BOXART STORY

Text: Jan Bobek

Illustration: Adam Tooby

The air war over New Guinea in 1942 is one

of the best-known episodes of the Pacific War thanks to the memoirs of Saburō

Sakai, who served with Tainan Kōkūtai until he was wounded on August 7, 1942, near

Guadalcanal. Japanese naval aviators on

New Guinea first used the Lae and Salamaua airfields. Buna was captured in July.

After a few weeks, Type 32 Zeroes from the

2nd Kōkūtai and Tainan Kōkūtai began operating from there.

The Japanese were trying to fight their way

to Port Moresby in southern New Guinea, to

establish a base for an attack on Australia.

In the air, the experienced invaders were

initially faced by Australian pilots of Kittyhawks. These were gradually supplemented and replaced by American fighters with

Airacobras, who quickly learned how to fight

the Zeros. The forces thus began to balance

out until finally the Japanese could not be

sure of their superiority. Michael J. Claringbould describes the fights in this area in his

well-researched publications.

One of the fresh American units to arrive on

the battlefield was the 80th Fighter Squadron “Headhunters”, which was part of the

8th Fighter Group. From mid-May 1942 it

had been preparing to fight near Brisbane,

Australia. Unit moved to Port Moresby on 20

July under the command of 1/Lt Phil H. Greasley. Their frequent duties included escorting twin-engine bombers and attacking

cargo vessels, mostly in the vicinity of Buna.

Greasley flew to Buna at the head of eight

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INFO Eduard

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Headhunters

over Buna

Airacobras on August 26, 1942. However, he

soon had to return with another pilot due

to technical difficulties. He handed over the

lead to Bill Brown, who mistakenly headed

east to Milne Bay. His wingman, Danny Roberts, eventually broke radio silence and

alerted him to the error. Brown quickly

corrected the course and the Americans

arrived at Buna from an unexpected direction.

Two trios of Zeros were just taking off from

the airfield. The first was led by Warrant

Officer Kazu-o Tsunoda (9 victories) of the

2nd Kōkūtai and the second by Lt.(jg) Jōji

Yamashita of Tainan Kōkūtai. They did not

expect an American attack at all. Brown and

Roberts hit the first trio. They killed PO1c Ki-ichi Iwase and PO3c Daizō Ihara. Tsunoda's

machine “Q-102” received ten hits, he was

able to open fire on the attackers, but after

landing his aircraft was no longer repairable

and was later captured by the Australians.

The second trio came under fire from Lieutenants Helveston and Roberts, they killed

PO3c Kyoshi Nakano. His fellow PO2c Ichirōbei Yamazaki (14 victories) was wounded

but helped Yamashita to score victory over

one of the Airacobras. It may have been

2/Lt Rogers, who, thinking he was hit by

flak, ditched off the coast with his damaged

machine and was rescued by natives. The

Americans claimed a total of seven victories, which, although inflated, did not detract

from their clear victory over the seasoned

IJN veterans.

Tainan Kōkūtai, with its main base in Rabaul,

was fighting on two fronts at the time. The

other one, more important, was on Guadalcanal. During that same 26 August, the

well-known Lt.(jg) Jun-ichi Sasai (27 victories) led eight Zeroes on escort mission to

the fateful island. However, along with two

other pilots, he was killed in a dogfight with

Marine Wildcats. His victor was probably

the legendary Marion Carl .

But the bad news wasn't over yet. The very

next day, August 27, an aviator from Tainan

Kōkūtai was killed by an Airacobra pilot. On

another mission from Buna, eight fighters

from Tainan Kōkūtai took off under Yamashita's command to escort eight Val bombers from the 2nd Kōkūtai to Rabi airfield.

The bombers dropped their loads and since

there were no enemy fighters in sight, Yamashita unexpectedly authorized an attack

on ground targets, including the tempting

four-engine B-24. But two fliers, including

Yamashita, were shot down by ground fire.

One of them ditched near shore, and two of

his colleagues were shot down as they tried to destroy his Zero to keep it from falling

into enemy hands. They were surprised by

Australian Kittyhawks from No. 75 Squadron

RAAF, led by the famous Les Jackson. Two

Vals fell victim to them too. Tainan Kōkūtai

thus lost nine Zeros and ten pilots, including

two Buntaichō officers, in two days. This

elite unit had to be withdrawn from the battlefield after another two months of fierce

fighting.

January 2023