http://www.etherit.co.uk/month/5/09.htm
June 9th, 1945 (SATURDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: The RAF reveals the Vampire, a new jet fighter which can fly at over 500mph.
JAPAN: Japanese Privy Seal Kido today gains the approval of the Emperor on a scheme to mediate peace through the USSR. This plan features 1) Honourable terms for Japan. 2) Withdrawal from occupied ares at Japan’s initiative. 3) Acceptable arms reductions.
Tokyo: Japan has responded to the daylight pounding of three of its mainland cities and the imminent defeat of its forces on Okinawa by stepping up kamikaze raids on the US naval task force off Okinawa. In the last three days suicide pilots have sunk two US destroyers, killing 312 servicemen. Japan has lost 67 kamikaze flyers in the raids. The attacks have ended hopes that Japan is preparing to accept the Allied demand for unconditional surrender. It is understood that even the premier Mr. Suzuki, a known moderate, is opposed to such a surrender, believing it to be a betrayal of Japanese forces still in the field.
In the latest raids on Japan - the first time that three cities have been hit in one day - a fleet of 110 unescorted B-29s dropped high-explosive bombs on aircraft factories at Nagoya, Narao and Akashi. At the same time US carrier-based fighters strafed bases on Kyushu used for Kamikaze attacks.
The USAAF’s Twentieth Air Force in the Mariana Islands flies four missions:
1. Mission 191: 44 B-29 Superfortresses attack the Kawanishi Aircraft Company’s plant at Narao; one other hits a target of opportunity.
2. Mission 192: 24 B-29s hit the Kawasaki plant at Akashi; there is 9/10 cloud cover and bombing is by radar; the village of Akashi rather than the factory is hit; two others bomb targets of opportunity.
3. Mission 193: 42 B-29s hit Aichi’s Atsuta factory; only four bombs hit the target area but one causes a devastating fire; one other hits a target of opportunity.
4. Mission 194: During the night of 8/9 June, 26 B-29s mine Shimonoseki Strait; one other mines an alternate target. Mines previously laid by B-29s sink two Japanese freighters off Japan.
On Okinawa, Ushijima’s defence force, confined to the island’s southern tip, has been split in two after landings behind the Japanese lines by US marines.
COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES: Mindanao: US troops capture the last major defensive strongpoint on the island, at Mandog.
TERRITORY OF ALASKA: ALEUTIAN ISLANDS: Four North American B-25 Mitchells, based on Attu Island, Aleutian Islands, attack Araido Island in the Kurile Islands and are attacked by Japanese aircraft. Two B-25s stray into Soviet airspace and one is shot down by antiaircraft fire; the second lands at Petropavlosk.
Task Force 92, the light cruisers USS Concord (CL-10), USS Richmond (CL-9) and USS Trenton (CL-11) plus escorting destroyers, patrols the east coast of the Kurile Islands searching for Japanese shipping.
CANADA: HMC MTB 464 paid off.
Film I see of kamikaze attacks typically seems to show planes attacking singly or in very small groups, enabling ships’ gunners to focus all their firepower on few planes and greatly diminishing the attackers’ probability of getting through to their target. Perhaps my data is inadequate, and I know many kamikazes did get through, but if that is true I wonder if it doesn’t expose a kamikaze “fatal” flaw (heh-heh): no feedback, no learning curve. No one came back and said here’s how we can better succeed: mass attacks, thereby overwhelming anti-air defenses and insuring success.