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関谷喜芳

Flight Warrant Officer Imperial Japanese Navy

War record

1939 entered the navy → 1940.11 2nd Hei-class Yokaren → 1941.11 graduated from the 12th flight training course (just before the outbreak of war) → spring 1942 posted to the 3rd Naval Air Group (no chance of air combat at first) → 1942.6.16 first combat in the attack on Darwin → autumn 1942 attached to the 582nd Naval Air Group and moved up to Rabaul, building up his score in the air battles over the Solomons and eastern New Guinea → 1943.7 transferred to the 204th Naval Air Group → 1943.11 the Yokosuka Naval Air Group (returned to Japan) → 1944.6 moved up to Iwo Jima for Operation A-Go → failed to return from the first interception over Iwo Jima on 1944.6.24; officially declared killed

Unit: 3空→582空→204空→横空
Victories: 11 (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 ⚪️
The man himself: where he was can be traced, but what he was like cannot be told from this source.
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.229

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