HIKOKIEMBLEMS OF THE RISING SUN IMPERIAL JAPANESE ARMY ALA FORCE UNIT MARKINGS 1935-1945First published in Great Britain in 1999 by Hikoki Publications Ltd 16 Newport Road, Aldershot, Hants, GU12 4PB Tel: 01252 319935 Fax: 01252 655593 email: [email protected] Website: http//www.hikoki.dircon.co.uk/ © 1999 Hikoki Publications Alll rights reserved. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research, criticism or review, permitted under the Copyright, Design and Patents Act 1988, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, electrical, chemical, mechanical, optical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission. All enquiries should be directed to the publisher. ISBN 1 902109 55 4 Edited by Barry Ketley Artwork by Peter Scott Design by Hikoki Publications Printed in England by fan Allan Printing Ltd Distribution & Marketing in UK and Europe by Midland Counties Publications 24 The Hollow, Earl Shilton, Leicester LE9 7NA Tel: 01455 233 747 Fax: 01455 233 737 Distribution & Marketing in North America by Howell Press Inc 1713-2D Allied Lane, Charlottesville, Virginia 22903-5336, USA. ‘Tel: 001 804 977 4006 Fax: 001 804 971 7204 email: [email protected] Pictures in this book are from various US Official sources, Aireview, Phil Jarret, Dick Ward and Barry Ketley. The origins of some are unfortunately unknown. Caption 10 front cover: A Nakajima Ki 43-1 ‘Oscar’ of I Sentai, 3 Chutai, based in Thailand in early 1942, seen against a background of cherry blossoms Caption t0 rear cover: A close view of the 68 Sentai, 2 Chutai emblem on the tail of a Kawasaki Ki 61-1 Ko captured at Cape Gloucester, New Britain and photographed on 12 January 1944 Caption to title page: A Mitsubishi Ki I-II heavy bomber of an unidentified unit drones towards Nanking through the summer haze somewhere over the Yellow River in China, 1938 ALSO AVAILABLE yes for the Phoenix Allied Aerial Photo-Reconnaissance Operations in South-East Asia 1941-1945 by Geoffrey Thomas ISBN 0 9519899 4 4 Courage Alone n Air Force 1940-1943, by Chris Dunning ISBN 1 902109 023 ‘The Secret Years Flight Testing at Boscombe Down 1939-1945 by ‘Tim Mason ISBN 0 9519899 95 Forever Farnborough Flying the Limits 1904-1996 by Peter J. Cooper AMRAeS. ISBN 0 9519899 3 6 Luftwaffe Fledglings 1935-1945 Luftwaffe Training Units & their Aircraft by Barry Ketley & Mark Rolfe ISBN 0 9519899 28 FORTHCOMING Stormbird Flying through fire as a Luftwaffe ground-attack pilot and Me 262 ace by ‘Oberst (i.R.) Hermann Buchner ISBN 0 902109 007 Shadows Airlift and Airwar in Biafra and Nigeria 1967-1970 by Michael I, Draper ISBN 0.902109 63 5 Condor ‘The Luftwaffe in Spain 1936-1939 by Patrick Laureau ISBN 0 902109 104INTRODUCTION IJAAF Unit Markings ‘The intention of this book is to present the unit markings of the Imperial Japanese Army Air Force (IAAF) sentai, together with their various superior, subordinate and independent units, in an ordered pictorial format. The unit markings of the various types of training schools are also included. Those ‘Taitari’ (Special Attack or suicide) formations that were ultimately re-designated within conventional sentai are covered. An attempt has been made to detail some of the dedicated Special Attack units themselves, of which there are estimated to have been over 170 units. The many personal markings of individual air crew which also appeared on otherwise unmarked aircraft are excluded. At this stage, it is appropriate to consider the structure of the IJAAF (Table1). Its primary strategic elements were the five Kokugun (Air Armies). These comprised: 1 Kokugun - Ist. (Home) Air Army 2 Kokugun - 2nd. (Manchuria) Air Army 3 Kokugun - 3rd. (Southern) Air Army 4 Kokugun - 4th. (New Guinea) Air Army (formed 1943) 5 Kokugun - 5th. (China) Air Army (formed 1944) 1 Above: This well-worn dark green Nakajima Ki 43-11 Ko of 25 Sentai was once flown by the 2nd Chutai leader, Ist Lt Nakakazu 0: ‘as shown by the white-outlined red band around the fuselage. Flying from Jogai airfield near Nanking in China from 2 March 1943, he scored 19 victories, including six B-24s, earning Bird Killer’, before his death in action on 27 December 1943 when he deliberately rammed an enemy aircraft the nickname “Big In turn, the subordinate formations of the kokugun were the Hikoshidan (Air Divisions), with two or three to a kokugun. Next in line were, generally, two or more Hikodan (Air Brigades) to a hikoshidan. Initially, the next basic units were the Hiko Rentai (Air Regiment), usually with four Chutai (Company) and the Hiko Daitai (Air Battalion), with two chutai. In general, there were three rentai to a hikodan. ‘The rentai and daitai were intended to have a mixed selection of aircraft, but they were found to be tactically inflexible when the units were committed in the war against China, with the rentai being too big and the daitai being too small to be effective, Therefore, they were replaced by Hiko Sentai (Air Groups), which were of an intermediate size. In contrast to the rentai and daitai, the sentai generally had a single task, e.g. solely fighters, or bombers, or transport, or reconnaissance. These new units consisted of a Sentai Hombu (headquarters flight) and two or more Chutai (company). Each chutai normally comprised three Shotai (flight), each of three aircraft, although this was raised to four by the late war years, when the tactical disadvantages of the three (rather than four) aircraft formation was recognised. With a few exceptions, the sentai were intended to operate a single aircraft type, although the amount of operational types actually proliferated within many of the sentai, towards the end of WW2. The reasons for this included partial re-equipment with new types and general equipment shortages,Prior to the onset of unit identifiers, many aircraft of all types carried black fuselage side numbers. Fighters and other single-engined aircraft commonly carried a single inscription below the cockpit, ‘Aikoku’, which translates as ‘Patriotism’. Occasionally, some machines also carried presentation inscriptions on their fuselage, aft of the hinomaru on both sides, which signified the donor of the aircraft. A number included within this inscription indicated that the donor had purchased more than one aircraft. With the onset of com-bat operations, the patriotic slogans were removed and the presentation inscriptions were greatly reduced in size. Most early units had no especial unit identification markings. What markings they did carry were confined to rudder striping, which related to the chutai and / or shotai, or to the individual aircraft itself. Many of these early markings consisted of varying numbers of stripes of various colours, which were predominantly red, blue or white. The fundamental unit markings themselves were adopted and developed from the mid-30s onwards, primarily from the need to identify the proliferation of new units that were forming as a result of the war in China. It was also found that a distinctive unit identity contributed to ‘esprit de corps’ and was a morale booster. Alll of the major formations (from independent chutai upwards) adopted some form of unit identification symbol, as did the sundry training units and special purpose units, although some early rentai, daitai and sentai flew without any markings for a period after their establishment. Many units applied their unit marking to the tail-plane, but some initially relied upon fuselage and wing striping for unit identification, e.g. 50 and 64 Sentai. ‘These units generally developed their fuselage markings into one which was applied to the tail. Almost all IAAF units ultimately adopted the tail-plane as a canvas upon which to bear their unit markings, with the notable exception of 95 Sentai, which solely carried fuselage identifiers on their bombers throughout its existence. In common with most other major air forces, the IAAF established a substantial number of smaller operational units, which were known as Dokuritsu ‘Chutai (Independent Companies). All of these units bore unit devices on their tails, with the exception of the fuselage identifiers borne by 18 Chutai, which carried a small tiger insignia (and which was known as a ‘kitten’ to their crews) and 84 Chutai, who relied upon longitudinal striping. As the IJAAF expanded throughout the war, these independent units were often called upon to form the basis of new sentai, e.g. 10 Dokuritsu Chutai formed 25 Sentai in 1942. Similarly, as some sentai sustained severe combat losses or for logistical purposes, they were downgraded to chutai status eg. 28 Sentai became 28 Dokuritsu Chutai in 1941. In both events, the unit device of the parent unit frequently served as the basis for the tail markings of the new unit, in much the same way that, earlier, some of the newly formed sentai had inherited the device of their parent rentai and daitai although, in 4 this case, it is unconfirmed whether 28 Dokuritsu Chutai actually did so. It was not uncommon for a sentai to be reduced in size, with a view to forming additional units by the use of experienced personnel as cadres, e.g, 83 Sentai. Similarly, sentai were often reduced through attrition to chutai strength, or even decimated and then were reformed into the original sentai, possibly in a different location and using different equipment, e.g Sentai was destroyed at Leyte in 1944 and then re- formed in Japan on the Ki-102 ‘Randy’. Training units were also used as the basis for the formation of new units and their own devices frequently lived on in the newly established units. Dokuritsu Hikowai (Independent Wings) were also formed from chutai and sentai as required and, again, each had its own tail device. It is therefore apparent that the IJAAF adopted a coloured tail decoration for identification purposes, in much the same way that the Royal Air Force adopted an alphabetic squadron identification system; the USAAF in the U.K had a similar alphabetic combination (then an alpha-numeric system when the alphabetic combinations were exhausted), and the Luftwaffe embraced an alpha- numeric Geschwader identifier for aircraft other than fighters. The corollary was that the Allies ultimately adopted a similar system to the IAAF, using coloured geometric symbols or devices, when they gained air superiority and used large formations (e.g. as did the RAF main bomber force when it was used in daylight operations, or the US 9th Air Force fighter-bomber units). Conversely, the LJ AF units were obliged to tone down or obliterate their own markings when the tide of war turned against Japan. The basic Japanese unit identifier was not founded upon a single common system, but was initiated at unit level and was based around various themes instead. These took the form of © plain areas of colour: coloured bands; geometric shapes; devices of religious significance e.g. Mount Fuji and the sacred chrysanthemum; local geographic features e.g. mountains and rivers; the name of the home air base; bolts of lightning, darts and arrows; birds and animals 2 pictorial adaptation of the Sentai or Chutai number (which frequently requires a degree of lateral thinking to interpret, particularly since the port-side markings were generally a mirror image of the starboard side originals and so lost the flavour of the prototype design); © ora simple number code for when imagination failed although, even then, the sentai design could be based on a derivation of a Roman-style number e.g, as portrayed on the Ki-100s of 5 Sentai. Some of the maritime strike units used a number code similar to those ITNAF units operating in the same role.