Kamikazes, Corsairs, and Picket Ships: Okinawa, 1945

by Robin L. Rielly

Book Overview

This is the previously untold story of one of the most ferocious and prolonged air/naval battles ever: the battle at the radar picket stations during the American assault on Okinawa in the spring of 1945. It weaves together the experiences of the ships and their crews, in a way that no one has attempted before.

The US fleet and its accompanying airpower that took station off Okinawa was of gigantic proportions, such that the Japanese could...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1932033866
• ISBN13: 9781932033861
• Release Date: September 2008
• Publisher: Casemate
• Length: 448 Pages
• Weight: 1.93 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.4" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Kamikazes, Corsairs, and Picket Ships: Okinawa 1945

Very informative with all the details of a great battle. I am an avid WWII buff and have 100's of books on the subject and can say this is one of the best.

Annotated after action reports.

This is the story of the valiant men that served as radar picket ships to warn the main US fleet of the approach of Japanese (often Kamikaze) aircraft. As these ships were generally small, isolated, and the first thing that the Japanese attackers saw, they often took the brunt of the attacks. Rielly has picked what seems to be a relatively important, under-reported-upon topic. However, the telling is difficult (and the reading a bit tedious) due to two reasons. First, there's no overall narrative to the underlying events (as there might be, to, say, the story of a battle) other than "somebody decided radar picket ships were a good idea. radar picket ships were put into place and over the course of their deployment the tactics and thinking changed slightly, but more or less what happened was that they got damaged and sunk a whole lot. then the war ended." So, taken as a whole, for most even pretty serious readers the book comes across as a general description of a phenomenon rather than the narration of a story. Rielly did what he could here and so I don't fault him as this might actually be the only way to tell this story, but this reality does no favors to the reader. Second, it seems fairly clear that Rielly was doing his best but was working from a limited set of references. Since I don't have the book in front of me at the moment this is an educated guess, but basically I suspect much of middle of the book to basically be annotated after action reports. The problem with this is that both objectivity and "narrative effect" suffer. The author truly has done yeoman's work in getting the timetable right and fusing so many after action reports into, despite my previous paragraph, the closest thing to a narrative that could be hoped for. Unfortunately, he's not very good on technical details (much of the text dealing with aircraft operations - such as incredibly naive comparisons of aircraft speeds and altitudes - is one-star-worthy poor) and not much better in describing human interactions and feelings. After reading this book, I feel I have only a slightly better understanding of what being on those ships was actually like. As you might have guessed by this point, the style of the book is fairly dry and analytical. And, to this end, the first few chapters (maybe it's just the first one - sorry again for not having it here) really shine and are worth the price of admission. I got 95% of the benefit from the first overview chapters and found the middle "action" stuff a very tough, repetitive slog especially since it seemed that the after action reports, doubtlessly filled with over-claims and the like, seemed to largely be taken at face value. The author did a commendable job with what few relatively few English-language sources there are on the Japanese side of thing (such as coaxing a few relevant remarks from Ugaki's diary), but a better analysis of the Japanese side, difficult as that would have been, would have been very us

An heroic stand

During the invasion of Okinawa (Operation Iceberg), from 1st April through 22 June, 1945, the Imperial Japanese Army and Navy Air Forces launched some 10 Kikusui or Kamikaze missions against the American fleet off the Ryukyu Islands, heavily damaging amongst others, the fleet carriers Intrepid (CV11), Bunker Hill (CV17) and the venerable Enterprise (CV6), putting them and many other ships out of the war. However, the brunt of the suicide attacks were put against the radar picket ships, a naval cordon around the island made to protect the invasion fleet and the land forces. The action in these RP (Radar Picket) ships in their 18 stations since 26 March until the VJ-Day, on 13 August, 1945, is described on a day-by-day and ship-by-ship basis, in their heroic and brave stand to shield and protect the huge invasion armada. In this defense they counted with the help of the US Navy/Marine and AAF air squadrons, based on Ie Shima Island and Iontan and Kadena airfields on Okinawa. And the butcher's bill was heavy: 15 US ships sunk, 50 damaged, with some 3.000 casualties. It was but one of the most ferocious and protracted air/naval battles of the Pacific War. Fortunately, it also proved to be the last one.

Great Book!

The first reviewer said it all! A great book and a must read for any WWII naval history collector. If you are a descendant of any man who served on one of these ships or flew a plane during this particular campaign you must read this book!

Bodycrashers vs. Small Boys off Okinawa, 1945!

There seems to be a spate of kamikaze-themed books lately; witness AT WAR WITH THE WIND, DANGER'S HOUR and INFERNO. The latest 'Bodycrasher' entry is this well-researched, well-written account of the 'small boys' - the DDs, DEs, LSMs and misc. craft - who served as radar pickets off Okinawa in the spring and summer of 1945. Serving as the first line of defense for the American troops and naval ships besieging Okinawa, the picket ships fought off horrific attacks from Japanese aircraft. Since the fall of Okinawa was seen as a precursor for an invasion of Japan, the Japanese military determined to eradicate the American invaders using the only effective weapon they had left - airpower. Yet the Bettys, Zeros, Tonys, Kates and other aircraft that soon swarmed towards Okinawa from Japan and Formosa were on one-way trips, determined to body-crash into USN ships. Though carriers and battleships were the preferred target, the radar pickets ievitably drew the bulk of the attackers. And, although American planners assumed attacks would come, they seriously underestimated the scale of those attacks and made other errors that resulted in the radar pickets being swamped by waves of kamikazes. Hundreds of Japanese aircraft were splashed but 29% of the radar pickets were sunk or damaged by the time the attacks ended in July/August. Author Robin Reilly does a marvelous job of retelling the ordeal the radar pickets underwent. After chapters explaining the nature of picket duty, the navy ships assigned to that duty, the aerial adversaries that would clash over the radar pickets, Japanese tacics and so on, he chronicles the attacks that begun on 1 April 1945. Along with relating the frenzied attacks that pitted a variety of IJAF and IJN aircraft against the radar pickets and their USN/USMC/USAAF protectors, Reilly also points out the various mistakes American brass made that inadvertently aided the suiciders. Putting the reader right in the middle of the seemingly endless attacks, Reilly interweaves the air and surface actions into a seamless, gripping whole. Often the attacks were followed by equally desperate attempts by USN crews to save their badly battered craft and here too Reilly effectively captures the drama. The book is illustrated with dozens of photos of U.S. and Japanese sailors and airmen, ships and aircraft along with maps and damage diagrams. KAMIKAZES, CORSAIRS AND PICKET SHIPS is, at once, a gripping history of some horrendous air/sea battles and a tribute to the American sailors and airmen who were determined to persevere. And it's a great read to boot. Highly recommended.