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Old 10-16-06, 10:18 PM   #7
Torplexed
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The Japanese built about 248 regular MTBs during the war. Of these 199 were surrendered or scrapped after the war. The rest (49) were lost.

One interesting variant was the "Shinyo" suicide craft. Basically, a one man motor boat with a massive charge of T.N.T. placed in the bow and armed by the pilot when a collision course with an enemy vessel had been set.

The Japanese built massive numbers of these (6,000) for the last-ditch defense of Okinawa and the Home Islands, but as far as we know, no Allied vesssel was ever seriously damaged by one of these craft. However, had the proposed Allied invasion of Japan gone ahead as planned we might have seen quite a few of them in action.
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