New Guinea, 4th Koukuugun vs. 5th Air Force

[K2-Kelly]

Hi All;

Anyone else here study the air war in New Guinea between the 4th Koukuugun vs. 5th Air Force?.....That is really what brought me to these forums as there was a new photograph (unseen before) posted by "LibertyUnites" that was of a plane of the 78th Hikousentai....What got me started in my research.

So, this a topic of interest to anyone?

[stonecutter]

Is this by any chance the unit that Saburo Sakai belonged to? I just read his book not too long ago; wow, what a pilot. The worst part was after he shot down a B-24 over water, and then saw the crew members get eaten alive by sharks.

[K2-Kelly]

Actually no, as Saburo Sakai was with the Imperial Japanese Navy, "Koukuugun" means "Air Army" and the Japanese Army and Navy rarely worked together.........The 4th Koukuugun was established in mid 1943 at Rabaul to begin really fully taking over activities from the Navy, and absorbing the 6th Hikoushidan that was there before building up in 42.

However, Sakai was indeed in New Guinea and the Solomons earlier.....Yet his activities (though I am not that well versed in Naval activity) would have most likely been rare in dealing with the army.

A GREAT book if you like some solid stats and great stories (few photographs) would be "MacArthur's Eagles by Lex McAulay"....A recent publication and inexpensive in hard cover.....A great blow by blow account of these two forces.