Wow, I was wrong about that. I should have said, "Once in a couple of thousand times".
Here is list of kamikaze strikes on and damage to all Allied carriers (CV, CVL, and CVE).
"Total" includes all kamikaze hits, including near misses and debris strikes from shot-down suicide aircraft:
CV-3 USS Saratoga Total: 5 Flight deck: 2 Penetrating: 0
Note: One flight deck hit struck a catapult, a heavily reinforced structure.
CV-6 USS Enterprise Total: 3 Flight deck: 1 Penetrating: 1
CV-8 USS Hornet Total: 2 Flight deck: 0 Penetrating: 0
Note: Hornet was sunk in 1942, before kamikaze attacks were official Japanese policy. The two suicide attacks were carried out by Japanese aircraft that had been badly damaged by antiaircraft fire. See
here for a description of the aircraft strike locations. I include these attacks for completeness.
CV-9 USS Essex Total: 2 Flight deck: 1 Penetrating: 0
Note: Flight deck hit was at deck edge. See
here.
CV-11 USS Intrepid Total: 5 Flight deck: 3 Penetrating: 3
Note: One penetrating hit was near the same spot previously penetrated by another kamikaze. See
here.
CV-13 USS Franklin Total: 3 Flight deck: 2 Penetrating: 1
CV-14 USS Ticonderoga Total: 2 Flight deck: 1 Penetrating: 1
CV-15 USS Randolph Total: 1 Flight deck: 0 Penetrating: 0
CV-16 USS Lexington Total: 1 Flight deck: 0 Penetrating: 0
Note: Here is a
photo showing the location of the hit.
CV-17 USS Bunker Hill Total: 2 Flight deck: 2 Penetrating: 1
Note: See
here for additional information on the damage and an interesting postscript.
CV-19 USS Hancock Total: 2 Flight deck: 2 Penetrating: 0
Note: One kamikaze exploded 300 ft above ship; some large aircraft parts landed on flight deck. See
here.
CVL-24 USS Belleau Wood Total: 1 Flight deck: 1 Penetrating: 0
Note: Shot down; crashed on flight deck.
CVL-28 USS Cabot Total: 2 Flight deck: 1 Penetrating: 0
Note: Flight deck hit was at deck edge. See
here.
CVE-26 USS Sangamon Total: 1 Flight deck: 1 Penetrating: 1
CVE-27 USS Suwanee Total: 2 Flight deck: 2 Penetrating: 1
CVE-29 USS Santee Total: 1 Flight deck: 1 Penetrating: 1
CVE-61 USS Manila Bay Total: 2 Flight deck: 1 Penetrating: 0
CVE-62 USS Natoma Bay Total: 1 Flight deck: 1 Penetrating: 1
CVE-63 USS St. Lo Total: 1 Flight deck: 1 Penetrating: 0
Note: Although the aircraft itself did not penetrate the flight deck, its bomb did, starting severe fires which eventually resulted in a magazine explosion and the loss of the ship.
CVE-65 USS Wake Island Total: 2 Flight deck: 0 Penetrating: 0
CVE-66 USS White Plains Total: 1 Flight deck: 0 Penetrating: 0
CVE-68 USS Kalinin Bay Total: 2 Flight deck: 1 Penetrating: 1
CVE-71 USS Kitkun Bay Total: 2 Flight deck: 0 Penetrating: 0
CVE-76 USS Kadashan Bay Total: 1 Flight deck: 0 Penetrating: 0
CVE-77 USS Marcus Island Total: 2 Flight deck: 0 Penetrating: 0
Note: Both attacks were near misses, one of which "clipped the flight deck."
CVE-78 USS Savo Island Total: 1 Flight deck: 0 Penetrating: 0
CVE-79 USS Ommaney Bay Total: 1 Flight deck: * Penetrating: *
Note: The ship was lost as a result of this attack, and accounts differ as to whether the flight deck or the island was struck, and whether the aircraft itself penetrated the flight deck, or just its bombs.
CVE-94 USS Lunga Point Total: 1 Flight deck: 1 Penetrating: 0
Note: This was an "impromptu" kamikaze attack by an aircraft that had just launched a torpedo at the ship, so the angle of incidence and momentum were obviously nowhere near that of a diving kamikaze.
CVE-95 USS Bismarck Sea Total: 2 Flight deck: 2 Penetrating: 1
Note: The ship was lost as a result of this attack. Authoritative online sources are vague about the locations of the strikes. Hearsay accounts seem to indicate that at least one kamikaze struck the flight deck and penetrated; one account implies that the other kamikaze struck the aft elevator but did not penetrate. See
here and
here.
CVE-96 USS Salamaua Total: 1 Flight deck: 1 Penetrating: 1
Note: See
here for a first-hand description of the damage.
10 HMS Indefatigable Total: 1 Flight deck: 1 Penetrating: 0
Note: Struck at junction of flight deck and island.
38 HMS Victorious Total: 3 Flight deck: 2 Penetrating: 0
Notes: One flight-deck strike was characterized as a "glancing blow." The other created a 25-foot square hole in the flight deck, although the aircraft did not penetrate.
67 HMS Formidable Total: 2 Flight deck: 2 Penetrating: 0
Note: One strike created a two-foot hole through which three aircraft fragments penetrated.
87 HMS Illustrious Total: 1 Flight deck: 0 Penetrating: 0
92 HMS Indomitable Total: 1 Flight deck: 1 Penetrating: 0
Note: Aircraft "belly landed" next to the island.
Altogether, the total number of hits and near misses scored by kamikazes on Allied carriers is about 63. Of those, at most 29 struck a wooden flight deck, and at least 14 of these penetrated. Even eliminating one of the strikes on
Intrepid that hit a previously damaged area, we still have 13 kamikazes that definitely penetrated a wooden flight deck. Even at the worst case, that's 13 out of 28, or nearly 50%.
If, for reasons noted above, we eliminate one non-penetrating strike each from Saratoga, Intrepid, Hancock, Belleau Wood, Cabot, and Lunga Point from our sample set, the rate is 13/22, or about 59%. So we can state with confidence that the chances of a pre-planned, successfully pressed-home kamikaze attack's being able to penetrate a wooden flight deck would have been about 50%.
Now, Malcolm, if you would, please explain why you claimed that only "one or two" kamikaze attacks out of "a couple of thousand" penetrated a wooden flight deck, and what this says about your credibility. But, hey, what's a couple of orders of magnitude between friends, right?
Killtown?
