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菊地哲生

Flight Warrant Officer Imperial Japanese Navy

War record

1934 entered the navy (as a maintenance rating) → 1938.1 graduated from the 39th Pilot Trainee Course and retrained as a fighter pilot → 1939.5 14th Naval Air Group (no chance of air combat) → instructor at the Kasumigaura Naval Air Group → Yatabe Naval Air Group → 1941.9 aboard Akagi for the Hawaii operation (patrol duty only) → 1942.5.5 (as dated in the source) shot down 5 single-handed in the attack on Colombo (his first air combat) → 1942.6 in the Midway operation he shot down 4, and shared in 3 more on combat air patrol over the carriers → Akagi sank and he was taken aboard Hiryu (Hiryu too was hit and he got out) → aboard Shokaku → the Guadalcanal fighting and the Second Battle of the Solomons → moved between Ryuho, Hiyo and Jun'yo → 1944.1 moved up to Rabaul → 1944.3 attached to the 652nd Naval Air Group (Ryuho) → 1944.6.19 in Operation A-Go he was attacked by enemy fighters just before landing on Guam; covering the dive-bomber unit, he was killed, his aircraft destroyed (self-destruction in action (jibaku))

Weighing over 20 kan (roughly 75–90+ kg) and needing assistance from ground crew due to his large build, he nonetheless kept turning down informal offers of promotion to Flight Warrant Officer

Unit: 14空→赤城→翔鶴→652空
Victories: 公認12機(赤城時代、うち協同・不確実7)、総計は20機前後と推定sources differ

No fragment for this person is in the Archive yet.

What is still not known

Photograph: none yet. Unless a person was reported on during the war, almost no portrait survives that is free to use ⚪️
Afterwards: how he lived after the war is not written in this source.

This card is made only of facts copied from one book 🟡 index. It is not a biography. An empty field means the book does not say. Nothing has been filled in by guesswork.

Source: Japanese Naval Fighter Units, p.224

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