Kammhuber Line The greatest kamikaze effort was made against the invasion fleet off Okinawa from April to June, 1945 Kamikaze attacks sank 38 warships, though none larger than a destroyer; they damaged nearly 200 more, while killing 4,907 U.S sailors The Japanese plan was to allow an initial landing, then isolate and destroy it by driving away the supporting fleet A naval task force centered on the giant battleship IJN Yamato sailed south with only enough fuel to reach and attack the invasion fleet Some dispute that its mission may be fairly characterized as a suicide run as the apparent intention was to beach “Yamato” and fight it out with its massive deck guns Before that could happen the task force was met by several hundred U.S naval aircraft and the “Yamato” and its escorts were sunk with great loss of life About 25 percent of all enemy ships struck by kamikaze were sunk Kamikaze hit 402 enemy warships in all, putting 375 out of action for some period of time, including 12 carriers of various type That still left thousands of enemy warships and transports hovering around Japan’s home islands, readying to support invasion After the surrender, Allied inspectors found over 5,000 aircraft ready for kamikaze service Allied countermeasures against kamikaze were highly effective They included deploying decoy ships to steer inexperienced pilots away from major capital warships, increased anti-aircraft guns on all ships, and provision of an especially heavy Combat Air Patrol (CAP) by dozens of carriers The CAP was maintained over the fleet at Okinawa to shoot down suicide attacks at safe distances It also should be remembered that the vast majority of unskilled kamikaze pilots who tried to hit enemy ships instead missed and splashed, or were shot down during the attempt The danger from kamikaze at Okinawa diverted a number of B-29 raids intended to pound Japan’s cities to instead bomb kamikaze and Banda airfields, although given the enemy’s overwhelming superiority in the air that temporary shift of the strategic bomber force hardly mattered to the outcome Some 10,000 obsolete old trainers, along with a few new aircraft, were held in reserve for use as kamikazes pending invasions of the home islands that never took place They were captured and destroyed after the occupation of Japan See also DOWNFALL; ohka Suggested Reading: Rikihei Nakajima, et al., The Divine Wind: Japan’s Kamikaze Force in World War II (1958; 2003); M Sheftall, Blossoms in the Wind (2005) KAMINSKI BRIGADE See Warsaw Uprising (1944) KAMMHUBER LINE German air defense system for night fighter interception of RAF Bomber Command flights over the Low Countries into northern Germany It was basically in place by the middle of 1941, and complete and growing in sophistication by September 1942 It was named for Luftwaffe General Josef Kammhuber, General of Fighters in the Luftwaffe and the man in charge of Germany’s homeland defense Night fighters circled inside grid pattern boxes (Räume) until vectored onto 623