit plane with a little bit of refinement.

@anzaca1 5 months ago

13:55 The speed ended up actually being to fast. One Ohka hit a destroyer, and the warhead was going so fast that it went clean through the ship and hit the water a long distance away before exploding.

@patpat-rp3lv 5 months ago

6:06 when i first saw that footage, i thought those suicidal boys were really lucky to penetrate that AA curtain considering that their plane was very slow