Operation cherry blossoms at night

Covert operations carried out by Allied and Axis powers during World War II included some truly astonishing enterprises. Not all of these WWII secret missions were successful (in fact, several were abject failures), but they all involved remarkable ingenuity and/or extraordinary bravery. Some WWII covert operations required the focused activities of a few highly skilled individuals, others involved entire armies intent on changing the course of the conflict. However you slice it, though, they were all pretty nuts. The World War 2 secret operations on this list cover all major players, and the European and Pacific theaters, of the conflict. Some of these operations shifted the course of things, others were desperate attempts to do just that as the conflict neared its conclusion. Read on to learn about some lesser-known secret operations from the Second World War. Photo: Bundesarchiv, Bild 146-1984-079-02 / In February 1942, nine menparachuted into the vicinityof Vemork, Norway. They were Norwegians The heavily fortified, remote plantwas impervious to bombing; it could only be taken down on site, which requiredscaling a 500-foot-high cliff in the middle of winter andinfiltrating a heavily guarded basement laboratory.The nine Norwegians, led by 23-year-old JoachimRonneborg, did just that,successfully detonatingexplosives that shut down the facility. Thedestruction of theVemork planwascrucial in German Armaments Minister Albert Speer's decision to halt attempts to produce an a...

( 0) Deep within the shadows of war, the Imperial Japanese Army hatched a sinister plan called Operation Cherry Blossoms at Night. Operation Cherry Blossoms at Night, also known as Operation PX, was the brainchild of Surgeon General Shiro Ishii, who sought to rain down biological warfare upon Southern California cities. The mission retaliated against the United States for firebombing Japanese cities, which took countless civilian lives. The Japanese plotted to launch their attack via aircraft dropped from I-400-class submarines, unleashing millions of plague-infested fleas upon their unsuspecting targets. Though Operation PX’s planning was completed on March 26, 1945, Yoshijir Umezu, the chief of general staff, immediately vehemently opposed it. Later, Umezu gave the following reasons for his choice: “If bacteriological warfare is practiced, it would expand beyond the scope of the conflict between Japan and America to a never-ending conflict between humans and microbes. Japan will become the target of global mockery.” The plan was never carried out, but it is a chilling reminder of the extent to which countries are willing to go to achieve their objectives during wartime. Post Contents • • • • • The Beginning of Operation Cherry Blossoms at Night In retribution for the American firebombing of Japanese cities, which resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Japanese citizens, the Japanese developed Operation Cherry Blossoms at Night, a plot to conduct germ warfare ...

I-401, with its long plane hangar and forward catapult Class overview Operators Cost 28,861,000 JPY in 1942 Built 18 January 1943–24 July 1945 In commission 1944–45 Planned 18 Completed 3 Cancelled 15 Retired 3 General characteristics Type Displacement 6,560 long tons (6,670t) Length 122m (400ft) Beam 12.0m (39.4ft) Draft 7.0m (23.0ft) Propulsion • 4 • 2 electric motors: 1,600kW (2,100hp) each, submerged Speed • 18.7kn (34.6km/h; 21.5mph), surfaced • 6.5kn (12.0km/h; 7.5mph), submerged Range 43,123 mi. (69,400km) Test depth 100m (330ft) Complement 144 officers and men Armament • 3 • 8 × 533 mm forward • 1 × • 3 × 25 mm triple-mounted • 1 × single-mounted 25 mm Type 96 autocannon The I-400-class submarine ( 伊四百型潜水艦, I-yon-hyaku-gata sensuikan) Sentoku type submarine ( 潜特型潜水艦, Sen-Toku-gata sensuikan, Submarine Special ). The type name was shortened to Toku-gata Sensuikan ( 特型 潜水艦, Special Type Submarine). They were Seiran aircraft underwater to their destinations. They were designed to surface, launch their planes, then quickly dive again before they were discovered. They also carried The I-400 class was designed with the range to travel anywhere in the world and return. A fleet of 18 boats was planned in 1942, and work started on the first in January 1943 at the I-401 and Origins [ ] The I-400 class was the brainchild of Admiral Yamamoto submitted the resulting proposal to Fleet Headquarters on 13 January 1942. It called for 18 large submarines capable of making three roun...

As World War II started to draw to its inevitable conclusion, the Japanese became increasingly desperate. Japan, which had had been suffering crippling defeats, wasn't about to go down without causing as much damage to their enemies as they could. That included making plans for a biological warfare attack that would have devastated the west coast of the United States. The plan was devised by Shiro Ishii, who gave it the code name Operation Cherry Blossoms at Night. The United States had proven by its response to Pearl Harbor that a conventional attack—no matter how devastating—wouldn't keep them from preventing Japan regaining the upper hand in the Pacific. Too much damage had already been done to the Japanese forces, and the Allies had advanced too far west across the Pacific. Ishii devised a plan that would have used a pathogen created by the infamous Unit 731, a secret operation devoted to research and development of non-conventional weapons. The target of Operation Cherry Blossoms at Night was Southern California. The specialized researchers at Unit 731, known for their grotesque experimentation on human subjects, had weaponized bubonic plague, which would be dispersed by infected fleas. Prior Use of Biological Warfare by Japan Shiro Ishii, planner of Operation Cherry Blossoms at Night It wouldn’t be the first time biological warfare would be used by the Japanese. The estimated death toll from germ warfare orchestrated by the Imperial Japanese Army in occupied China ra...

Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. Operation Cherry Blossoms at Night was a 1945 plan developed by Background Unit 731 was specifically created by the Japanese military in International Symposium on the Crimes of Bacteriological Warfare, the number of people killed by the During the Swordfish off Operational plan During the last months of the war, Ishii was preparing for a long-distance attack on the United States. This operation, codenamed "Cherry Blossoms at Night", called for the use of airplanes to spread plague over Southern California at night. The plan was finalized on March 26, 1945. Five of the new I-400-class long-range submarines were to be sent across the Seiran aircraft loaded with plague-infected fleas. The submarines were to surface near I was told directly by Shiro Ishii of the kamikaze mission "Cherry Blossoms at Night", which was named by Ishii himself. I was a leader of a squad of seventeen. I understood that the mission was to spread contaminated fleas in the enemy's base and contaminate them with plague. The plan was scheduled to begin on September 22, 1945, but was not realized because the I-400-class submarines, of which only three had been built. References • Daniel Barenblatt, A Plague upon Humanity, 2004, p.xii, 173. • Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. • • Tom Mangold, Jeff Goldberg, "Plague Wars: The Terrifying Reality of Biological Warfare, page 24-25, 0-3122-6379-1 • Lua error in packa...