Quote:
Originally Posted by gian paolo
The Seafires may have met the zekes of 252 ku . Searching the web I have found that sections of VF-31 and VF-49 came to the rescue of 4
British torpedo bombers attacked by zekes.
Actually HATA/ IZAWA list 2 pilots of 252 ku KIA under this date and same
area.
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Thanks again, yes those are the last pilot losses listed in Hata/Izawa. Searching further I found this site in Japanese:
http://www.yokohamaradiomuseum.com/navy3.html
Yokohama radio museum, but an official of the Japanese amateur radio association, Tadahiko Honma, happened to be a pilot of the 304th Hikotai, 252nd Kokutai (AG), then Lt. jg, and was shot down in his Zeke 52 by what as 'later learned' to be a Seafire on August 15, 1945! See his picture and brief story (which babelfishes reasonably clearly from Japanese) at the bottom of the page. What's more, the site mentions a whole book about air combat this day, "
八月十五日の空―日本空軍の最後" "Sky of August 15-End of the Japanese Air Force". I'm not a good Japanese reader but I think I'll (edit: try to, it's old and not readily available now that I look) get it and try to fumble through the highlights; but I bet somebody really bilingual has read it and could tell us more.
Joe