村中一夫

War record

Born 1919 in Fukuoka Prefecture → 1935.6 entered the 6th Otsu-class preparatory flight trainee (the Preparatory Flight Training Course (Yokaren)) course; completed the flight training course 1938.8; after 佐伯, Ōita and 〔Omura Naval Air Group〕 he was posted in 1939.8 to the 〔14th Naval Air Group〕 and sent to the South China front → in December the group's Type 96 carrier fighters moved from Haikou to besieged Nanning; PO3c 村中 followed a little later, catching up on the 27th, and that same afternoon, on patrol with his wingman Aviation Seaman 1st Class 野, he sighted a formation of enemy single-engined aircraft, went into combat and shared in shooting down two (one of them unconfirmed) — his first combat, and the 〔14th Naval Air Group〕's first score → after the 1.10 attack on Guilin the following year, he returned in 1940.8 to Suzuka Naval Air Group; in 1941.11, just before the war, he joined Hiryū, and in the Pearl Harbor attack he flew with the fighter unit of the first wave, seeing no enemy aircraft and strafing parked aircraft at Barbers Point → he then fought in the Darwin, Indian Ocean and Midway operations; in particular, on 1942.6.5, flying with the fighter unit of the first attack wave against Midway, he fought the enemy fighters that came up and single-handedly covered Hiryū's torpedo-bombers throughout → after landing back aboard he took off again on patrol over the carrier, intercepted the enemy attack formations and shot down three (one of them unconfirmed) before being hit and ditching; he was rescued by the destroyer Nowaki → after recovering from his wounds he served aboard Shōkaku and then Jun'yō, taking part in the Second Battle of the Solomons in August and the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands in October, moving up to the Rabaul base in November and sortieing for the Guadalcanal operation, and returning to the homeland as an instructor at Tokushima Naval Air Group in April of the following year → 1944.5 transferred to the 〔11th Naval Air Group〕, the operational training unit for fighters, at Singapore; 1945.5 promoted to ensign and moved to Fighter Squadron 701 of the 〔343rd Naval Air Group〕, returning to Ōmura; on 7.24 he shot down one aircraft in combat over the Bungo Channel, and after several more actions the war ended. After the war he joined the Japan Air Self-Defense Force and retired as a 3Lieutenant Colonel (JASDF) (lieutenant colonel).