Quote:
Originally Posted by jeanba
Thank you very much for this very usefull information.
The first version I read of Mc Guire's death was that he stalled while dogfighting against a high ranking Zero ace, then in the begining of the 90's, variants of the version I quoted came to be treated as the most reliable (ie : Mc Guire was caught by surprise by a Franck while chasing an Oscar at low altitude, he stalled and crashed).
Still, Mc Guire is supposed to have been shot down by a japanese ace according to all account I have read, was Mixunori Fukuda an ace ?
Edit : I found a "Fukuda Sumia" 11 kills IJNAF ace who was killed in October 44 ...
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Jeanba
I think it's an accepted fact that no IJNAF A6M Zero were there.
Actually the details of Mc Guire demise went unnoticed even to his surviving comrades.He may have well stalled and crashed trying to
catch the agile and elusive ki-43 flown by Sugimoto or he may have been
shot down by Sugimoto himself who is credited of damaging 2LT Thropp
p-38 . Fukuda entered the fray later and probably downed Major
Rittmeyer.
The two IJAAF pilots were surely well trained and bold but are not
recorded in Japanese sources as aces.
Lastly the two Fukudas are not related , belonging to different air forces and having different names, moreover Mizunori survived the war and I read
it was even interviewed .
Best
gian paolo