Japanese air units at Tarawa and Wake?

[Felix C]

After all the effort to occupy Wake and fortify Tarawa...what Japanese units actually used the airstrips?

I have never read of how many sorties were required to neutralize Tarawa's air defenses prior to the bombardment?

[Laurent Rizzotti]

You can try the book "Bloody Tarawa: The 2d Marine Division, November 20-23, 1943" by Eric Hammel. Chapter 6 describes the American air attacks on Tarawa.

Quick summary:
26 January 1943: 3 B-24s
24 April 1943: 12 B-24s
18-19 September 1943: joint attacks by B-24s (total 38 sorties) and carrier aircraft (no number): after this attack, all Japanese aircraft left Tarawa airfield.
Pre-invasion bombardment started on 13 November 1943, and intensified when carrier aircraft started attacking on the 18th.

[ftrbmr]

according to pacific wrecks:

http://www.pacificwrecks.com/airfiel...awa/index.html

Japanese Units based at Tarawa
204th Kokutai (A6M Zero) February 1943
281st Kokutai (A6M Zero)

Henry

[Larry deZeng]

Chitose Kōkūtai
Mar - Aug 42: the fighter complement in the Marshalls was redistributed during March with 14 based on Wake Is. and 14 at Roi, and the A5M CLAUDEs were gradually replaced with Mitsubishi A6M Type 0 carrier fighters (ZEKE). Responsible for air defense over Wake and Roi, both contingents trained new pilots who were later reassigned to other groups in the Solomons.
1 Dec 42: still there but as 201 Kōkūtai after this date.

This is the only unit that based aircraft on Wake. But it was occasionally used by a few other units as a fuel and brief rest stop.

[Felix C]

No twin engine aircraft stationed at either?

Correct to state there was no aerial reconnaissance at Tarawa/Betio regarding the incoming invasion in late 1943?

[edwest]

Here is a web site that may help and that I recommend highly:


http://www.j-aircraft.org/smf/index.php





Ed

[Daniel Nole]

Wake units were not reinforced by transport surface ships after January 1, 1944. In Dec 24, 1943 the auxiliary cruiser Akagi Maru departs Ujia carrying 940 soldiers of the Fifth Independent Mixed Regiment, 220 soldiers of the 16th Tank Regiment and 18 Type 95 light tanks. The Akagi Maru was escorted by two DD of the DesDiv 61’s, Hatsusuki and Suzutsuki. The Akagi arrived at Wake, Jan 1 1944, disembarks the troops, tanks and also six 75mm guns. Akagi Maru was the last surface ship to arrive at Wake during the war.

[Felix C]

^^^Thanks.

I was asking as I do not ever read of two engine a/c being operated for reconnaissance duties from either Betio or Wake. Thought to ask.

[Jim P.]

I second Ed's recommendation. There are some very knowledgeable guys over there on JNAF unit dispostions, and all things JNAF & JAAF in general.

[Larry deZeng]

Yep, Rich Dunn and Jim Lansdale at J-Aircraft.com can answer any questions. But there's also a Tarawa web site.............

The "Tarawa" story from the Japanese perspective is detailed at this link:

http://www.tarawaontheweb.org/stanjersy1.htm

It was 755 Ko with G4M Type 1 land attack bombers (BETTY) that was based at Betio airstrip on Tarawa. It did fly maritime patrols, it did attack the U.S. B-24 bases on the islands to the east, it did spot the Marine landing force while it was still 100 miles east of Tarawa and it did attack the U.S. carrier strike force on the 19th of November. It's all there and quite interesting, too.

Larry