BUILT

Ldg. Sea. Kenji Yanagiya, Kōkūtai 204, Rabaul base, New Britain, April 1943

This aircraft is reconstructed with the field applied

green paint typical for aircraft of this unit in early

1943. It has a dismantled radio station and antenna column to reduce weight. Leading Seaman

Yanagiya made several operational flights with

this plane during April 1943. He also flew with it on

April 18, 1943, while escorting Admiral Yamamoto

to Ballale on Bougainville Island. The formation of

two G4M Betty bombers and six Zeros was surprisingly attacked by P-38 fighters, both Bettys were

December 2022

shot down and Admiral Yamamoto was killed. Five

of the six accompanying Japanese fighters were

successively killed in action during the war, one of

them being the second ranking naval ace, Shō-ichi

Sugita (80 v.). The only survivor of the war would

be Yanagiya. Born in March 1919, after completing

flight training in March 1942 he was assigned to the

6th Kōkūtai, which was to be based at the captured

Midway Atoll. From October 1942 he was deployed

to Rabaul and in November his unit was redesig-

nated Kōkūtai 204. In May 1943 he was promoted

to Petty Officer 2nd Class, but on June 7 he was

severely wounded in aerial combat off Russell

Island and had to have his right arm amputated.

After hospitalization and rehabilitation, he was able

to continue flying with a prosthesis and served as

an instructor until the end of the war. He achieved

a total of eight individual victories and participated on eighteen shared kills. Kenji Yanagiya died

in February 2008.

INFO Eduard

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