After relentless Allied bombardments on Okinawa, the last bastion before Japan's shores, April 12, 1945, witnessed a drastic turn. Pushed to their limits, the Japanese forces orchestrated a massive kamikaze assault, unparalleled in scale and desperation.
That afternoon, the sky above Okinawa transformed into a battleground. A swarm of kamikaze planes, each manned by a pilot with a singular, grim mission, descended upon the Allied ships. Among those in the crosshairs was USS Idaho, a battleship whose valor and might had become the stuff of legend.
On this day, USS Idaho-affectionately known as the Big Spud-braced for an unprecedented challenge. Five kamikaze pilots singled her out, diving out of the sun's blinding light in a tactical maneuver designed to confuse and overwhelm her gunners. This approach rendered Idaho's lower defenses, the 20-millimeter guns, ineffective as the aircraft skimmed perilously close to the ocean's surface.
Yet, as the kamikaze planes bore down, the ship's 40-millimeter guns were ready to destroy anything that dared come too close to the Big Spud.