Rikio Shibata

[knusel]

Good evening,

has Rikio Shibata scored (his last kill) in the Ki-84 Hayate ?

Cheers,

Michael

[GuerraCivil]

I do not know if he flew Ki-84 but he appears as one of the leading Ki 44 "Tojo" ace in some references. His unit 85th Sentai which was at least partially equipped with Ki-84 by late 1944 so he may have flown also with Ki-84.

According to this table: http://jpgleize.perso.neuf.fr/aces/ww2ajap.htm - it seems that he flew only Ki-27 and Ki-44, but better references should be checked.

Perhaps better are:
"Japanese Army Fighter Aces 1931 - 1945" by Hata & Izawa & Shores
"Ki 44 Tojo Aces of World War 2" by Millman

[waldo_pepper]

Hello gents,
I checked "Japanese Army Fighter Aces 1931 - 1945" by Hata & Izawa & Shores for references on Rikio Shibata flying the KI-84 but found none.
Bill.

[knusel]

Hello,

if found out a Ki-44 score of 13 for Yukiyoshi Wakamatsu.
Now I wonder if Rikio Shibata is the joint top ace of that type. OSPREY's Aircraft of the Aces Vol.100 by Nicholas Millman indicates 14 Ki-27 kills and at least 12 Ki-44 kills for him. The question is in which plane the missing kill to his total of 27 was scored.

Who can help ?

Michael

[knusel]

...I'm still very intrested in whether Rikio Shibata scored 13 Ki-44 kills or 12 Ki-44 kills and one in another (Ki-84) aircraft.

Cheers,

Michael

[knusel]

This website:
https://j-aircraft.com/translations/..._ki44shoki.htm
sounds like he was dying in a Ki-84.