I heard the G4M was called by some the flying cigar a pretty accurate name because it did have a cigar shape and it burned like one too.It did however have a 20mm cannon in the tail and also had outstanding range so it had its surprises. There was a version later in the war that was to have carried those "Ohka" manned flying rocket bombs luckily they never got used as it could have been launched form 30 miles away a cruise missile more or less.
It is quite surprising the Japanese where finally starting to make some surprisingly advanced aircraft and other military equipment very late war too late.Had they have somehow managed to do some serious damage to an invasion fleet or found some other way to delay us and made the war last longer who knows what might have happened. The high brass was very concerned that some US troops who had fought for so long already might reach a breaking point sooner or later one can only take so much brutal combat there was a show on History about this it was called X-day or Invasion X Operation X something like that about Operation Trumpet(invasion of Japan) it would have been nasty for all sides in fact they started making Purple Hearts for this action and it took Korea,Vietnam,Grenada,Panama,Desert Storm and finally our current war to use up those Purple Hearts made for Trumpet, very interesting show.
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