Скачать или смотреть The Tiny Fuse That Stopped Kamikazes: How VT Proximity Shells Saved the Pacific Fleet

In WWII’s deadliest air–sea battles, a thumb-sized “electronic brain” rewrote the rules. This deep dive unpacks how the VT proximity fuse turned near-misses into kills, blunted kamikaze waves at Okinawa, and let the U.S. fleet survive to finish the war. We cover the science (Doppler detection), the insane engineering (20,000 g launches, mini vacuum tubes), the industrial miracle (millions built across 100+ factories), and the battlefield impact—from USS Helena’s first VT kill to USS Laffey and Hadley fighting under a “VT umbrella.” In the end, a tiny fuse didn’t just down planes—it broke a doctrine.

Chapters
00:00 Electronic brain” vs. kamikaze
01:15 What is the VT proximity fuse?
03:20 How it works: Doppler, 70-ft trigger window
06:05 Brutal engineering: 20,000 g, 25,000 rpm, instant batteries
09:10 Crash program & industry: APL Section T, Crosley, Sylvania
12:45 Why not just better radar fire control?
15:10 Kamikaze doctrine & the Ōka (piloted rocket bomb)
18:40 Okinawa begins: Kikusui waves, radar pickets under fire
22:00 USS Helena & the first VT combat kill (Guadalcanal)
24:10 USS Laffey and the “wall of steel” at wave-top height
27:30 VT “boxes/umbrellas”: area denial in the sky
30:00 Numbers that matter: rounds-per-kill collapse with VT
33:10 Yamato’s last fight: quantity without “smart” fuses
36:00 Strategy & psychology: why VT broke kamikaze math
39:10 Legacy: from “smart shells” to CIWS and beyond
41:00 Final thought — what deserves a modern “VT-fuse” crash program?

You’ll learn:
• How mini radio sets inside shells used Doppler shift to detonate at lethal range
• Why ruggedized vacuum tubes survived gun launch shock
• How mass production turned a lab idea into millions of reliable fuses
• Why VT fire invalidated the core assumption of kamikaze tactics

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#WWII #NavalHistory #Okinawa #Kamikaze #VTProximityFuse #MilitaryHistory #USNavy #WeaponsTechnology #HistoryDocumentary