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遠藤桝秋

Flight Petty Officer 1st Class Imperial Japanese Navy

War record

1941.10 graduated from the 5th Otsu-class Yokaren → 1942.2 posted to the Tainan Naval Air Group → April moved up to Rabaul and Lae (air battles over eastern New Guinea and the Solomons) → November returned to Japan for reorganisation → 1943.5 the 251st Naval Air Group (moved to the Southeast Area, Rabaul base) → 1943.6.7 in the air combat during the attack on the Russell Islands (36 carrier fighters led by Lt 向井一郎) he shot down a P-38, was then fired on by a P-39 and, judging that he could not evade it, rammed it; his aircraft was destroyed and he was killed

In his final moments, judging that he could not evade in time, he chose to ram the enemy himself

Unit: 台南空→251空
Victories: 14 (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.207

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