Good lord people...jwoodmd said:Not to the crews of thousands of men killed and wounded.aTmAg said:You have to remember, the US build 9000+ ships during the war. 34 ships is a rounding error.OldArmy71 said:Quote:
It was so effective that at the end of the war the Japanese would send hundreds of kamikazes against our ships, and not a single one would get through.
The proximity fuse was a great invention, but you are wrong about the effect of kamikazes.
At least 34 American ships were sunk during the war and hundreds damaged by suicide attacks.
Just at Okinawa, 5000 men were killed.
Secondly, the VT fuse wasn't first used until late in the war, and not widely available until near the end. Where it was deployed, it was extremely effective. For example, in May of 1945, 2 destroyers, that were armed with VT fuses, were targeted by 150 Kamikazes off Okinawa, but not a single one got through.
The point is that 34 ships is a TINY percentage of ships. And most of those (if not all) were not armed with VT fuses, that is the point.