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Red Brow · 11-18-12, 11:30 PM

I wish more Japanese WWII ship captains would have written books about their war exploits, but I was gratified to read the war account of Capt. Tameichi Hara who was a well celebrated Japanese destroyer captain through most of the war. He was the designer of Japan's revised doctrine for torpedo aiming calculations which made Japan's ship fired torpedoes much more accurate. This was very important since Japan's new torpedoes could do a range of 40,000 meters at 36 knots! At the time the US fish could only do 8,000 meters at 32 knots, and the British could do 10,000 meters at 30 knots.
Not only did the Japanese torpedoes have great range; their oxygen-fueled torpedoes did not leave bubble trails.

The Japanese kept their torpedo stats totally secret during the war and as a result sometimes the Allies would blame Japanese subs for torpedoes that were actually coming from Japanese destroyers that seemed too far off to be a torpedo danger.

This captain was in a line of ships where the lead one hit and ran over PT-109 commanded by JFK.

This Captain also mentions an American routine with bombs in one Pacific battle area where allied bombers would skip bombs into the sides of Japanese ships just like the 617 Squadron, RAF, "The Dambusters" did to German defended dams. Apparently when this US tactic was used Japanese ship captains had no choice but to kiss their ars good bye. But Tameichi Hara, who was known as a problem solver, was asked to set his mind to figure out how to survive such an attack. Turns out he never did UNTIL his own ship was so attacked and in the few moments of on coming terror he solved the mystery and his ship survived. Necessity is the mother of invention!

His last sea mission was on the light cruiser Yahagi that went out with the Yamato on the suicide mission "Operation Ten-Go".

One funny trick he played - earlier in the war - was when his destroyer was set upon by a large force of American planes. Few Japanese destroyers at that time could survive such attacks. It was very cloudy so he tried a last second trick - he yelled for his engine room to ignore standard safety procedure and to pour on the fuel above what was considered safe. He produced a huge backfire that sent a huge fireball up through the stack. The ship shuddered and slowed to a stop. To the circling American planes it appeared like they had scored a death hit on the ship and so they flew off. The cloud cover obscured the fact that the ship didn't sink.

This captain was very inventive compared to your average ship captain. I felt like he was the equivalent in inventive tricks as for example Colonel Robert Scott, who with one P-40 convinced the Japanese in his Asian zone that they were up against many planes since he had his plane repainted over and over again for multiple missions. Or the equal to Panzer (Kurt) Meyer a Waffen SS officer who never failed to come up with wild on-the- spot ideas to defeat his enemies.

Believe me, you want to read this book.

11-18-12, 11:30 PM	#1042
Red Brow A-ganger Join Date: Mar 2012 Location: Colorado Posts: 72 Downloads: 0 Uploads: 0	A great read - Japanese Destroyer Captain I wish more Japanese WWII ship captains would have written books about their war exploits, but I was gratified to read the war account of Capt. Tameichi Hara who was a well celebrated Japanese destroyer captain through most of the war. He was the designer of Japan's revised doctrine for torpedo aiming calculations which made Japan's ship fired torpedoes much more accurate. This was very important since Japan's new torpedoes could do a range of 40,000 meters at 36 knots! At the time the US fish could only do 8,000 meters at 32 knots, and the British could do 10,000 meters at 30 knots. Not only did the Japanese torpedoes have great range; their oxygen-fueled torpedoes did not leave bubble trails. The Japanese kept their torpedo stats totally secret during the war and as a result sometimes the Allies would blame Japanese subs for torpedoes that were actually coming from Japanese destroyers that seemed too far off to be a torpedo danger. This captain was in a line of ships where the lead one hit and ran over PT-109 commanded by JFK. This Captain also mentions an American routine with bombs in one Pacific battle area where allied bombers would skip bombs into the sides of Japanese ships just like the 617 Squadron, RAF, "The Dambusters" did to German defended dams. Apparently when this US tactic was used Japanese ship captains had no choice but to kiss their ars good bye. But Tameichi Hara, who was known as a problem solver, was asked to set his mind to figure out how to survive such an attack. Turns out he never did UNTIL his own ship was so attacked and in the few moments of on coming terror he solved the mystery and his ship survived. Necessity is the mother of invention! His last sea mission was on the light cruiser Yahagi that went out with the Yamato on the suicide mission "Operation Ten-Go". One funny trick he played - earlier in the war - was when his destroyer was set upon by a large force of American planes. Few Japanese destroyers at that time could survive such attacks. It was very cloudy so he tried a last second trick - he yelled for his engine room to ignore standard safety procedure and to pour on the fuel above what was considered safe. He produced a huge backfire that sent a huge fireball up through the stack. The ship shuddered and slowed to a stop. To the circling American planes it appeared like they had scored a death hit on the ship and so they flew off. The cloud cover obscured the fact that the ship didn't sink. This captain was very inventive compared to your average ship captain. I felt like he was the equivalent in inventive tricks as for example Colonel Robert Scott, who with one P-40 convinced the Japanese in his Asian zone that they were up against many planes since he had his plane repainted over and over again for multiple missions. Or the equal to Panzer (Kurt) Meyer a Waffen SS officer who never failed to come up with wild on-the- spot ideas to defeat his enemies. Believe me, you want to read this book.