The kamikaze hunters : fighting for the pacific, 1945 / Will Iredale

Includes biliography, notes and index.

Flying sailors -- They were like gods -- Wakey-wakey, rise and shine, show a leg -- Bags of food and lights and girls -- Wings -- they don't know what they want and they won't be happy till they get it -- Flat-hatters -- Blooded -- Flat tops -- An enterprise of the first magnitude -- The balloons go up -- The jitter effect -- The body crashers -- April fools -- A formidable return -- Little yellow baskets -- Breaking point -- The absolute full -- The final onslaught.

"Follows a group of young men who fought towards the end of World War II, from their enlistment and initial training to the terrifying and unexpected reality of fighting against pilots who would rather choose death than a dishonorable defeat,"--NoveList. In May 1945, with victory in Europe established, the war was all but over. But on the other side of the world, the Allies were still engaged in a bitter struggle to control the Pacific. And it was then that the Japanese unleashed a terrible new form of warfare: the suicide pilots, or Kamikaze. Drawing on meticulous research and unique personal access to the remaining survivors, journalist Will Iredale follows a group of young men from the moment they signed up through their initial training to the terrifying reality of fighting against pilots who, in the cruel last summer of the war, chose death rather than risk their country's dishonorable defeat, by deliberately flying their planes into Allied ships.--Adapted from dust jacket.