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長野喜一

Flight Warrant Officer Imperial Japanese Navy

War record

Born in Shizuoka Prefecture; 1939.6 entered the navy; 1941.7 graduated from the 56th Pilot Trainee Course at the age of 18 → October posted to the Chitose Naval Air Group (air defence of Taroa in the inner South Seas at the outbreak of war) → 1942.6 transferred to the 582nd Naval Air Group; after returning to Japan he moved up to Rabaul in August → for about a year, until July 1943, he fought hard in the fierce air fighting of the Southeast Area (19 aircraft, 3 of them unconfirmed, by the officially credited record alone), becoming the top-scoring ace of the 582nd Naval Air Group → 1943.7 the Atsugi Naval Air Group, then transferred to Fighter Squadron 304 of the 203rd Naval Air Group; the following April he moved to the northern Kurils (air defence) → six months later he moved to southern Kyushu, and in October, with the launching of Operation Sho-Go, he sortied in the air battle off Taiwan, going forward via Taiwan to the Bamban base in the Philippines on the 22nd for daily escort of attacks on enemy ships, the Leyte offensive and interceptions over the base → killed on 6 November intercepting US carrier aircraft over Bamban

In the interception battle over Guadalcanal on October 25, he was one of eight Zeros led by Lieutenant 二神 and fought hard; the unit lost four aircraft, including that of the flight leader, in the fierce battle

Unit: 千歳空→2空(582空)→厚木空→203空304
Victories: 総撃墜機数19機(公認)、582空は18年3月以降個人記録の記入を中止しており通算20数機に達しているものと推定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.187

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