In order to frighten the Allies, a total of 1,500 Sakura suicide attack aircraft were deployed in Operation Kikusui-1 organized by the Japanese base camp.

Kikusui-1 achieved a major success and inflicted heavy damage on the U.S. military.

But it also makes Japan's reserve aircraft even more stretched.

In the subsequent Kikusui No. 2, No. 3 and No. 4 operations, although 1,500 aircraft were not invested at one time, there were seven or eight hundred aircraft in total.

Japan has fewer and fewer combat-capable aircraft and is about to lose the ability to launch large-scale suicide attack aircraft.

The desperate Japanese military industrial personnel gave full play to their personal initiative and developed a brand-new suicide attack bomb:

Sakura bombs!

From the Sakura attack planes, Kaiten torpedoes, Zhenyang special attack boats, to the final Sakura bombs, the Japanese became more and more crazy and showed less and less regard for human nature.

The Sakura bomb can be said to be the ultimate form of the Japanese suicide attack aircraft. It is a manually guided cruise missile.

Japanese military engineers once again reduced the size of the suicide attack aircraft based on the Sakura attack aircraft. The resulting Sakura bomb could only carry one pilot and one ton of high explosives.

The Sakura bomb is equipped with three solid rocket motors.

Japan no longer has the ability to produce missiles and jet fighters. They actually applied solid rocket motors to the final Sakura bomb for the first time.

The Sakura bomb is carried by a fighter attack aircraft. After arriving at the battlefield, it separates from the fighter and uses the power provided by its own rocket engine to fly.

The Japanese have had no choice but to convert trainer aircraft into combat aircraft, which shows the scarcity of their aircraft.

After breaking away from the Sakura bomb, the combat aircraft will quickly leave the battlefield.

The design of the Sakura bomb is very simple, with only one rudder used to adjust the flight trajectory.

After the rocket engine is ignited, the maximum speed of the Sakura bomb can exceed 800 kilometers per hour.

It takes less than a minute to reach the target.

At this stage, the Japanese were already crazy. The Sakura bomb they designed had no landing gear, and the canopy could not be opened after it was closed.

This means that once the Sakura bomb breaks away from the fighter plane, there is no possibility of landing. The Japanese soldiers sitting inside can only operate the rudder to hit the target.

At a speed of 800 kilometers per hour, the current intensity of close-in defense firepower of US military ships cannot intercept it.

The Japanese launched Operation Kikusui-5 on September 8th.

This is not the first time that Sakura bombs have appeared on this battlefield. The Allied navies are no strangers to this. They even gave this artificially guided cruise missile a very vivid name:

"Bagatan!"

The response tactic is to use jet carrier-based aircraft to conduct long-distance interceptions so that the Sakura bombs cannot get close.

There were only 15 incoming planes this time, each carrying a Sakura bomb.

The interception formation taking off from the super aircraft carrier quickly discovered the incoming Japanese aircraft.

The naval pilot had already exerted all his energy and immediately increased the throttle and pushed forward.

Upon seeing this, the Japanese pilot immediately let the Sakura bombs separate from the plane!

The solid rocket motor ignited, and 15 Sakura bombs flew over like missiles.

The most important task of the interception formation was to ensure the safety of the aircraft carrier and fleet, so it did not immediately pursue the 15 Japanese aircraft, but directed all its firepower at the Sakura bombs.

The aircraft guns continued to fire, and some cherry blossom bombs that were accelerating were hit.

The engine and the one ton of high explosives carried by the bomb exploded instantly, and the teenage suicide squad members in the bomb were blown to pieces.

The three rocket engines ignited one after another, increasing the speed of the Sakura bomb to 800 kilometers per hour within half a minute.

The huge overload when speeding up almost made the death squad members in the bomb faint.

After the speed exceeded 800 kilometers per hour, the remaining 12 Sakura bombs passed by the first batch of interception formations.

The suicide squad members in the bomb had already put their life and death at risk, and were crying and shouting "Long Live" at this moment.

The power provided by the three rocket engines can only allow the Sakura bomb to fly a distance of 40 kilometers.

However, at this 40-kilometer distance, the Allies prepared a total of three air interception lines.

Most Sakura bombs fail to break through these three lines of defense!

Even after a lucky breakthrough, you will be unable to aim at the target due to lack of motivation.

In these more than two months of suffering, the growth of the US military is also obvious to all.

In the end, five Sakura bombs that had no power broke through the three lines of defense, and the bombs flew towards the Allied fleet under the action of inertial force.

The f86 kept firing behind the bombs.

After losing power, the flight trajectory of the Sakura bomb was no longer controlled by the kamikaze.

"boom!"

The balance wing of a Sakura bomb was hit by the F86 behind it!

The bomb's inertial trajectory changed instantly, and the warhead moved away from the Allied fleet on the sea and turned towards Okinawa.

Several other bombs fell into the Allied fleet one after another, but all missed the target and none hit the target.

The explosion set off a huge column of water, and the clothes of many navy soldiers were wet.

Lieutenant General Buckner, who was inspecting the front line, was still concentrating on his battle deployment!

I just had a quarrel with someone from the navy yesterday, and he didn't want to care about the situation at sea at all.

Major General Pietro, commander of the 1st Marine Division, was not with Buckner.

The 1st Marine Division suffered heavy losses during this period, and it was time to withdraw and rest. Major General Pietro did not care about the deployment of the next stage of the campaign. He looked at the situation on the sea as if watching a play.

"The mobilization of troops must be carried out secretly to prepare the logistics, and the material supply of the 77th Division and the 81st Division must be guaranteed no matter what."

Lieutenant General Buckner, commander of the Tenth Army, was "talking" when he suddenly felt someone tugging on his arm. Shifen ended his words unhappily and turned his head.

Lieutenant General Buckner was almost angry. He saw Major General Pietro holding his arm with one hand and pointing to the sky with one hand. He was speechless for a long time.

The first people to notice something unusual about Major General Pietro were the soldiers watching the show. They were also the first to see a Sakura bomb and an F86 rushing in their direction after the bomb.

The soldiers couldn't care less, so they fled far away.

Lieutenant General Buckner and a group of mid-level and senior staff officers raised their heads for no apparent reason, and then it was as if someone had immobilized them. Their bodies were unable to move, their breathing stopped, and their blood coagulated.

As if in slow motion, Lieutenant General Buckner's mouth slowly opened wide, and the outline of the cherry blossom bullets on his eyeballs became increasingly clear and obvious.

Two seconds later, the Sakura bomb crashed into the Ryukyu Royal Palace.

"Long live!"

The kamikaze in the bomb shouted ferociously.

"boom!"

Lieutenant General Buckner, Major General Petro and a group of mid-level and senior staff officers were at the core of the explosion. The moment the bomb struck, their minds went blank.

I didn't feel any pain, my body and consciousness disappeared.

The air waves continued to surge outwards, and the soldiers who fled in advance could not avoid the scythe of death.

Their small bodies were torn apart by the energy, and were lifted dozens of meters into the air by the air waves, and died in fear.

The already fragmented palace of the Ryukyu Kingdom collapsed again, burying old and new corpses of Japanese and Americans.

A cherry blossom bomb killed two generals, a dozen mid-level and senior staff officers, and dozens of ordinary soldiers.

Lieutenant General Buckner became the highest-ranking U.S. military general killed in the Pacific Theater.

After the news spread, more than 500,000 Allied soldiers were shocked.

The originally planned counterattack was postponed as a result.

The dark clouds on Okinawa seem to be getting darker and gloomier.

[Author's digression]: Historically, the Battle of Okinawa became a nightmare for the US military. The battle lasted for three months and resulted in nearly 80,000 casualties.

Roosevelt also died of illness during this period.

Buckner, commander of the 10th Army, was killed.
Chapter completed!