Shot down as a passenger
Hiroyoshi Nishizawa, known as Japan's "strongest strike king" of World War II, and several other pilots flew in bombers to Clark Airfield in Luzon on the morning of October 28, 1944, to receive Zero fighters. Over Calaban on Mindoro, the bomber was attacked by two F6F Hellcats of VF-14 squadrons taking off from the Wasp aircraft carrier, and the bomber crashed after being engulfed in flames. Nishizawa thought he would never be shot down in an air battle, but he died as a passenger who could only resign himself to his fate. He was probably shot down by Lieutenant Harold Newell, who shot down a Japanese bomber known as Helena (the Allied code name for nakajima Ki.49 Donryu) in northeastern Mindoro that morning.
Nishizawa, known as the "devil in the air", received a box lunch at the age of twenty-four. Later in the war, when the U.S. military completely seized air supremacy over the Pacific from the Japanese with a new generation of high-performance fighters, many people still believed that as long as Nishizawa was still controlling his "Zero" fighter, he would still be a difficult opponent in the air. This is also true.
The red circle is Nishizawa broadly defined
Officially confirmed by Japan, Nishizawa's achievement was to shoot down 36 enemy aircraft, wound 2, and collectively wound 49, and he may have been the most successful fighter ace pilot of the Japanese war; he personally claimed to have shot down 102 enemy aircraft before being killed. Some of the uncertainty was due to Japan's habit of recording pilot units rather than individual victories after 1941, and the fact that officials often accepted exaggerated results in air combat. Some sources believe that Caesar shot down between 120 and 150 enemy aircraft.
Early years
On January 27, 1920 ( Taisho 9 ) , Nishizawa was born in the village of Ogawa in Uesuchi District , Nagano Prefecture , the fifth eldest in the family , where his father ran a local Kiyomiya hotel. Nishizawa hated losing as a teenager, so he always tried to achieve excellent results in his class. In March 1934, after graduating from the Minami Ogawa Elementary School, he entered a silk factory and decided to join the Japanese Navy after seeing an advertisement for the Navy Flight Prepperate.
On June 1, 1936 ( Showa 11 ) , Nishizawa entered the seventh training course for pre-flight trainees of the First Class. In March 1939, he graduated with the 16th place in the 71st class of students and immediately moved between the Oita Naval Air Force, the Omura Naval Air Force, and the Suzuka Naval Air Force. On October 1, 1941, he was assigned to the Chitose Naval Air Force.
Become an ace
After the war with the Allies, The Caesar Squadron of the Chitose Naval Air Force was still flying the obsolete Mitsubishi A5M, and the troops were subsequently moved to The Unakanau Airfield on the newly occupied island of New Britain. The squadron received the first Mitsubishi Zero XXI aircraft (A6M2, Model 21) in the same week.
On February 3, 1942, Caesar was still flying the obsolete A5M, which he claimed to have achieved his first victory, the PBY Katarina aircraft; however, historians have determined that the aircraft was only damaged and managed to return to base. On 10 February, Caesar's squadron was transferred to the newly formed Fourth Naval Air Force. With the advent of the new Zero fighter, his landline was designated the F-108.
Nishizawa piloting the Zero fighter
On April 1, 1942, Caesar's squadron was transferred to Rai, New Guinea and assigned to the Tainan Naval Air Force. There, he flew with Saburo Itai and Toshio Ota in a squadron led by Zoe Shunichi. Saburo Itai describes his friend Nishizawa as about 5 feet 8 tall, weighing 140 pounds (64 kilograms), pale and thin, often suffering from malaria and tropical skin diseases, but he is good at judo. His squadron teammates gave Nishizawa the nickname "Demon" and considered him a taciturn. In terms of his aerial combat performances, Saburo Itai (himself one of Japan's leading air aces) wrote: "He is a 'devil' to everyone who flies with him... I've never met a guy who flew a Zero fighter like he did. His flying skills are incredible, full of intelligence, talent and imagination, many movements that you simply cannot foresee, seem to be impossible to do, and as a bystander you will often be stunned. ”
They often clashed with U.S. Army Air Force and Royal Australian Air Force fighter jets fighting in Port Moresby. Caesar made the U.S. Air Force's P-39 the first confirmed single kill on April 11, and he shot down six more in 72 hours on May 1-3, making him a recognized combat ace.
Nishizawa once formed the famous "Sweeping Trio" with Saburo Itai and Toshio Ota. On the evening of May 16, Nishizawa, Itai and Daejeon were listening to the broadcast of an Australian radio program in the lounge, when Nishizawa heard "The Dance of the Skeletons" by French composer, pianist and organist Camille Sans. While thinking about this mysterious skeleton dance, Nishizawa now suddenly had a crazy idea: "Do you know the mission in Port Moresby tomorrow?" Why don't we put on a little show, a dance of our own death? Why don't we do some demonstrative rib-fighting flights right on the enemy's airfield, which should drive them crazy on the ground. ”
On 17 May, Tainan United sent a fleet led by Masasa Nakajima to attack the Allied base in Port Moresby, with Itai and Nishizawa serving as Nakajima's wingmen. After the strafing mission was successfully completed, three formations of Allied fighters appeared in the sky, and the two sides engaged in a melee. The Japanese shot down five P-39s (including two shot down by Itai and one from Nishizawa), while losing two Zeros themselves.
After the end of the air battle, the Japanese aircraft group regrouped and prepared to return to the Base of Lae. Itai signaled to his long-time machine, Nakajima Shosa, that he was going to chase an enemy plane that seemed to have fallen behind, and then slowly broke away from the formation. A few minutes later he returned over Port Moresby to his appointment with Itai and Ota. After the three men met, they exchanged a few gestures, and after reconfirming that there were no Allied fighters in the air, they immediately increased the throttle and rolled over in a three-plane dense formation with three small radii. After the flat flight, the unfinished Nishizawa said that he would have to do it again. Nishizawa swooped down to 1800 meters and flipped three more ribs, but the ground was quietly unresponsive, and no anti-aircraft fire came. The trio gleefully returned to Lae, only 20 minutes behind the rest of the planes.
Before nine o'clock in the evening, Commander Sasai received an English note from an enemy plane to the effect that "To the commander of Rai City, we are very touched by these three pilots who are visiting our base today, especially for their excellent air show." It is urgent that these pilots will come to our base wearing green scarves. Sorry we weren't able to give them a better welcome last time, but next time we'll definitely be out to greet them. After calling all three of them to his office, Sasai 'sternly' warned them not to perform any more demonstrations of flight over enemy airfields in the future. The three men stood upright, trying to avoid laughing out loud, believing that it was worth it to conduct a stunt aircraft over enemy airfields.
Battle of Guadalcanal
In early August 1942, the air force moved to Rabaul and immediately fought the Americans on Guadalcanal. During the first clashes on August 7, Nishizawa shot down 6 F4F Wildcats (historians have confirmed that 2 were shot down).
On August 8, 1942, Nishizawa's closest friend Saburo Itai was seriously wounded in battle with a U.S. Navy carrier-based bomber. Nishizawa noticed that Itai was missing and lost his temper. He scoured the area, looking for signs of Itai and American warplanes, even though he had to crash into American planes. Eventually, he calmed down and returned to base i. Later, to everyone's surprise, itai, who was seriously injured, arrived. It flew for 4 hours and 47 minutes at 560 nautical miles. He was hit in the head by a bullet, covered in blood and blinded in one eye. Sasai and Ota plus Nishizawa pushed the driver who was present away and drove sakai, who was already unconscious, to the army clinic. Itai was evacuated to Japan on August 12.
As American aircraft and tactics improved, the Caesar Air Force (renamed 251st Air Force in November paid a high price in its long battle with Guadalcanal: Sasai (27 air victories) was captured on August 26, 1942 by Marion I. Captain E. Carr was killed after the shot, and Daejeon (34 empty victories) was killed on October 21, 1942.
The U.S. plane returned to the airport after an air battle with Nishizawa
Back to Japan
On November 1, 1942 , the Tainan Naval Air Force was reorganized into the 251st Naval Air Force , which was immediately transferred back to Japan , and the remaining ten pilots in the squadron , including Nishizawa , were appointed instructors , with a record of between 40 and 50 aircraft. While in his home country, Nishizawa visited Sakai, who was still in the hospital, several times, and complained to him many times about the enemy's numerical superiority and the current distress of teaching newcomers as a flight instructor flying a biplane. He said, "Sanro, can you imagine me running around in a faltering vintage biplane, teaching some stupid kid how to press the slope and turn, and how to keep his pants dry?" Caesar also attributed the loss of most of his pilot comrades to the Increasing Material Superiority of the Allies, improved American aircraft and tactics. "That's not what you remember, Saburo," he said. "There's nothing I can do. There are too many enemy planes, too many. Even so, Nishizawa couldn't wait to get back into battle. He said: "I need a fighter again. I just need to get back to action. Staying at home in Japan is going to kill me.
In May 1943 (Showa 18), the reorganized and resupply 251 Naval Air Force was sent back to Rabaul. On May 14, Caesar shot down a Lockheed P-38 Lightning during an escort mission. In June, the commander of the Eleventh Air Fleet, Kusanagi, presented Nishizawa with a saber emblazoned with the inscription "Martial Arts Pulling out the Group". In September 1943, he was assigned to the 253rd Naval Air Force in New Britain. In October, he entered the 203rd Naval Air Force (Atsugi Naval Air Force) and became a flight instructor stationed in Kita Kurkashima.
The final record
In October 1944, the 203rd Naval Air Force was deployed around Luzon in the Philippines. On 25 October, during the Battle of Leyte Gulf, Nishizawa took on the task of covering the first Special Attack Team under the command of Lieutenant Seki Yukio, during which the two Grumman F6F Hellcats (the 86th and 87th enemy aircraft he shot down) became the last few achievements of his career.
The Japanese aircraft carried out the task of the special attack team, the kamikaze special attack
It is said that during this operation, Nishizawa claimed to have foreseen that his "death date" had arrived, and after returning to the base, he voluntarily applied to join the "Special Attack Team" and his request was rejected by commander Nakasa Nakajima. Nakajima later described it to Saburo Itai: "This is strange, but Nishizawa insists that he has a premonition that he will soon die. He felt that he had not been alive for a few days. I certainly did not agree that a pilot of his caliber was too precious to the country. He should have piloted a warplane, not as a bomb rushing at a warship. ”
The "Zero Battle" (Type 52), which originally belonged to him, after installing a two-hundred-and-fifty-kilogram bomb, was operated by Katsuo Fusakuichi, and in the "Battle of Surigao Strait", it crashed into the U.S. Navy's "Savangny" aircraft carrier, hit a torpedo bomber that happened to be moored on the deck and caused nine aircraft around it to be detonated, although the aircraft carrier did not sink, it burned for several hours, killing eighty-five officers and men, killing fifty-eight missing, and wounding one hundred and twenty-two.
Upon receiving the news of Nishizawa's death, The Commander of the Combined Fleet, Vice Admiral Toyoda, ordered him to be commended and promoted to second lieutenant. Due to the chaos of the time and after the war, the announcement of commendations was delayed for a long time, and his funeral was not held until December 2, 1947. The most outstanding pilot in all of Japan died silently, and at the same time ended a glorious story of a devil in the air.