Australian Spitfires

[rldunn]

While the monograph previously mentioned is certainly the most convenient and comprehensive list of Japanese losses over Australia, it is far from the only authoritative source. Other sources include intercepted Japanese radio messages (one of these gives a comprehensive report of month by month losses, by a/c type, in the Japanese 13th Air Fleet), POW interrogation reports, and captured documents. Another important source of evidence are the wrecks of Japanese a/c shot down (in particular the paucity of the same) over Australia.

With regard to Japanese propaganda, it really doesn't seem that terribly different than Allied practice. They overclaimed wildly on many occasions and their official communiques reported these claims as fact. They sometimes delayed announcing major shipping losses and in a few cases tried to completely obscure defeats such as the Battle of Midway. They routinely announced aircraft losses of which they thought the enemy had knowledge, i.e., those lost over enemy territory. They did not routinely announce a/c crash landing at base or in friendly territory though they might mention them as damaged. I believe this is basically similar to US and British practice. You can best understand Japanese propaganda by reading their official communiques. They did have some peculiarities. Many aircraft weren't merely shot down but "crash dived into an enemy objective." Aside from such stylistic differences their communiques were about as reliable as Allied communiques.

Obviously it is important to have access to records but also to understand how they were created and used. Official communiques were summaries based on a headquarters report to Tokyo. Kodochoshos were the fighting unit's own record of action. Action summaries were also prepared by headquarters for internal military use, other reports were prepared for logistics and replacement purposes. Examples of all these type reports exist. In short, while difficult, it is quite possible to determine relevant losses with considerable accuracy.

One wonders how many fuel starved Spitfires had a bullet hole in a fuel line or fuel tank.

RLD