Lt. Saburō Shindō, Akagi Fighter Squadron, second attack wave

During the second wave, fighter escort of thirty-six

Zeros was led by Lt. Shindō. Nine Akagi Zeros met

no resistance in the air and destroyed two aircraft

at Hickam. Shindō was born in 1911 and graduated

from the Naval Academy in 1929. He was assigned

to the Omura Kōkūtai in 1935 and a year later went

to the aircraft carrier Kaga. In 1940, he served in

China with the 12th Kōkūtai during combat trials

of the A6M2 fighter. Under his command, the first

combat engagement occurred on September 13,

resulting in 27 victories without loss. In November

1940, Shindō was transferred to the 14th Kōkūtai

in Hanoi. From April to December 1941 he was

the Buntaichō of the Akagi fighters, but had to be

hospitalized after the attack on Pearl Harbor. After recovering, he was appointed commander of

Tokushima Kōkūtai in April 1942. From November

1942, as Hikōtaichō at Kōkūtai 582, he was involved

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in the fighting over Guadalcanal. From July 1943, he

was Hikōtaichō with the Kōkūtai 204 in the same

area. In late 1943 and early 1944, he led fighters of

the aircraft carrier Ryūhō and later served with

Kōkūtai 653 and 203 in the defense of Taiwan, the

Philippines, and Japan. At the end of the war, he

was Hikōtaichō at Tsukuba Kōkūtai. Shindó passed

away in 2000.

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