Title: Japanese Naval Aces and
Fighter Units in World War ll
Author: Ikuhito Hata and Yasuho
Izawa. Translated into English by Don C. Gorham
Publisher: Naval Institute Press
Pages: 442 hardbound cloth-covered
Price: $35.00 U.S. for used near
mint cond. book
The book I got was found on the net and is in very nice
condition. It's a hard bound book, cloth covered cover
with a paper dust jacket in red, with a famous picture on
the cover of a Japanese Pilot saluting with his comrades
behind him. I recall elsewhere that this picture is of a
"Kamikaze" Pilot about to embark on his mission.
The Book is broke up into 3 major parts:
1) Japanese Naval Aircraft. This is mostly black
and white war time pictures with brief descriptions of
Naval Fighters from late-twenties bi-planes until 1945.
2) Fighter Unit Histories. It's all here from the
various Carrier Squadrons: Hosho, Akagi, Kaga, Ryujo,
Soryu, Hiryu, Shokaku, Zuikaku, Zuiho, Shoho, Junyo,
Hiyo, Ryuho. Did we leave anyone out? Then
there is the land based Naval Units, too many to list
here, but you can look them up in the table of contents,
as they all have their OWN CHAPTER, albeit some of them
brief.
3) Biographies of Aces. Every pilot who scored 8 or
more is listed here, according to the Authors. They
picked that number, for some reason, as a starting point.
There are lots of Aces listed here. From the famous like
Sakai, Nishizawa, Sugita etc. to the not so famous. Birth/education/enlistment/overview
of record/squadron(s)assigned to/famous battles
participated in/outcome (i.e. KIA, MIA or survived the
War).
There is a listing of Japanese Naval Terminology and
abbreviations, Ranks and abbreviations, Japanese Naval
Air Organization. In the Appendixes there is the
following comprehensive listings:
A) Naval Fighter Unit Aces by Name and Record
B) Key Fighter Pilots killed in Action by Date
C) Naval Fighter Pilots by Class/Aviation Students/Pilot
Traineet Students and Hei flight reserve enlisted trainee
class students, Otsu, Ko Flight reserve enlisted
trainee students and the relationship between the flight
reserve enlisted trainee class system (Yokaren) and
flight trainee course (Hiren)
D) Major Air Battles by date.
The Book also has EXCELLENT single line drawings of Zeros
and other Naval Fighters: Claudes, Raidens, Shiden -
Shiden-kai, etc that gives explanations of the individual
markings on them, as well as examples of A/C taken from
individual Squadrons and those flown by famous Pilots
like Sakai etc. For this alone, the book is well
worth the price. Especially to detail freaks and modelers.
The Book is a quality book, the copy I have being sewn
together instead of glued. There are drawbacks, however,
and that is the obvious bias of the accounts of
individual Aces, and Unit Scores. I don't know if
this is on the part of the Authors, or if they are just
recounting what they uncovered in their digging through
the records of history. But according to the
narratives, in almost ALL of the air combats involving
the Navy, no matter how many craft/Pilots they admit to
losing, they invariably claim to have shot down MORE U.S.
Aircraft just about EVERYTIME! This and they avoid
admitting that their Aces or lesser known Pilots were
shot down. Their loss was accounted for as "Destroyed
himself" (and we are not talking Kamikaze Ops here)
or "became exhausted and heroically destroyed
himself by diving into the Sea" or "mysteriously
dissappeared, assumed KIA or MIA" etc etc.
Another obvious flaw is the magic number of "4".
It seems many many of their Aces "single handedly"
destroyed "4" enemy aircraft on their first
combat. A bit transparent, in my view.
Overall, a very very worthwhile read and
even more valuable reference guide for the Historian.
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