Original upload date: Mon, 26 Jun 2017 02:00:00 GMT
Archive date: Thu, 02 Dec 2021 09:12:38 GMT
Komachi Sadamu is an IJN fighter-pilot who participated in key parts of the Pacific War such as the Battle of the Coral Sea, Guadalcanal, the Battle of the Eastern Solomons and Rabaul. He is attribute
...
d but ~40 kills but reckons that he scored "perhaps half of this total."
On June 19th 1944, during a ferry mission to bring Zeros from Truk to Guam, Komachi was caught by surprise when the airfield they were supposed to land at was under attack by American fighters. "In a head-on encounter with Ens Wendell Twelves of VF-15 at less than 200ft, Komachi was caught off guard and his Zero took hits in the engine. Skillfully ditching his burning aircraft into the sea, he suffered serious burns to his face and body, but managed to swim ashore and eventually return to Japan..."
(Source: Imperial Japanese Navy Aces 1937-45, ch. 4)
