This is just a very ratty old oil pressure gauge. As you can see a bit from the pictures it's probably been sitting in a salt water environment for some time. The kanji reads "yuatsu" or oil pressure.
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The back shows heavy corrosion from salt water. -
But what makes this gauge a little more interesting is the tag the vet put on it.Comment
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The invasion of Kerama Retto was the first step in the invasion of Okinawa. Based here were more than 350 of these small Shinyo "special attack" boats, most of which were quickly captured or destroyed by the invading 77th Infantry Division.
Maybe not as sexy as a helmet or sword, but still kind of a unique piece of forgotten military history.
EricComment
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Eric,
Super piece
EricComment
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Thanks Eric, something different from the "hats & helmets". I've also got a prop that was supposedly salvaged off of one of these boats but I've never been able to verify that.
EricComment
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Now if only we could see a period photo of the so called "suicide boat helmet" laying next to the boat. Interesting guage Eric.Comment
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Eric,Originally posted by blinky
Did the same veteran that brought the gauge back bring the propeller back?
In either case, I would love to see what the propeller looks like.
EricComment
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A Ratty Old Gauge
An interesting photo as well. Did anyone notice the writing on the front panels of the boats? "Danger. These boats are booby trapped" or something to that affect. The boat in the rear portion of the photo has a note to the military intel. boys on it as well.... Thanks again for the post. MikeComment
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Thanks for the comments guys
I always keep my eyes open for pictures pertaining to these boats. It's interesting that most of these boats weren't desgined to be suicide boats but rather fast attack boats. The problem was they were so under powered and fairly slow they expected to be exposed to a lot of gunfire and it makes sense they'd try to give the crew as much protection as possible while not adding more weight to the boat itself. It's kind of ironic, some of the information I've read was that when the decision was made that most of these squadrons would be suicide squadrons they decided not to worry about installing better engines because it would just be a waste of a good engine. You'd kind of hope that logic was more of a "legend of WWII" than fact.
Anyway, here's the prop. This one came from the same vet as the guage. It's heavy, about 9 pounds and very well marked. Stamped in kanji is Nippon Giso (I don't know if that's the name of the company? Giso translates out to something like ship fitting). Next to this is the navy anchor stamp and hirigana "to" inside a circle. Below is the date "20.2.25" which I assume is Feb. 25 1945. This is followed by: "DIA. 280 / PITCH. 390 / PROGECT NOO.419/ WEIGHT. 35KG / CHARGE NO.49". The project number and charge number have me stumped.
I have no idea if this also came from one of these boats or not. To me it seems kind of small for something like this, but I'm not a small boat guy. The interesting thing, I picked up an almost identical prop off ebay a few years ago. They must have been interesting enough for at least two guys to lug them all the way back to the US.
EricComment
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The markings.Comment
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Eric,
Very nice!
EricComment
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