This little aircraft is a captured Japanese suicide rocket bomb, fitted with a pilot's cockpit, steering controls and an explosive warhead in the nose. It may have been modeled after the pilotless German V-i robomb, which it resembles in size and destructive capacity. Japanese broadcasts have glorified it under the name Jinrai ("sudden peal of thunder"), but U.S. fighting men promptly tagged it with another Japanese term, baka ("stupid"). In operation, Stupid is carried near its target by a bomber, then cut loose. The pilot glides down and can fire three rockets in the tail to give him bursts of speed...
To continue reading:
or
Log-In
