59th Air Regiment (Hiko Sentai)

War record

Jul 1938, formed at Kagamigahara from the 1st Air Regiment→central China front→Sep 1939, the closing weeks of Nomonhan (the Tamsag raid on the eve of the ceasefire was its one great air battle)→Jun 1941, the first Army unit to receive the Type 1 fighter "Hayabusa"; when wings began failing in mid-air, the maker's engineers were summoned to the field to reinforce them→8 Dec 1941, six kills over Kota Bharu on the opening day of the war→Malaya, Palembang and Java alongside the 64th→20 Jun 1943, escorted the Army's first strike on Port Darwin, Australia→Jul 1943, eastern New Guinea (over 90 kills in half a year; Captain Shigeo Nango, attached to the unit, led most of its fighting in the air)→23 Jan 1944, Nango killed→Feb 1944, the dozen surviving pilots came home; air defence of northern Kyushu from Ashiya with the Type 3 fighter→Apr 1945, forward to Chiran escorting Okinawa special-attack sorties→May 1945, re-equipped with the Type 5 fighter, defending northern Kyushu at war's end. The ground crews left in New Guinea fought on as infantry in the hills near Aitape, and most died there

Captain Shigeo Nango, who led the unit's air fighting to the end, wrote in his diary in December 1943 — the book records — that against the P-38 the day of the Type 1 fighter was already over.