|
4th Air Group
was a land-based bomber aircraft unit of the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service (IJNAS) during the Pacific campaign of World War II. The air group was redesignated as the 702nd Air Group on 1 November 1942. History The unit was formed on 10 February 1942 by combining one division ( buntai) from Chitose Air Group that was previously stationed in the Central Pacific, and two divisions from Takao Air Group that participated in the conquest of the Philippines and Dutch East Indies. They operated the new Mitsubishi G4M ''Rikko'' Navy Type 1 Attack Bomber aircraft. That same month, the group was deployed to Rabaul, New Britain to support Japanese operations during the early stages of the New Guinea Campaign, at first as part of the 24th Air Flotilla and from April as part of the 25th Air Flotilla. On 20 February, a flying boat from Yokohama Air Group spotted a US carrier task force centered around ''Lexington'' 460 nautical miles from Rabaul. 4th Air Group medium bombers were ordered ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mitsubishi G4M
The Mitsubishi G4M was a twin-engine, land-based medium bomber formerly manufactured by the Mitsubishi Aircraft Company, a part of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, and operated by the Imperial Japanese Navy from 1940 to 1945. Its official designation is and was commonly referred to by Japanese Navy pilots as due to the cylindrical shape of its fuselage and its penchant for igniting after a hit. The Allied reporting name was "Betty". Designed to a strict specification to succeed the Mitsubishi G3M already in service, the G4M boasted very good performance and excellent range and was considered the best land-based naval bomber at the time. This was achieved by its structural lightness and an almost total lack of protection for the crew, with no armor plating or self-sealing fuel tanks. The G4M was officially adopted on 2 April 1941 but the aforementioned problems would prove to be a severe drawback, often suffering heavy losses; Allied fighter pilots nicknamed the G4M "The Flyi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pacific War
The Pacific War, sometimes called the Asia–Pacific War, was the theater of World War II that was fought in Asia, the Pacific Ocean, the Indian Ocean, and Oceania. It was geographically the largest theater of the war, including the vast Pacific Ocean theater, the South West Pacific theater, the Second Sino-Japanese War, and the Soviet–Japanese War. The Second Sino-Japanese War between the Empire of Japan and the Republic of China had been in progress since 7 July 1937, with hostilities dating back as far as 19 September 1931 with the Japanese invasion of Manchuria. However, it is more widely accepted that the Pacific War itself began on 7 December (8 December Japanese time) 1941, when the Japanese simultaneously invaded Thailand, attacked the British colonies of Malaya, Singapore, and Hong Kong as well as the United States military and naval bases in Hawaii, Wake Island, Guam, and the Philippines. The Pacific War saw the Allies pitted against Japan, the la ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
F4F Wildcat
The Grumman F4F Wildcat is an American carrier-based fighter aircraft that entered service in 1940 with the United States Navy, and the British Royal Navy where it was initially known as the Martlet. First used by the British in the North Atlantic, the Wildcat was the only effective fighter available to the United States Navy and Marine Corps in the Pacific Theater during the early part of the Second World War. The disappointing Brewster Buffalo was withdrawn in favor of the Wildcat and replaced as aircraft became available. With a top speed of , the Wildcat was outperformed by the faster (), more maneuverable, and longer-ranged Mitsubishi A6M Zero. US Navy pilots, including John "Jimmy" Thach, a pioneer of fighter tactics to deal with the A6M Zero, were greatly dissatisfied with the Wildcat's inferior performance against the Zero in the battles of the Coral Sea and Midway. The Wildcat has a claimed air combat kill-to-loss ratio of 5.9:1 in 1942 and 6.9:1 for the entire war.P ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Action Off Bougainville
The action off Bougainville was a naval and air engagement on the South Pacific Theater of World War II near Bougainville, Papua New Guinea on 20 February 1942. A United States Navy aircraft carrier task force on its way to raid the Imperial Japanese military base at Rabaul, New Britain was attacked by a force of land-based bombers of the Imperial Japanese Navy. The US task force was commanded by Admiral Wilson Brown and the Japanese aircraft forces were under the command of Eiji Gotō. In the ensuing engagement, the Japanese air group lost 15 of 17 bombers sent to attack the American carrier group. The United States lost only two fighters in defence, and no ships were damaged. As a result of the loss of surprise, however, the Americans retired without raiding Rabaul as originally planned. Because of the heavy losses in bombers, the Japanese were forced to delay their planned invasion of New Guinea, giving the Allies more time to prepare defences against the Japanese a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lieutenant Commander
Lieutenant commander (also hyphenated lieutenant-commander and abbreviated Lt Cdr, LtCdr. or LCDR) is a commissioned officer rank in many navies. The rank is superior to a lieutenant and subordinate to a commander. The corresponding rank in most armies and air forces is major, and in the Royal Air Force and other Commonwealth air forces is squadron leader. The NATO rank code is mostly OF-3. A lieutenant commander is a department officer or the executive officer ( second-in-command) on many warships and smaller shore installations, or the commanding officer of a smaller ship/installation. They are also department officers in naval aviation squadrons. Etymology Most Commonwealth and other navies address lieutenant commanders by their full rank or the positions they occupy ("captain" if in command of a vessel). The United States Navy, however, addresses officers by their full rank or the higher grade of the rank. For example, oral communications in formal and info ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hikōtaichō
The was a senior naval aviation position in the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service, normally held by a Lieutenant Commander or a very senior Lieutenant, who commanded all flight personnel in an air group. Administrative role On the ground, the ''Hikōtaichō'' commanded a unit called ''hikōtai'' (飛行隊), which was composed of all flight personnel in an air group, called ''kōkūtai'' (航空隊). However, ''Hikōtaichō'' was not the commander of the whole air group (''kōkūtai''), which also included non-flight personnel that provided aircraft maintenance and air base service functions. On an aircraft carrier, the ''hikōtai'' typically consisted of three squadrons, where each was related to a specific aircraft type (i.e., either dive bomber, torpedo bomber or fighter). The ''Hikōtaichō'' was one of the two flight command ratings in the naval air hierarchy, the other being the ''Buntaichō'' (分隊長), who commanded a division of flight personnel for a specific air ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mitsubishi A6M Zero
The Mitsubishi A6M "Zero" is a long-range carrier-based fighter aircraft formerly manufactured by Mitsubishi Aircraft Company, a part of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, and was operated by the Imperial Japanese Navy from 1940 to 1945. The A6M was designated as the , or the Mitsubishi A6M Rei-sen. The A6M was usually referred to by its pilots as the ''Reisen'' (, zero fighter), "0" being the last digit of the imperial year 2600 (1940) when it entered service with the Imperial Navy. The official Allied reporting name was "Zeke", although the name "Zero" (from Type 0) was used colloquially as well. The Zero is considered to have been the most capable carrier-based fighter in the world when it was introduced early in World War II, combining excellent maneuverability and very long range.Hawks, Chuck"The Best Fighter Planes of World War II" chuckhawks.com. Retrieved: 18 January 2007. The Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service (IJNAS) also frequently used it as a land-based fighter. In ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Type 91 Torpedo
The Type 91 was an aerial torpedo of the Imperial Japanese Navy. It was in service from 1931 to 1945. It was used in naval battles in World War II and was specially developed for attacks on ships in shallow harbours. The Type 91 aerial torpedo had two unique characteristics. Firstly, it used wooden stabilizers attached to the tail fins which were shed upon water entry. Secondly, it engaged an angular acceleration control system to control rolling movements, which was very advanced for its time. This system made it possible to release the Type 91 not only at a cruising speed of at an altitude of , but also in a power-glide torpedo-bombing run at the maximum speed of the Nakajima B5N or ''Kate'', The Type 91 torpedo was in diameter. There were five models put into service, with high-explosive warheads weighing and having effective ranges of at . Since the Type 91 torpedo was the only practical aerial torpedo of the Imperial Japanese Navy, it was simply known as the ''Ko ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
USS Lexington (CV-2)
USS ''Lexington'' (CV-2), nicknamed "Lady Lex", was the name ship of Lexington-class aircraft carrier, her class of two aircraft carriers built for the United States Navy during the 1920s. Originally designed as a battlecruiser, she was converted into one of the Navy's first aircraft carriers during construction to comply with the terms of the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922, which essentially terminated all new battleship and battlecruiser construction. The ship entered service in 1928 and was assigned to the United States Pacific Fleet, Pacific Fleet for her entire career. ''Lexington'' and her sister ship, , were used to develop and refine carrier tactics in a series of annual exercises before World War II. On more than one occasion these included successfully staged surprise attacks on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The ship's turbo-electric propulsion system allowed her to supplement the electrical supply of Tacoma, Washington, during a drought in late 1929 to early 1930. She also d ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Yokohama Air Group
was an aircraft and airbase garrison unit of the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service during the Pacific campaign of World War II. History The Yokohama Air Group was formed in Yokohama, Japan on October 1, 1936 as a patrol unit equipped with six Navy Type 91 Hiro H4H flying boats. On December 1, 1941 it was re-equipped with 24 Navy Type 97 Kawanishi H6K flying boats and assigned to support Japanese IJN 4th Fleet operations in the central Pacific as part of the 24th Air Flotilla. Wake Island operations Immediately following the attack on Pearl Harbor, and start of hostilities against the United States, Japanese forces attempted to seize strategically located Wake Island. The initial Japanese landing attempts were repelled by the island’s United States Marine Corps defenders before the Japanese troops were able to land, with the loss of the Japanese destroyers and . In response the Japanese sent two Kawanishi H6K’s on a reconnaissance flight from their forward operatin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dutch East Indies Campaign
The Dutch East Indies campaign of 1941–1942 was the conquest of the Dutch East Indies (present-day Indonesia) by forces from the Empire of Japan in the early days of the Pacific campaign of World War II. Forces from the Allies attempted unsuccessfully to defend the islands. The East Indies were targeted by the Japanese for their rich oil resources which would become a vital asset during the war. The campaign and subsequent three and a half year Japanese occupation was also a major factor in the end of Dutch colonial rule in the region. Background The East Indies was one of Japan's primary targets if and when it went to war because the colony possessed abundant valuable resources, the most important of which were its rubber plantations and oil fields; the colony was the fourth-largest exporter of oil in the world, behind the U.S., Iran, and Romania. The oil made the islands enormously important to the Japanese, so they sought to secure the supply for themselves. They se ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Philippines Campaign (1941–1942)
The Philippines campaign ( fil, Kampanya sa Pilipinas, es, Campaña en las Filipinas del Ejercito Japonés, ja, フィリピンの戦い, Firipin no Tatakai), also known as the Battle of the Philippines ( fil, Labanan sa Pilipinas) or the Fall of the Philippines, was from December 8, 1941, to May 8, 1942, the invasion of the Philippines by the Empire of Japan and the defense of the islands by United States and the Philippine Armies during World War II. The Japanese launched the invasion by sea from Formosa, over north of the Philippines. The defending forces outnumbered the Japanese by a ratio of 3:2 but were a mixed force of non-combat-experienced regular, national guard, constabulary and newly created Commonwealth units. The Japanese used first-line troops at the outset of the campaign, and by concentrating their forces, they swiftly overran most of Luzon during the first month. The Japanese high command, believing that they had won the campaign, made a strategic decisio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
_1942.jpeg/1200px-G4M_shot_down_near_USS_Lexington_(CV-2)_1942.jpeg "Click for more on -> Action Off Bougainville")
.jpg "Click for more on -> Type 91 Torpedo")
_on_building_ways%2C_1925.jpg "Click for more on -> USS Lexington (CV-2)")
