111th Air Regiment (Hiko Sentai)

War record

Its forerunner was the instruction air unit of the Akeno training air division — the lineage of the Akeno Army Flying School. As raids on the homeland grew, even the training units were drawn into combat→18 Jul 1945, ordered converted into a front-line unit; formation complete on 22 Jul — with the 112th, the last fighter Sentai the Army ever raised→equipped with the newest Type 5 fighter (120 aircraft planned; its flight leaders were veteran instructors)→flew B-29 interceptions from the start; on 16 Jul, 24 fighters under Majors Yohei Hinoki and Toyoki Eto fought a P-51 formation over Matsusaka — 11 claimed (5 unconfirmed) for 5 aircraft and 3 pilots lost→6 Aug, to Komaki for the defence of the Nagoya area→then no further combat: the war ended after a life of barely one month (just under 90 aircraft on hand)

Major Yohei Hinoki — the ace who flew with an artificial leg — led one of its groups, and in the P-51 fight over Matsusaka scored a kill flying with it. The book quotes his reflection that even excellent pilots, thrown together, fight at half their worth.