[Brian]

Hi

Herewith the biography (verbatim) of Takeo Tanimizu that appears in 'Japanese Naval Aces & Fighter Units in WW2':

Graduating from 17th Flight Training Course in March 1942, Tanimizu was posted to the 6th Air Groupe in April; he was among those pilots who were trained during the war. In June he was assigned on board the aircraft carrier Kasuga Maru, transferred to the Shokaku in February 1943, and advanced to Rabaul in November. Tanimizu's first conbat experience was on 2 November, when he shot down two P-38s during an intercept battle. He stayed on in Rabaul and, until his transfer to the Tainan Air Group in March of the following year, participated in daily intercept battles over a four-month period. At the Tainan Air Group. he not only served as an instructor in training but also participated in intercept operations as well as in air defence combat operations off Taiwan. In November while Tanimizu was escorting a ship convoy off Amoy, a P-51 attacked him by surprise; his aircraft was hit and burned. Tanimizu himself parachuted into the ocean and was hospitalized for burns. Toward the end of 1944, he returned to the homeland and was assigned to Air Group 203 until the end of the war. He participated in Kyushu area air defence operations as well as in the Okinawa operation; he greeted the end of the war at Usa base.

Flight time, 1,425 hours; total number of aircraft shot down, eighteen.

Hope this helps, I don't have details of his victory claims.

Cheers
Brian