[knusel]

Hello there,

I've been endowed with "J2M RAIDEN AND N1K1/2 SHIDEN/SHIDEN-KAI ACES" by Izawa & Holmes and just worked it through. It is a highly recommendable and exceptionally well-written account on a peripheral but fascinating topic. It also features a cool list of aces that have flown these aircraft. However, the scores given a not congruent with the incidents reported in the text. The following list elucidates the discrepancies and compiles possibly all N1K aces. It occurs to me that Matsuba is the top N1K ace with a narrow lead. He is also the only one of these guys who survived the war. Does anybody know when he died ?

• 9 kills Katsue Katoh: 4 confirmed +1 probable(+4 unconfirmed), all on 19Mar45 in N1K2-J with 343. Kokutai => 4 N1K kills
• 8 kills Kaneyoshi Mutoh: 3 F6F confirmed +1 F6F unconfirmed on 16Feb45, 1 P-51 on 12Apr45, 1 B-29 +2 damaged with Yokosuka Kokutai, 1 F4U on 24Jul45 with 343. Kokutai, all in N1K2-J => 6 N1K kills
• 7 kills Shoichi Sugita: 3 F6F on 19Mar45, 2 F6F +1 F4U +1 probable F4U on 12Apr45, all in N1K2-J with 343. Kokutai => 6 N1K kills
• 5 kills Hideo Hirakawa: 4 F6F on 12Oct44, 1 bomber on 23Dec44, all in N1K1-J with 341. Kokutai => 5 N1K kills
• 4 kills Naoshi Kanno: 1 F4U on 19Mar45, 1 F6F on 12Apr45, 1 B-29 on 21Apr45, 1 shared B-29 on 7May45, 1 half-share (argued) F4U on 2Jul45, according to Sakaida also 2 B-24 on 1Aug45, all in N1K2-J with 343. Kokutai => possibly 5+2sh N1K kills
• 4 kills Akio Matsuba: 4 F6F in 1944 in N1K1-J with 301. Kokutai/701. Hikotai, 2 EA on 19Mar45 and 1 shared PBM on 15May45 in N1K2-J with 343. Kokutai => 6+1sh N1K kills