7 Feb 10 -Overclaimers v Reliable Claimers List

[Rob Romero]

Oh. Oh. . .

Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the water:

http://www.j-aircraft.org/smf/index.php?PHPSESSID=dfaa8ad773e68d20a59da390545048 91&topic=12389.0

Luca Ruffato and myself are in the process of finalizing our Tainan book. In one of the many indexes we have matched every Allied aircraft shot down by the Tainan in New Guinea from 1 April to 15 Nov 1942 against the the aerial claims as listed in the kodochosho (all claims in this document are, depending on the mission, credited either individually or equally among mission participants.) The total number of Allied aircraft removed from New Guinea/ New Britain skies in aerial combat during this timeframe was 78. The results of the top five scorers might surprise, and please note that the below figures exclude (underline one) the Guadalcanal theatre. The decimals are a result of dividing group claims. Note also that only 'definites' were credited. We have also calculated the reverse, ie actual Allied claims versus real Tainan losses, and hasten to add that the overclaim ratio of about 10:1 equally applies to Allied claims.

Michael Claringbould

Ranking Name Score

1 FPO1c Ōta Toshio 5.3
2 Lt (jg) Sasai Jun’ichi 4.5
3 FPO1c Sakai Saburō 4.3
4 FPO1c Nishizawa Hiroyoshi 3.9
5 WO Yoshino Satoshi 3.4