Ki-44 ʿTojo’ Aces of World War 2

100 Pages·2011·12.02 MB·English

by  Nicholas Millman

of*World War 2
NICHOLAS MILLMAN is one of
Britain's leading researchers
of Japanese military aviation.
In addition to publishing
articles in specialist journals
and supporting the research
of other authors, he runs his
own website dedicated to the
subject which attracts visitors
from 111 countries. He is a
member of Pacific Air War
History Associates, an
international group of authors
and researchers working in
this field. Having spent much
of his working life in the Far
East, he has an abiding
interest in the history of
military aviation in this part of
the world, and first hand
knowledge of the geography,
languages and people. He is
presently working on a volume
for this series on Ki-27 'Nate'
aces.
RONNIE OLSTHOORN was
born and raised in the
Netherlands, where he studied
aeronautical engineering.
After graduating he chose to
become a professional artist,
and soon moved to the UK.
Currently a freelancer, Ronnie
has created artwork for
15 computer games and even
more aviation books. His work
has also appeared in forensic
air crash visualisations and
numerous aviation and digital
arts magazines.
OSPREY AIRCRAFT OF THE ACES • 100
Ki-44' Tojo' Aces
of World War 2

SERIES EDITOR: TONY HOLMES
O S P R EY A I R C R A FT OF THE A C ES * 1 OCT
Ki-44' Tojo' Aces
of World War 2
Nicholas Millman
Front Cover Dedication
Flying a black-painted Ki-44, In memory of all the young men who flew, fought and died for their countries
1Lt Hideaki Inayama of the
in World War 2
87th Sentai attacks a Fleet Air
Arm Avenger II during Operation
Meridian, which saw aircraft from First published in Great Britain in 2011 by Osprey Publishing
the Royal Navy's Pacific Fleet strike Midland House, West Way, Botley, Oxford, OX2 OPH
the oil refineries at Sungai Gerong
44-02 23rd Street, Suite 219, Long Island City, NY, 11101, USA
and Plaju, in Sumatra, on 24 January
1945. After engagements with the
first wave of Avengers and Hellcats, E-mail; [email protected]
1Lt Inayama described an encounter
with two Avengers that he
Osprey Publishing is part of the Osprey Group
intercepted as they egressed the
target area at low level;
'I carefully turned in behind them, © 2011 Osprey Publishing Limited
concentrating on the damaged
Avenger, which still had its bomb
All rights reserved. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study,
doors open - his hydraulics had
probably been damaged. research, criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright, Design and
Six hundred yards, five hundred Patents Act, 1988, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in
yards - suddenly its ball turret
a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic,
gunner opened fire. Red tracers
slipped past my Shoki, but I held electrical, chemical, mechanical, optical, photocopying, recording or otherwise
my fire. Two hundred yards - I could without prior written permission of the copyright owner. Enquiries should be
clearly see the gunner in the ball addressed to the Publisher.
turret. Now I was flying in the wash
of my quarry and my aircraft was
bouncing around like a mad thing. A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Steadying the Shoki, I fired at point
blank distance. The bullets from ISBN: 978 1 84908 440 6
my four 13 mm machine guns
e-book ISBN: 978 1 84908 441 3
ripped into the Avenger, its
greenhouse canopy bursting into
fragments like leaves in a gale. Edited by Tony Holmes
Flames seared back from the port
Page design by Tony Truscott
wing root, and the Avenger rolled
Cover Artwork, Aircraft Profiles and Scale Drawings by Ronnie Olsthoorn
over onto its back and then fell
away into the jungle below.' Index by Marie-Pierre Evans
Inayama then attempted to attack Originated by PDQ Digital Media Solutions
the second Avenger that appeared
Printed and bound in China through Bookbuilders
to be badly damaged, with a large
hole near the starboard wingtip
and its ball turret apparently 11 12 13 14 15 109876 5432 1
unoccupied. He climbed above it,
intending to make a diving attack Osprey Publishing is supporting the Woodland Trust, the UK's leading
to finish the aircraft off, but his woodland conservation charity by funding the dedication of trees.
delay allowed the Avenger pilot
to reach cloud cover and escape. www.ospreypublishing.com
The Avenger he attacked first
might have been JZ331 from
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
849 Naval Air Squadron, flown
by Sub-Lts H E Stalker RNZNVR The author gratefully acknowledges the kind assistance of the following
and J W R Lynn and PO H Copping. contributors — Arawasi, Graham Boak, Mary-Grace Browning, Richard Dunn,
The crew survived the encounter Martin Ferkl, Ken Glass, Mark Haselden, Ryusuke Ishiguro, Dr Yasuho Izawa,
(although Lynn was wounded)
C W Lam, James F Lansdale, Joern Leckscheid, James I Long, Robert Mikesh,
and recovered their badly damaged
aircraft back aboard the aircraft Carl Molesworth, Keishiro Nagao, Joe Picarella, Henry Sakaida, Summer,
carrier HMS Victorious (Cover Akio Takahashi and Hiroshi Umemoto.
artwork by Ronnie Olsthoorn)
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION 6
CHAPTER ONE
KINGFISHER FORCE 9
CHAPTER TWO
DEBUT IN CHINA 1 5
CHAPTER THREE
EAST INDIES AND BURMA 27
CHAPTER FOUR
THE END IN CHINA 35
CHAPTER FIVE
THE PHILIPPINES 48
CHAPTER SIX
DEFENCE OF THE HOMELAND 64
APPENDICES 88
COLOUR PLATES COMMENTARY 91
BIBLIOGRAPHY 95
INDEX 95
INTRODUCTION
T
he Japanese Army Air Force's Nakajima-built Type 2 heavy
fighter, popularly known as the Ki-44 (Ki stands for kitai,
meaning airframe type number) Shoki, or by its Allied reporting
name 'Tojo', was developed from a Koku Hombu (Air Headquarters)
requirement for a heavy fighter that was substantially different in concept
to contemporary Japanese fighter aircraft. The design project was
assigned to Yasushi Koyama, and it ran almost in parallel with the
development of Nakajima's Type 1 single-seat 'light' fighter, the Ki-43
Hayabusa (Peregrine Falcon), Allied reporting name 'Oscar' (see Osprey
Aircraft of the Aces 85 - Ki-43 'Oscar'Aces of World War 2 for the aircraft's
service details).
Whereas the JAAF had hitherto placed emphasis on the responsiveness A stripped airframe reveals the
and agility of fighter aircraft to undertake classic dogfighting in skeletal structure of the Ki-44 as
maintenance apprentices listen
World War 1 style, this new machine was to incorporate speed,
attentively to their instructor at
rate-of-climb and the ability to withstand considerable battle damage in
the Tokorozawa Army Maintenance
preference to manoeuvrability. Although the Ki-44 is often characterised Technical School. The latter held
as an air defence or interceptor fighter, the requirement for the advanced instructional airframes of most
aircraft types in JAAF service.
heavy fighter was firmly engrained within a JAAF hierarchy that had
The large hatch in the fuselage
already totally embraced the concept of'aerial exterminating action'. The
was primarily to provide access
latter meant the positive and autonomous surveillance and complete to the radio equipment (Summer)
destruction of enemy aircraft in the air and on the ground at their
airfields. This concept eschewed the importance of a complementary
defensive posture, the offensive doctrine reaching all levels within the
JAAF. It was to have a significant impact on the way that this new aircraft
would be deployed.
The 1939 specifications for the new fighter were couched loosely,
but they required the maximum speed to exceed 372 mph at an altitude
of 13,000 ft, a range of746 miles and the capability to climb to 16,500 ft
at normal combat weight in less than five minutes. The development
programme was not without its problems, as initial speeds were
disappointing and the prototype aircraft was humiliated in trials
comparing it with the Imperial Japanese Navy's new Mitsubishi A6M
Zero-sen. The latter at first proved to be equal to the Ki-44 in its
rate-of-climb and faster in level flight. The design team persisted in its
efforts to overcome these shortcomings, however, and with great
skill reached a point where the Koku Hombu was both satisfied and ready
to commit the pre-production Ki-44 to operational trials in actual
combat conditions in China.
The wing loading of the new aircraft was high and landing speeds
consequentially fast, which made for tricky handling. Initially, the fighter
was envisaged to be flown only by experienced pilots with more than
1000 flying hours in their log books, but later this caution was found to
be excessive. Indeed, by the late war period it was determined that even
relatively inexperienced pilots who had no preconceptions of flying earlier
highly manoeuvrable aircraft such as the Nakajima Ki-27 and Ki-43
could cope with the Ki-44 satisfactorily.
On the plus side, the aircraft became a superb gun platform, its pilots
invariably scoring the highest points in gunnery competitions against
other JAAF and IJN fighters. The Ki-44 also possessed excellent dive and
climb characteristics, which in turn permitted fast hit-and-run tactics to
be employed. When these were first introduced by Shoki units in China,
they represented a radical departure from the 'traditional' JAAF
'dogfighting' tactics that placed a heavy emphasis on aerobatics, tight
turns and extreme manoeuvrability.
Pilot opinion of aircraft capability is often subjective, and such is
human nature that opinions can differ widely, even in respect of the same
aircraft. Most sources agree that initial concerns over the Ki-44's lack of
manoeuvrability and high landing speed, expressed by pilots used to such
nimble performers as the Ki-27 and Ki-43, were replaced by respect by
those aviators who were able to exploit and enjoy the Shoki's best
qualities - 'a rapid roll rate, outstanding dive characteristics and
excellence as a gun platform'.
Unsurprisingly, the Ki-44 found its greatest exponents in units that
had transitioned to the new aircraft directly from the Ki-27, like the
85th Hiko Sentai (Air Regiment), or who had flown it from the outset,
like the 47th Hiko Sentai. Those units flying the Ki-43 who later
augmented their air defence capability with small numbers of Ki-44s
tended to be unimpressed and disparaging of the new type, being firmly
wedded to the concept of manoeuvre combat exemplified by the 'Oscar'.
This suspicion about the aircraft's capabilities was reinforced by the fact
that only a very small number of pilots were able to become aces flying the
Ki-44. Those who were ready both to accept the aircraft's characteristics
and to exploit them fully in combat were few and far between.
This limited success, however, was partly because the Ki-44 was only
ever produced in relatively small numbers — a total of 1227 aircraft,
representing barely nine percent of JAAF single-engined fighter
production in World War 2.
Outside Japan, where the aircraft is most commonly associated with
anti-B-29 Home Island defence operations, the Ki-44's most significant
deployment was in China, but it was also used in the East Indies, Burma
and the Philippines. Curiously, the Shoki was not used at all in the
tide-turning maelstrom of the New Guinea theatre. This was probably
because the JAAF had already decided that strategic air defence units
in Japan, China and the East Indies should receive the new aircraft first.
The Ki-44 was also issued in small numbers to those fighter units
equipped primarily with other types so as to provide them with an
improved bomber interception/air defence capability.
In common with some other JAAF types, the Ki-44 has tended to be
underestimated or disregarded by aviation writers. The common
reporting soubriquet of 'Zero' for all types of Japanese fighters
encountered in China has resulted in a presumption that many combats
involved only Ki-43 'Oscars' (usually misidentified by Allied pilots as a
'Zero'). In one recent published account, the Ki-44 was described as
being 'cobbled together from a Hayabusa airframe and a 1500 hp bomber
engine'. That it certainly was not, and such a description does scant
justice to the outstanding efforts of Professor Hideo Itokawa and his
design team in successfully meeting the 1939 requirement for a heavy
fighter possessing almost revolutionary, but certainly radical, capabilities
The Ki-44 was named Shoki for the
for the JAAF. semi-mythical Taoist temple deity
Without special pleading, this book seeks to introduce a wider who could destroy or frighten away
demons and devils. Shoki was
readership to the existence and exploits of this unusual Japanese fighter,
usually depicted, as in this ivory
and to some of the aces and notable pilots who flew it in battle. netsuke, as a fierce-faced, bearded
man armed with a sword (Los
Angeles County Museum of Art)
The early morning sun glints
on Shokis of the 70th Sentai as
mechanics prepare them for flying
in the air defence of Japan. In the
foreground a Ki-44-Hei fitted with
a reflector gunsight, whilst behind
it is an earlier Ki-44-ll Otsu with a
telescopic optical site and without
wing armament. The 70th Sentai
was a successful Ki-44 unit, using
the type until the end of the war
and generating a number of notable
pilots and aces (via Robert Mikesh)