It's now known that Germany
deployed a number of more advanced guided strike weapons
that saw combat before either the V-1 or V-2. They were the
radio-controlled Henschel's Hs 293A and Ruhrstahl's SD1400X,
known as "Fritz X," both air-launched, primarily against
ships at sea.
The Ruhrstahl SD 1400 'Fritz X' Air-to-Ship, Wireless
Guided, Gliding Bomb
fifteen battleships lost to airpower, one of these—the
41,650-ton Italian flagship, Roma—was sunk by a Fritz X. The
British battleship Warspite was put out of commission for 6
months by this weapon. Fritz Xs also hit the cruiser USS
Philadelphia, heavily damaged the cruiser USS Savannah, and
sank the Royal Navy light cruiser Spartan.
A Henschel Hs 293 Air-to-Ship Wireless Guided Bomb with
belly-mounted liquid fuel rocket engine
Hs 293 was responsible for the world's first successful
guided missile attack, sinking the British sloop Egret on
August 27, 1943. The weapon initially possessed an
18-channel radio control system and was flown in the same
way as a radio-controlled airplane. Wire guidance was
subsequently adopted when it was discovered the bomb's radio
receiver was vulnerable to electronic countermeasures.
beginning ideas that were to evolve into the Henschel Hs 293
appeared in as early as 1939. In 1940, an experimental model
having the shape of a glider was built. The goal was to
develop a remote-controlled air-to-surface missile against
shipping. Development proceeded even though no suitable
rocket motors were available. The experimental model used a
standard SC 500 bomb with extra wings and tail unit but no
rudder. Finally a propulsion system was developed, and the
liquid rocket was fitted under the main missile body. An
18-channel radio system was used for control.
The missile was designed to be carried under a parent
bomber. Warm exhaust air from the aircraft engines was
channelled to the missile to prevent it from freezing up at
high altitudes. Once dropped the Hs 293 would fall for some
90m (295ft) before the rocket achieved maximum thrust. The
parent bomber would continue to fly a pre-designated course
parallel with the target. The bombardier could visually
track the missile with the aid of red guidance flare in the
tail, and control the projectile using a small control box
with a joystick. The actual flight path resembled a series
of arcs as corrections were received and followed.
The main weakness of the Hs 293A was that the parent bomber
had to fly a steady, level path. Evasive moves to avoid
anti-aircraft fire was impossible, even though the Hs 293
outranged most ship-borne anti-aircraft guns. An improved H2
293D with a television camera installed in the head of the
missile as aiming system was planned but the war concluded
before it could be realized. Also, the problem of icing was
never resolved and thus further propulsion units were
designed. The war ended before these plans left the
Henschel Hs 293 Air-to-Ship, Wireless Guided, Gliding Bomb
Model C, D or H? carried by a Dornier 217
Crew members learn to control the Henschel Hs 293 guided
bomb in a simulator
War II in the European Theatre the U.S. Air Force
experimented with three basic forms radio-control guided
weapons. In each case, the weapon would be directed to its
target by a crew member on a control plane. The first weapon
was essentially a standard bomb fitted with steering
controls. The next evolution involved the fitting of a bomb
to a glider airframe, one version, the GB-4 having a TV
camera to assist the controller with targeting. The third
class of guided weapon was the remote controlled B-17.
The TDR-1 Assault Drone
Remote-control or "stand-off" weapons were also used in the
Pacific. The TDR-1 Assault Drone carried a 2,000 lb. bomb
load or torpedo, and also included a TV camera for close-in
guidance. The control plane carried a crew of four which
included two pilots who's job it was to control the flight
of the drone.
TBM-1 and TBF-1 Control Plane
27, 1944, a TDR-1 launched and staged a combat attack
against such an enemy target, the success of this system
marking a new era in modern warfare. During the next month,
46 similar attacks were launched against targets in the
Shortland Islands, Bougainville, and Rabaul, with 21 scoring
direct hits. The men behind this remarkable story formed the
STAG-1/SATFOR team, who's vision, determination, and
dedication in performing their secret duties during World
War II laid the groundwork for the modern cruise missile.
Getting Edna III Ready
successful guided weapon, a glide bomb, used in the Pacific
Theatre was the autonomous ASM-2 BAT. It did not use radio
control, rather it incorporated a sophisticated
gyrostabilizer system to keep it on track as it glided
towards its target and an early S-band radar system to home
in on final approach.
The Autonomous ASM-2 BAT
bombs may be guided by laser,
infrared or GPS and have been
used extensively in recent conflicts. The problem still
remains that accurate intelligence is needed to determine
When 'Shock and Awe' launched
the first stages of Operation Iraqi Freedom the phrase
became synonymous with a massive military strike—terrifying
and overwhelming. The onslaught of surgically precise
attacks that began on March 21, 2003, was expected to
vaporize the enemy's military and political will and bring
them to their knees. It was a strategy designed to end the
war in hours or days. That was the theory.
The mission was to decapitate the government, destroy
critical buildings and disrupt military communication with
minimal civilian casualties—a tough order in Baghdad, a city
of five and a half million.
The tools for the attack represented a top of the line,
high-tech arsenal: submarine and ship-launched tomahawk
cruise missiles, B-2 stealth bombers and F-117 stealth
fighters, and precision-guided bombs and bunker-busters.
As a military tactic, shock and awe has been tried before
during the last century—though it has rarely succeeded. In
World War I the Germans used zeppelins to cross the English
Channel and drop bombs on Britain, convinced the English
would be stunned into submission. In World War II Hitler's
air force inflicted a 57-day bombing campaign—the Blitz-on
Londoners who once again refused to surrender. The Japanese
also survived and resisted prolonged air attacks—until the
atomic bombs were dropped. Hiroshima and Nagasaki created
both shock and awe.
In the Iraq war, 'Shock and Awe' hoped to generate a similar
psychological blow—without the casualties or the use of
nuclear weapons—via precision-guided bombs.
After Vietnam the sophistication of guided bombs grew
steadily until the public witnessed the grand entrance of
the "smart bomb" during the first Gulf War.
In the early 1990s the American public watched spellbound as
their network and cable news stations bombarded them with a
bird's-eye view of precision guided bombs dropping down
chimneys and slamming through the doors of various Iraq
targets. These bombs gave the impression of clean, precise
warfare. Some of these guided bombs allowed pilots to
control them with a joystick and release the bombs a few
miles from their targets.
But of all the bombs and weapons launched in Iraq in the
first Gulf War, only about seven percent were "smart." And
even these bombs had shortcomings. Laser-guided precision
weapons were accurate, but bad weather or clouds of smoke
from burning oil fields often made it impossible to find
targets. Worse, pilots needed to fly relatively low and
within range of enemy fire.
Just a decade later, 'Shock and Awe' used another advance in
precision bombing—the Global Positioning System, or GPS. GPS
guided bombs, such as the Joint Direct Attack Munition or
JDAM, can be dropped from more than twice the altitude of
earlier guided bombs and from farther away, helping pilots
avoid antiaircraft fire.
On the evening of March 21, 2003, as the deadline passed for
Saddam Hussein and his two sons to leave the country and
avert war with the United States, the weapons of this
hi-tech arsenal were launched.
At 10:15 pm 'Shock and Awe' exploded onto television screens
across the world.
A bizarre testament to the precision of the weapons used
during the first night of 'Shock and Awe' was that the
streetlights still functioned. Electricity flowed to the
city, including the Palestine Hotel where journalists
frantically filed their reports. During the opening days of
the war, even Iraqi government television was untouched and
Civilian casualties did occur, but the strikes, for the most
part, were surgical. Some buildings were completely
demolished, while neighbouring structures were untouched.
Some buildings remained standing while their innards were
gutted. In others still, only individual floors were erased.
Even after several days of bombing the Iraqis showed
remarkable resilience. Many continued with their daily
lives, working and shopping, as bombs continued to fall
around them. According to some analysts the military's
attack was perhaps too precise. It did not trigger shock and
awe in the Iraqis and, in the end, the city was only
captured after close combat on the outskirts of Baghdad.
Kamikaze piloted bombs
of kamikaze goes back to the 13th century, when legend has
it that Kublai Khan's invading fleet was turned away from
Japan by a typhoon sent from the gods (kamikaze translates
as "divine wind"). Long thought to be an apocryphal story,
recent archaeological excavations have proven the tale true
(the fleet part, not the gods part), with the discovery of
underwater remains from Khan's fleet.
always been a much larger component of Japanese culture than
in Western civilization, which never really embraced the
idea of "death with honour." Samurai code allowed for the
practice of "seppuku," which was a ritual
self-disembowelment, popularly known in the West as harakiri.
Seppuku was generally used to absolve one's self of some
disgrace or defeat. The suicide mindset continues in Japan
today, where failed businessmen opt for the "honourable" way
out and deranged teenagers take part in Internet suicide
pacts for no special reason. Japan has the highest suicide
rate among industrialized nations, with more deaths by
suicide than by traffic accident.
Japanese fighter pilots during WWII got into dogfights that
were going poorly, they naturally considered the
"honourable" option of crashing their planes into enemy air
fighters. Crashing an airplane into another airplane is
actually trickier than you might think, and generally the
only casualty is the other plane, so air-to-air kamikaze
wasn't really a cost-effective battle strategy.
air-to-water kamikaze was another matter. By late 1944, the
war was not going as well as the Japanese had hoped.
American naval forces were slowly making headway across the
Pacific, and the shores of California were looking farther
and farther away. After some discussion among the brass, the
first formal suicide attack was organized as a volunteer
effort (previous suicide attacks had been spur-of-the-moment
The decision to proceed was
motivated in part by an acknowledgement of the Americans'
superior resources and partly for propaganda reasons. The
Japanese assumed, quite reasonably, that U.S. forces would
be unnerved by a military opponent which had zero regard for
its own safety in combat.
In October, the first attack
took place against the U.S. carrier Saint Lo off the coast
of the Philippines. Half of the 26 planes were designated
for suicide; the other half would capitalize on the ensuing
chaos. The attack was a success and the carrier went down.
There was no overwhelming
trend among the volunteers, except that, like modern suicide
bombers, they tended to be young. Although the Japanese
cultural obsession with suicide contributed to the pool of
willing recruits, the effort was also enhanced by the divine
status of the Japanese emperor.
The dominant Shinto religion
holds that the Japanese emperor, like the Egyptian pharaohs
and the Roman Caesars, was a descendant of the gods and a
god in his own right. Although not a doctrinal belief, there
was also a popular notion that kamikaze pilots would earn a
free trip to heaven, just as al Qaeda suicide bombers
Japanese pilots were also
trained in special schools, which may have employed
brainwashing techniques to soften up potential kamikaze
pilots for their eventual missions.
By 1945, the tide had
decidedly turned in the Pacific, and the Japanese were in
retreat. In desperation, the number of suicide attacks were
increased, especially in light of their successful
psychological effect on American sailors. Nearly 60 ships
were sunk by kamikaze attacks in the Pacific and Southeast
Asia. Causalities included the USS Bunker Hill and the USS
Essex (pictured in this article).
The kamikaze pilots carried
manuals in their cockpits, which were translated and
published in English in 2002 in the book "Kamikaze: Japan's
Suicide Gods." The books included passages extolling the
spiritual worth of the mission as well as helpful tips in
doing the maximum amount of damage before one's fiery
demise. Some representative passages include:
life and death. When you eliminate all thoughts about life
and death, you will be able to totally disregard your
earthly life. This will also enable you to concentrate your
attention on eradicating the enemy with unwavering
determination, meanwhile reinforcing your excellence in
"Just as you cannot fight
well on an empty stomach, you cannot deftly manipulate the
control stick if you are suffering from diarrhoea, and
cannot exert calm judgment if you are tormented by
"(Just before the crash,)
your speed is at maximum. The plane tends to lift. But you
can prevent this by pushing the elevator control forward
sufficiently to allow for the increase in speed. Do your
best. Push forward with all your might. You have lived for
20 years or more. You must exert your full might for the
last time in your life. Exert supernatural strength."
Although without ceremony
and absolute pre-meditation, many Allied missions both in
the First and Second World Wars were effectively also in
21st Century Kamikaze
In just the
same way as the Japanese resorted to suicide missions when
they no longer were able to field competitive equipment
against their enemy, so there are those whose religion or
culture will allow them to make suicide attacks. Such
attacks are most likely to happen when the cause for action
does not have a standing army or air force, such as
Palestine. The use of hijacked airliners to crash into
designated targets such as happened on the 11th September
will continue to pose a threat.