福井義男

War record

Born in Kagawa Prefecture in 1913 → 1931 entered the Sasebo Naval Barracks, at first as a maintenance rating → 1935.3 graduated from the 26th pilot trainee course and remustered as a fighter pilot → after the Ōmura and Kanoya Naval Air Groups he was serving in Ryūjō when the China Incident broke out, mainly supporting the ground fighting; in August he went out off Shanghai → on patrol over Baoshan as No.2 to Lieutenant j.g. 鮫子 he sighted eight Curtiss Hawks; three of them were his own score, he being then an Aviation Petty Officer 2nd Class → moved to south China; in the first raid on south China on 9.21 he, then a Flight Petty Officer 1st Class with good eyesight, was the first to spot the enemy fighters as the formation came in over the target, went in and shot down two → December transferred to the Yokosuka Naval District; in April the following year he went back to sea in Kaga and served mainly in the south China operations until late autumn, in the course of which he surprised and shot down a Curtiss Hawk in the attack on Liuzhou on 9.13 and made repeated strafing runs on ground targets → December transferred to Akagi, after which he was an instructor at the Yatabe, Kanoya, Hyakurihara and Ōita Naval Air Groups, being promoted Flight Warrant Officer in 1941.4 → 1943.6, after a long interval, he was ordered to Zuihō and returned to front-line duty; he moved up to Rabaul on 11.1, and on the 2nd Rabaul was hit by a large combined fighter and bomber raid; more than a hundred friendly fighters went up and did great execution; Ensign 福井 shot down a B-25 at treetop height over the palms, then was hit and set on fire, took to his parachute and burned his right foot, but was back with the unit three days later; after taking part in offensive operations he returned to Truk → 1944.2 attached to the 〔601st Naval Air Group〕 and posted to Shōkaku for Operation "A"; on 6.19, as a section leader of the air-superiority unit of the first wave, he attacked the US task force and shot down one (unconfirmed); on the night of the 20th he flew as escort against US carrier aircraft coming in, and landed on his ship at night → on 7.11 he transferred to Fighter Squadron 165 of the 〔653rd Naval Air Group〕; on 10.24 he took part in the Battle off the Philippines, sortieing from Zuikaku against the US task force, and after his ship sank he was picked up by an escorting destroyer → transferred to Squadron 304 and moved overland to Bamban base in the Philippines; pulled back to the home islands in 1945.1 and ended the war attached to the 〔352nd Naval Air Group〕.