Thanks for posting. You're right, we won't see them on the History Channel; well I think Sakai is mentioned a couple times. The infamous Sakai vs Southerland, but thats just one of many.
As I'm sure you know, one shouldn't rely on tv programs (or tv news) for their source of information. After reading God is My Co-pilot a few years ago, I've set a goal for myself to read as many pilot accounts as possible from both sides of the war.
The mistake that the Japanese made was riding these pilots into the ground, no pun intended. Their kill #s might've been lower or higher, who can say, if they had been rotated out of combat for some R&R they might even have had a higher survival rate. Great fighter jocks who just had it naturally, nothing that could be taught as making the right call in an instant is instinct. In the world of fighter pilots there are killers and targets.
I wonder how many of those kills were ill-trained Chineese pilots flying Russian bi-planes?
Stratford, Connecticut, U.S.A.[center][/center]
[center]"The Angel of Okinawa"[/center]
Home of the Chance-Vought Corsair, F4U
The best fighter-bomber of World War II
I wonder how many of those kills were ill-trained Chineese pilots flying Russian bi-planes?
I don´t know Joe. One could look it up. Here is someone who gained all his victories against the western Allies, including a B-17 and B-25. He shot down 3, P39´s in 20 seconds over New Guinea. He also fought from Rabaul over Guadalcanal.
Junichi Sasai ¨The Flying Tiger¨
27 kills
I should get more specific. The CF developers can make a more accurate Japanese pilot listing for ¨CF¨
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¨If you tremble with indignation at every injustice, then you are a comrade of mine.¨ Che Guevara
I drive a truck so can't look it up right now{friday i will}but akamatsu and sakai were the only ones old enough to have served in pre pacific war china.nishizawa did'nt fly in combat until 1943 i believe{still not sure of date}also i do not believe that the force that shot down isaroku[in english yamamoto would be his first name sort of like calling earnest king admiral earnest] lost any aircraft that day.individual kill claims are difficult to assess for japanese fighter pilots thats because kills were assigned to the unit not the individual thats why you don't see kill markings on most of their fighters that and because the pilots were'nt assigned their own aircraft usually taking what was available
I drive a truck so can't look it up right now{friday i will}but akamatsu and sakai were the only ones old enough to have served in pre pacific war china.nishizawa did'nt fly in combat until 1943 i believe{still not sure of date}also i do not believe that the force that shot down isaroku[in english yamamoto would be his first name sort of like calling earnest king admiral earnest] lost any aircraft that day.individual kill claims are difficult to assess for japanese fighter pilots thats because kills were assigned to the unit not the individual thats why you don't see kill markings on most of their fighters that and because the pilots were'nt assigned their own aircraft usually taking what was available
Feel free to. Actually barkhorn, you know that obsolete A5M group that starts in Rabaul in the big campaign and gets upgraded to Zeros? that´s Nishizawas group! He should be in that from game start but never gets in the game! [:D]
After the outbreak of war with the Allies, Nishizawa's squadron (chutai) from the Chitose group, then flying the obsolete Mitsubishi A5M, moved to Vunakanau airfield on the newly taken island of New Britain. The squadron received its first Mitsubishi Zeros (A6M2, Model 21) the same week.
¨If you tremble with indignation at every injustice, then you are a comrade of mine.¨ Che Guevara
... individual kill claims are difficult to assess for japanese fighter pilots thats because kills were assigned to the unit not the individual thats why you don't see kill markings on most of their fighters that and because the pilots were'nt assigned their own aircraft usually taking what was available
That's interesting -- "group" kills?
Would like to hear more about this.
Stratford, Connecticut, U.S.A.[center][/center]
[center]"The Angel of Okinawa"[/center]
Home of the Chance-Vought Corsair, F4U
The best fighter-bomber of World War II
That's interesting -- "group" kills?
Would like to hear more about this.
In China and at the beginning of WW2 Japanese units did keep individual scores Joe, but later it was largely prohibited. Later in the closing days it was started up again for morale purposes including some pilots painting Allied marking on their planes similiar to the western pilots practice for victories.
I´ve got a picture of this i´ll have to find and post. A Japanese ace with stars painted on his fusalage during the home island defense period.
¨If you tremble with indignation at every injustice, then you are a comrade of mine.¨ Che Guevara
this is from the aviation history web site[i guess i'm to old school i tend to rely on my ,i have to say rather extensive hard bound library]The Japanese did not encourage the tallying of individual scores, being more inclined toward honoring a team effort by units. As with the French and Italians, Japanese victories were officially counted for the air group, not for individuals. Generally, attempts to verify personal claims by Japanese airmen can only be conducted from postwar examinations of their letters and diaries, or those of their comrades
i was wrong about nishizawa his first "credited"kill was on feb.5th 1942 when he damaged the engine of a catalina flying boat and was credited with a kill.so sorry.still to late to have scored against biplanes over china
this is from the aviation history web site[i guess i'm to old school i tend to rely on my ,i have to say rather extensive hard bound library]The Japanese did not encourage the tallying of individual scores, being more inclined toward honoring a team effort by units. As with the French and Italians, Japanese victories were officially counted for the air group, not for individuals. Generally, attempts to verify personal claims by Japanese airmen can only be conducted from postwar examinations of their letters and diaries, or those of their comrades
Very tough to get their victories numbers for this very reason. Hiroyoshi Nishizawa put his own score at 150 something!!
However he is largely credited with either 81 victories or 87 by cross referencing records.
¨If you tremble with indignation at every injustice, then you are a comrade of mine.¨ Che Guevara
akamatsu in one of his drunken binges[for which he was famous for in the ijnaf]claimed over 200.when his name is brought up with former comrades they shake their heads and say"ohhh Akamatsu"
akamatsu in one of his drunken binges[for which he was famous for in the ijnaf]claimed over 200.when his name is brought up with former comrades they shake their heads and say"ohhh Akamatsu"
By the end of that war with the way the odds were in the air, I´d need to be drunk too to climb in a Japanese fighter! [:D]
¨If you tremble with indignation at every injustice, then you are a comrade of mine.¨ Che Guevara
This is Sada-aki Akamatsu, getting a true kill count for Akamatsu is nearly impossible because many times he would be the only one of a flight of 4 or 5 fighters to return alive, therefore leaving no one to confirm his kills. Saburo Sakai after talking to some who flew with him estimated his final tally to be somewhere around 50 kills. Akamatsu also survived the war, He fought almost continuously for 6 years, cutting his teeth in China and fighting in almost every area of the Pacific. He flew the Zero for the most part until the Raiden (Jack) arrived on the scene, which then became his favored mount.[I could'nt get his ptcture up don't know how]
Some interesting info on "kills" from the WWII Aces & Aviation History webpage:
" ... The tables also show the number of "kills." Perhaps this is an unfortunate choice of words. (The fighter pilot's basic goal was to destroy the enemy aircraft, not necessarily the pilot. In Europe, if not in the Pacific, there was at least an unwritten rule against shooting at fliers who had bailed out and were in parachutes, a rule that both Axis and Allied pilots seemed to adhere to.) Generally, the words 'kill', 'win', 'victory', and 'enemy aircraft destroyed' are used interchangeably ...
Another oddity results from the U.S. recognition of partial kills, whereby a pilot could be awarded half a kill, a third, or even a quarter ...
... The US Eighth Air Force officially, but separately recognized 'ground' kills as well, due to the hazardous nature of that activity. Nonetheless most post-war discussions and rankings of aces use the 'air-to-air' numbers ...
Most important to realize, that all air forces from all countries in all theatres, over-counted their kills. Post-war researchers have compared total American claims to total losses recorded by the Japanese, and determined that we over-claimed by about 50 to 100 percent. For every 100 planes the Japanese records showed as destroyed, it seems the Americans counted about 150 to 200. This is a very approximate statistic, and the Japanese over-count of their victories is believed to be even worse ..."
The author didn't offer further proof of this claim, but it would be interesting to find out more re Japanese "group kills"
Stratford, Connecticut, U.S.A.[center][/center]
[center]"The Angel of Okinawa"[/center]
Home of the Chance-Vought Corsair, F4U
The best fighter-bomber of World War II
Yeah but what ones fought in this theatre and in what units? That´s what the people making ¨CF¨ need. I haven´t looked at the Allied pilots much. I know Thatch is in UV. Haven´t seen Richard Bong in a P38 yet. Is he included in UV? He should be in there for the Allied side.
¨If you tremble with indignation at every injustice, then you are a comrade of mine.¨ Che Guevara
There are some Pilots that were interviewed on Battle 360 that were on the Enterprise during the time of the game. I looked for them, but they weren't there.
BTW, Battle 360 is very very cool. The guy who founded Enterprise car rental was a fighter pilot on the "Big E" and named his company after the 3 leaf clover that floats. Its a very cool show. Ever since they used the Rome total war engine in a show, the programs have been A LOT more ineresting. Dog Fights, and Battle 360 have been passed the batton and are running with it. No clue what engine they are using now. You could tell when the show used the RTR engine (forget the name of the show, was very cool..and pretty accurate)....these look far too good to have been apapted from a current gen computer game.