Dogfights : Kamikaze Airs on Friday July 13 09:00 PM

It was a weapon conceived in desperation yet horrifying in its destructive power--young Japanese pilots willing to turn themselves into human bombs to attack the US fleet in the Pacific. Witness the first organized kamikaze attack in history on October 25, 1944. In brutal fashion, a US escort carrier is sunk, and a survivor re-lives the terrifying scene. At the same time, the Japanese unveil an even more sinister suicide weapon: the rocket-powered Okha. A Japanese Okha veteran describes the training and mindset of a suicide pilot, and US Navy veterans onboard ships struck by Ohkas, tell the enormous devastation this "flying torpedo" could unleash. Then, we'll explore another desperation tactic--this one in Germany. In the face of the wholesale destruction of their homeland, young Germans were motivated to destroy American bombers by any means necessary, including using their own aircraft as battering rams.

I don't have TIVO but the DVR is already set for it. I think the Dogfight series is about the best series The History Channel has come out with since The Color of War.

Amen. They had the first season of Dogfights on all day today.

Great series, and it isn't just about planes. They did Samar island rolled into the end of the Yamato. I've also seen some tank battle on it as well

It was really very good. As good as the graphics are for the ships and planes if anything I'm even more impressed with the water and fire graphics. The water really looks real.

The history also seems to be very good. I can't think of any major historic flubs, which I can't say about all THC shows.

The scenes with USS Laffey, while a different class, really inspire me as far as rigging my USS The Sullivans.

I used to play a computer game on aerial combat. When "flying" a Avenger once I'd launched the torpedo, and usually missed, I'd sometimes try to do a Kamikaze. It's really not that easy to hit a moving ship with a plane. I think that may have been one reason the tactic wasn't more effective than it was.

One little rant. I'm getting sick of the adds shown on the bottom of the screen during the show. They keep getting bigger and more intrusive. It's bad enough having the little H in the corner without having these larger ads there as well. Somebody has to come up with an electronic gadget to eliminate these.

It was also interesting to learn about the German suicide squadrons.