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山口定夫

Lieutenant Commander Imperial Japanese Navy

War record

1939.7 graduated with 〔the 67th class of the Naval Academy〕 → 1941.11 posted to the 〔3rd Naval Air Group〕 in Taiwan → 1942.2.3 first air combat in the attack on Surabaya (two shot down) → several attacks on Darwin from Timor → 1942.9–10 moved up to Rabaul, attacks on Guadalcanal → three shot down in the air battle of 1942.10.3; hit, he force-landed on the north coast of Guadalcanal (picked up by ground troops) → promoted Lieutenant in May the following year, continuing the Darwin attacks → 1943.7 advanced course student at the 〔Yokosuka Naval Air Group〕 → 1943.10 division leader of the 〔204th Naval Air Group〕 in the Rabaul theatre, with five shot down by the time the unit fell back to Truk at the end of 1944.1 → 1944.5 returned home as division leader of a fighter unit working up → 1944.6 attached to the Hachiman force, moved up to Iwo Jima and intercepted the US task force three times → killed in action in an interception on 1944.7.4.

Hit and forced to make an emergency landing on the north coast of Guadalcanal, he was rescued by ground forces and returned

Unit: 3空→204空→横空→八幡部隊
Victories: total victories claimed: 12sources 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.225

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