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古賀清登

Ensign Imperial Japanese Navy

War record

Born 1910 in Fukuoka Prefecture → 1927 entered the Sasebo Naval Barracks → 1931.5 completed the 16th pilot trainee (the Pilot Trainee Course (Sōren)) course as a fighter pilot → Ōmura and Yokosuka naval air groups → with the outbreak of the China Incident, attached to the 〔13th Naval Air Group〕 and in 1937.8 posted to the Shanghai base → 1937.9.19 the first attack on Nanjing (his first combat; two Curtiss Hawks shot down) → he added to his score in the raids on Nanjing and Nanchang, and on 10.6 shot down three over Nanjing → by 12.9 he had shot down 13 aircraft in six air battles, and on his return to the homeland received an individual letter of commendation from the Commander-in-Chief of the China Area Fleet → crashed and was gravely injured during a night air-defense exercise at 〔Yokosuka Naval Air Group〕, dying the following day.

Called the first ace in the history of the Japanese Navy, a pilot who developed through actual combat — the '近藤勇 type'

Unit: 大村空→横空→13空
Victories: 13 (official credit)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.211

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