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吉田素綱

Flight Warrant Officer Imperial Japanese Navy

War record

1935.6 enlisted at the Kure Naval Barracks (as an engine-room rating, tender Chogei) → the following year became a maintenance rating → 1939.1 graduated from the 44th Pilot Trainee Course (retrained as a fighter pilot) → Oita and Omura Naval Air Groups → 1939.9 12th Naval Air Group (Central China front) → 1939.10.14 wounded in the bombing of Hankou → after recovering he moved to South China (attacks on Liuzhou and Guilin) → 1940.7 instructor at the Yokosuka Naval Air Group → 1942.2 posted to the fighter unit of the 4th Naval Air Group (Rabaul) → 2.23 intercepted and shot down a B-17 single-handed over Rabaul → wounded at the end of March → April promoted to PO1c (1Flight Petty Officer) and transferred to the Tainan Naval Air Group → from May flew as wingman to Lt 河合四郎 in the daily attacks on Port Moresby → 1942.8.7 missing while fighting US carrier fighters during the attack on Tulagi; officially declared killed

Intercepted a B-17 heavy bomber single-handedly and shot it down

Unit: 12空→4空→台南空
Victories: ラバウル時代の個人撃墜は確実12、不確実1、共同3sources 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.208

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