Talk:General Discussion/@comment-113.162.155.5-20140908085510/@comment-25208555-20140908094528

A Kaiten was a manned suicidal torpedo which was carried by some submarines in the Japanese Navy in WWII, also some late model destroyers were arranged to carry them, (the only class I know to do this is the Matsu class though), there were a variety of models with vey different warheads and speeds which varied from 10kn to even 42kn on the fastest ones. They proved mostly uneffective during the war and very few ships were sunk by them, one of their huge drawbacks was that they were prone to mechanical failures. Their major plus was that they were manned so it was easier to them to hit the target (despite that they were by far much slower that Long Lances [main torpedo used by the JN on surface ships]) The design was probably inspired by pre-war manned torpedoes of the Regia Marina (which btw were used in the war and sunk HMS Queen Elizabeth)

I hope this is enough as an explanation :D