Zeros! S&P 1/100 zero series pt 1

[Don Boose]

Another outstanding 1/100 rendition of a Zero, Ted, and another famous airplane.

According to Henry Sakaida, A6M3 Model 22 Tail Number UI-106 was the aircraft flown in May 1943 from Rabaul by then-Chief Petty Officer Nishizawa Hiroyoshi of the 251st Kōkutai (Air Group), the descendant of the famous Tainan Air Group.

According to Sakaida and Hata and Izawa, Nishizawa destroyed at least 86 Allied aircraft before he was killed on 26 October 1944 during the Leyte operations when the Ki-49 bomber-transport he was riding in was shot down over Calapan, Mindoro Island in the Philippines by Grumman F6F Hellcat pilot Lieutenant JG Harold P. Newell of VF-14. Nishizawa was posthumously promoted to Lieutenant JG.

Ikuhiko Hata and Yasuho Izawa, Japanese Naval Aces and Fighter Units in World War II, trans. by Don Cyril Gorham, Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1989.

Henry Sakaida, Japanese Army Air Force Aces 1937-45, Osprey Aircraft of the Aces No. 13, Oxford: Osprey Publishing, 1997, pp. 38-40, 70, 110.

Looking forward to the next model.

Don

[ViperPilot]

I was wondering if you'd do a Nishizawa Hamp; I now have my answer!

Nishizawa, along with Saburo Sakai & Toshio Ota, comprised the famous "Cleanup Trio" of the Tainan Air Group.

The Japanese Naval Airforce "Cleanup Trio" aka the Three Stooges - SimHQ Homepage

[Don Boose]

Thanks for this additional information ViperPilot, and for the link, which suggests that Nishizawa's tally of downed Allied aircraft was 36 rather than 86. It is an area where definitive information is hard to come by.

Don

[ViperPilot]

The lack of centralized, accurate 411 is exacerbated by the fact that, as a whole, the IJN & IJNAF weren't concerned with individual achievement, & rarely acknowledged it. When they did, it was done subtlety & quietly. Most of the kills that were attributed to a particular pilot after the War were from the pilot's oral recollection only, with no consistent, Official paper trail to confirm said kills.