This day in history is Oct. 25, 1944. First kamikaze suicide pilots attacked the US Navy during World War II.

Kamikaze suicide aircrafts were sent by desperate Imperial Japan. They screamed in terror from the skies above Surigao Strait, Philippines. American sailorsFor the first time in history, on this date in history, Oct. 25, 1945. 

“The Americans who saw these first kamikaze attacks on their homeland were shocked and shaken but it was just the beginning,” James P. Duffy, historian, wrote last year in American Heritage magazine. This passage is adapted from his book “Return to Victory.”

By the End of World War IIAccording to military history sources, around 130 American warships were damaged or lost by kamikazes in the summer 1945. 

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The suicide attacks claimed the lives of as many as 3,000 U.S. soldiers and civilians, along with thousands more. 

According to the National Air and Space Museum’s estimate, about 5,000 Japanese kamikaze pilots were killed in an accident.

Photograph of the USS Bunker Hill performing two kamikazes. Dated 1945.
(Photo 12/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

The USS St. Lo was the first ship to be attacked by about half a dozen kamikazes. 

Japanese Zero fighter aircraft were stripped of all normal equipment and loaded with more than 500 pounds explosives.

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The St. The National World War II Museum reported that Lo was sunk in 30 minutes. 

“134 of the 889 crewmen onboard died in the first kamikaze strike of World War II.”

St. Orville Bethard, a Lo survivor, told the museum that the panicked Japanese suicide planes were screaming at full throttle at speeds exceeding 300 miles an hour.

“The Americans who witnessed the first kamikaze attack were shaken and horrified.” — James P. Duffy

According to the Naval History and Heritage Command website, Kamikazes also attacked American escort ships USS Kalinin Bay and USS Kitkun Bay as well as USS Santee and USS Suwannee. The attacks claimed the lives of nearly 300 sailors and injured hundreds more in the first horrific suicide attacks on October 25. 

The young kamikaze flyers from Japan show determination and pride. Suicide pilots crashed planes that were loaded with extra fuel, explosives and special missiles. Kamikaze (or “Divine Wind”) refers to the typhoon which swept Mongol invaders from Japan’s coast in the 13th Century. 
(Photo by © Hulton-Deutsch Collection/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images)

Kamikaze can be translated as “divine winds”. It is a historical reference JapanA typhoon that destroyed a Mongol fleet suddenly in the 13th Century and saved the island nation against invasion. 

According to the Naval History and Heritage Command, “The fanatical resolve and Japanese pilots transformed their aircraft into human-guided missiles.” 

“While these results did not prevent Japan’s defeat in the Philippines, they exceeded considerably what the Japanese achieved with orthodox air tactics alone. This allowed for greater use of kamikazes in the future.

“The Japanese pilots’ fervent resolve transformed their aircraft into human-guided missiles.

The Japanese coincidentally launched the suicide attacks on St. Crispin’s Day — a landmark anniversary in the history of global warfare. 

King Henry V led English archers to the Battle of Agincourt, Oct. 25, 1415. 

The USS St Lo (CVE-63) has been set on fire by Leyte Gulf in the Phillipines, a Japanese suicide plane. Close observation shows men crossing the sides. Oct. 25, 1944.
(Photo by © CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images)

His inspirational St. Crispin’s Day speech before England’s shocking victory over France was immortalized in literature by William Shakespeare in “Henry V.”

“From this day until the end of the world/ But we in the it shall be remembered” Henry V stated in Shakespeare’s account while rallying his troops for battle. 

The expression “band of Brothers” refers to comrades in arms. It became the title of historian Stephen Ambrose’s 1992 history of the U.S. Army’s 101st Airborne in World War II and the 2001 made-for-TV epic World War II series “Band of Brothers” that the book inspired.

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The British cavalry’s “Charge of the Light Brigade,” famously dramatized by poet Alfred Lord Tennyson, took place on St. Crispin’s Day, Oct. 25, 1854, during the Crimean War. 

King Henry V (1387-1422 left) defends his brother at the Battle of Agincourt, during the Hundred Years War. This was Oct. 25, 1415. The English army defeated French troops.
(Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images).

“Theirs are not to reason as why. Tennyson spoke of the hopeless, ill-fated attack.

During the Second Crusade, which took place on Oct. 25, 1147, an international army made up of British, Flemish, Portuguese Christians, Germans, and British was able to recapture Lisbon from Islamic forces. 

The victory had a lasting effect on the growth of Christianity in Europe, which lasted for many centuries.

One of the most important encounters of World War II, was the emergence of kamikazes in the Battle of Surigao Strait on St. Crispin’s Day, Oct. 25, 1944. 

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It is considered the greatest naval battle of all time.

The Battle of Leyte Gulf proved an overwhelming American victory that effectively destroyed Japanese sea and air power — yet launched the desperate, frenzied and frightening final months of World War II.