5th Air Regiment (Hiko Sentai)

War record

Dec 1921, formed as the 5th Air Battalion (later at Tachikawa)→Aug 1938, renamed the 5th Hiko Sentai, training fighter pilots at Gifu→Jul 1941, split off the 54th Sentai→from Mar 1942, the Army's first unit equipped with the Type 2 two-seat fighter "Toryu"→Jul 1943, moved to Malang, Java, for air defence over Ambon and Timor→17 Jan 1944, shot down five B-24s over Ambon, commended by the air division commander→27 May 1944, in a strike on shipping off Biak, Major Takada, the unit commander, and all four aircraft failed to return; honoured by the Southern Army as a forerunner of the special-attack sorties→Sep 1944, returned home; air defence of Nagoya and Osaka from Kiyosu→scored steadily in night interceptions of B-29s→re-equipped with the Type 5 fighter in late May 1945; war's end (by the commander Yamashita's own record: about 20 kills in the south, about 40 shot down and 100 damaged in homeland defence)

Even after the surrender broadcast the unit did not stand down: it quietly planned an all-out strike on the US task force south of Ise Bay for the small hours of 17 August. Word leaked out, the book records, and the air division headquarters talked them out of it.