Yasuhiko Kuroe

[Nicholas]

The mystery continues because the Osprey book has a photograph of a taxying Mossie captioned as being FB VI HJ811 of 27 Sqn, supposedly in early 1944 in "Dark Green and Ocean Grey camouflage with Medium Sea Grey undersurfaces and 'day fighter' Sky markings"! I feel sure that this photograph must be mis-captioned!

In the interview Kuroe claimed his encounter with the Mosquito occurred in October 1943. He was flying a 01 - an Oscar. When the Mosquito saw him it turned away to the right. Kuroe was below "weaving in and out like a pendulum" and came up beneath it. He fired at the port engine, making it stop, but the Mosquito continued flying on its starboard engine. Kuroe chased the Mosquito for almost an hour before regaining a firing position but was then unable to fire due to his guns jamming.

Kuroe continued the pursuit and then saw the Mosquito pilot "indicate he cannot fight anymore". Kuroe flew alongside and gestured to the pilot to turn around (shades of The Blue Max here!). The Mosquito complied but on the return journey the "Mosquito had much trouble with engine and he indicate he must land". Kuroe signalled OK and the Mosquito attempted a forced landing in a small clearing. Kuroe estimated the Mosquito attempted to land at 120 knots and hit the trees. One of its wings came off and it swung around and exploded. Kuroe circled the site for some time looking to see if the crew had survived but both men had been killed in the crash.

From this description it is not really clear whether Kuroe's victim on this occasion was DZ696 or DZ697!