![]() There were hundreds of such craft scheduled for the assault. In each small craft were up to 120 American assault troops, or a single Sherman tank. After the ferocious pre-invasion bombardment concluded, the clearing dust and smoke revealed scores of small craft headed toward the beach, with many more behind them, circling and awaiting orders to proceed to the line of departure. The enemy's view from the shoreline must have been ominous. Only after extensive research and the declassification of CIA documents on Octocould the true historical origin of the vessel be verified as the OSS Gimik Semi-Submersible. The vessel was originally believed to be a Japanese suicide demolition boat. “Boats” Newberry, acquired the Gimik vessel for PT Boats Inc. When the CIA was formed in 1947, the Navy transferred the Gimik to them. On October 1, 1945, the Gimik project was transferred to the U.S. Preparations to execute Operation NAPKO continued until the scheduled departure date of August 26, 1945, but with the end of the war on August 15, 1945, the Operation was cancelled. Training for the mission was carried out at the Catalina Island OSS training facility located off the coast of southern California during the summer of 1945. Even though the Gimik was stealthy, the mission of landing OSS agents on Japan’s homeland was extremely dangerous for obvious reasons. Gimik, with one OSS agent and two Korean operatives secured inside, would cruise toward Japan with most of the vessel submerged underwater and only the topside deck slightly visible above the sea. The small Gimik was designed for transport across the ocean by a much larger mother ship. invasion of the Japanese home islands in late 1945. The OSS operatives were to collect intelligence and conduct sabotage in advance of Operation Olympic, the planned U.S. The main objective of Operation NAPKO was to recruit and train 55 Korean Americans and Korean prisoners freed from Japanese prison labor camps for infiltration into Japanese occupied Korea and finally Japan itself. Their purpose was to be part of a top-secret mission code-named NAPKO. Only two of these rare Gimik class semi-submersibles were ever built. The OSS was formed in June of 1942 by the United States to collect and analyze strategic information required to conduct special operations not assigned to other U.S. Code-named Gimik (nick name “Gizmo”), this vessel was developed during WWII by the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the forerunner of the U.S.
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