Yokosuka Naval Air Group

War record

Opened 1 Apr 1916 — the Navy's oldest air group. From training it grew into the home of air-combat research and new-type trials for every category of aircraft→the Japanese Navy's distinctive dogfighting art was developed here (as was the three-plane aerobatic team remembered as the "Genda circus")→Jun 1944, Operation A-Go: sent forward to Iwo Jima as the improvised "Hachiman force"→24 Jun, with the 301st and 252nd Groups it met the carrier raids, downing 17 F6Fs for 9 lost→across three battles over Iwo Jima it claimed 52 — at the cost of 22 of its finest, Lieutenant Yamaguchi among them; "a complete defeat for the elite of the tradition," the book writes→16–17 Feb 1945, revenge over the Kanto: taking off through falling snow on the 17th, its fighters ambushed 19 F6Fs and F4Us assembling over Atsugi and destroyed them all→then husbanded its strength to the war's end

After the battle of 17 Feb 1945, Petty Officer Takashi Yamazaki parachuted down — and was killed by civilians who took him for an enemy flyer. From then on the fighter crews sewed the rising sun onto their flight suits: a marking meant not for the sky, but for their own countrymen on the ground.