Name This!...(30)

[Brady]

???

[Q-Ball]

J1N Irving

[moonraker65]

I'll go along with J1N1 Irving as well.

[redcoat]

A two seat IJN Nakajima J1N Gekko (Moonlight) night fighter?

[Shark7]

J1N1-C-Kai Gekko

You can see where this is a conversion, due to the covers that are now over what was the observers part of the cockpit.

[redcoat]

The pilots - from the IJN - are led by the Gekko ace nicknamed 'B-29 killer' Captain Endo Yukio (second from the left). Endo was credited with destroying eight B-29s and damaging another eight before he was shot down by a B-29 on 14th January 1945.

[Grfin Zeppelin]

ORIGINAL: redcoat


The pilots - from the IJN - are led by the ace nicknamed 'B-29 killer' Captain Endo Yukio (second from the left). Endo was credited with destroying eight B-29s and damaging another eight before he was shot down by a B-29 on 14th January 1945.

This guy looks like he could wrestle them o.O

[redcoat]

I few titbits about ‘sumo’ Endo. Mostly gleaned from the 'Wings Palette' website.

His aircraft: A J1N1-S Gekko (Moonlight) Model 11. Serial number YoD-195. Armed with upward firing 20 mm Type 99 cannon.

His unit: 2nd hikotai, 302nd kokutai (Yokosuka Kokutai). Based at Atsugi airfield - 20 miles SW of Tokyo.

His observer was CPO Osamu Nishio.

[chesmart]

Thanks Redcoat very informative.

[Brady]

Gekko, it is[:)]
 
Lt. Endo Yukio*, it is[:)]
 
.........................
 
Japanese Naval Aces and Fighter Units of WW2 confirms:
 
*p.373 Was shot down Over Atsumi Peninsula 14th January 1944, What is interesting is that he was Mentined in an all units buliton and given a double rank promotion (a great honor), presumably do to his suxcess aganst the B-29's. Howeaver the referance lists his finial rank as Lt. (He may of been postimiously promoted to Captain, but the referance ushaly mentions that)
 
Page 213 confirms this:
 
2nd hikotai, 302nd kokutai (Yokosuka Kokutai). Based at Atsugi airfield - 20 miles SW of Tokyo
 
Air Groupe 302 operated a mixed bag of types (as many units did) Mostly J2M's and Zeros, Gekko, Ginga,Suise and a few Type 99 carrier bombers.
 
 

[Nikademus]

Its a long lost Guiness ad poster......not many know about it.

[redcoat]

ORIGINAL: Brady

Japanese Naval Aces and Fighter Units of WW2 confirms:

*p.373 Was shot down Over Atsumi Peninsula 14th January 1944, What is interesting is that he was Mentined in an all units buliton and given a double rank promotion (a great honor), presumably do to his suxcess aganst the B-29's. Howeaver the referance lists his finial rank as Lt. (He may of been postimiously promoted to Captain, but the referance ushaly mentions that)

Lt Endo was shot down on 14th January 1945 rather than 1944. Unfortunately for him he was given his double rank promotion posthumously.

[Brady]

Sry was a typo on my part....(44).

What book did you pull the scans from?

[redcoat]

ORIGINAL: Brady

Sry was a typo on my part....(44).

What book did you pull the scans from?

I thought it must have been a typo. The scans are from Osprey’s Aircraft of the Aces 22 – Imperial Japanese Navy Aces 1937-45 by Henry Sakaida.

[Brady]

Thanks, it looked like Ospery text.

[Tomo]

"Lovely day for Guiness..." pilot seems to be Hiroyoshi Nishizawa. No?
http://images.google.co.jp/images?um=1& ... i=&start=0

[redcoat]

ORIGINAL: Tomo

"Lovely day for Guiness..." pilot seems to be Hiroyoshi Nishizawa. No?
http://images.google.co.jp/images?um=1& ... i=&start=0

The Osprey book I mentioned earlier has photos of quite a few IJN pilots that look similar to the guy in the photo. They all wore similar flying gear – although Gekko pilots like Endo wore heavy flying gear for high altitude flying.

The mystery photo is on the Web on a couple of sites. It is dated 31st December 1944 on one of them. Nishizawa was shot down and killed by a Hellcat on 26th October 1944. Like Endo he was given a double rank promotion posthumously.

Even if the photos on the Web are mislabelled I don’t think the pilot is Nishizawa. He was a Zero ace. I don’t think any of the air groups he served with even had Gekkos.