Article No.13
Air Combat with Grumman
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Author: Mr. Teruo Miyoshi
In was an early morining when I heard a vigil's "Wake up" and tried to leave the bed praying safety for the day. Then, another "Gather!" surprised me to run. Order was "Our radars captured enemy planes a few hundred miles offshore of Ensyu-nada. They seem circling. Confirm it." We lost chance to take the breakfast. Brought aviation rations(emergency foods) with us, we took off to Ensyu-nada.
Another reconnaisance plane flew toward the offshore of Boso Peninsula for the security.
In those days, as "GPS or INS-Inertial Navigation System"service was not available like today yet, American military aircrafts that headed for the Japanese mainland to bomb used the Mt. Fuji as a target and took the two routes to Tokyo Bay through Izu Peninsula and Boso Peninsula.
Soon after the takeoff, my stomach growled. Sergeant-major noticed to say "Open the aviation rations.". I opened it with expectation because I had never seen the contents in it before and was surprised. There were chocolate(products of M company), Kanpan(dried bread of a eraser size with two holes), biscuits, Konpeito (comfeitto of star shape which I had never seen before) and so on. They were all luxurious article and not available for the general public at that time under the war. They were enough to surprise me.
Biting the chocolate, I was told
"What's that? Look it well." and watched it carefully.
Something was spreading wide and shining brilliantly in the far above sky.
Through the binoculars, metal pieces were floating ranging a few kilometers and didn't fall getting on the updraft. I anyway reported what we saw to our base. As a matter of fact, they were a dummy object made of thin aluminum foils to disturb our radar network. As it was the first time for me to witness actual one, circling around them several times, I forgot to check our location and was about to put myself in panic but I managed to catch it because Mt. Fuji was seen far above the clouds. Well, I agreed with American's idea Mt.Fuji as a target.
"OK. We support our other plane on the offshore Boso for the security. " saying so, Sergeant-major turned our plane to the east. He did not need my navigation at all. This ultra-eight-years-veteran pilot would have been capturing Mt.Fuji as a target even while we were circling.
The sky over the sea that day was clear with no clouds and it was a comfortable flight for us.
When I was checking 360degrees around us with chocolate pieces in my mouth, I found far ahead two planes like enemy heading for the south. They were possibly Grummans homing to their aircraft-carrier after air raids on the Keihin(Tokyo&Yokohama) district. They were approaching to us rapidly and trying to attack from our nose and tail separately.
I thought "It's a pinch!", then a strong voice "Leave your fate to me" came. Even if I said "No", I could't get off there. After a while, one of them behind us began shooting fiercely. No sooner bullets hit our plane and I heard strange sounds than I suddenly had a severe pain on my right elbow as if current ran. Straight key knob(made of ebonite) was blown off. Reporting the ongoing situation was obliged to cut and I was unable to even reply to the urge from our base. My right arm was numb and unable to tap the key.
The other Grumman rushing in from our front did not begin shooting. Just when I thought "Strange", shooting from the back also stopped.
That was because all three planes, including ours, were flying on the same straight line. They two could shoot and hit each other if bullets failed to hit our plane.
Time of less than a second passed. The front plane was still approaching closer to us. The acrobatic skill of passing each other with a slight altitude difference which is shown at air show today is the most dangerous performance. Error of altimeter or misreading the gauge brings head-on collision instantly.
(Incidentally, present famous acrobat teams are "Blue Angels" of U.S. Navy, "Thunderbirds" of U.S. Air Force and our "Blue Impulse". The "Blue Impulse" is a nickname for the 11th Flight Squadron of the 4th Air Wing staying at Matsushima Air Base in Miyagi Prefecture. Aircraft has been changed to Japanese original third generation T-4 from T-2. There was F-86F before T-2.)
The Grumman of our front was thrusting in but Sergeant-major did not move his control stick even an inch. I closed my eyes unintentionally as I was a lump of the fear.
It was the limit of patience. When the enemy plane raised altitude slightly and his belly was in our sight, we shot immediately. Possibly hit the fuel tank, the Grumman exploded just above our heads. Blast and fragments blew away our canopy and I was blind with my stained goggles.
Soon after the great impact, another great sound followed. I took off my goggles and looked back to see well. The exploded plane was a fireball and the other Grumman behind us had crashed it to spin and fall with no right wing.
My tremble did not stop at the occurrence of a moment.
I guessed that the plane behind us would have been busy to target us and have mistaken his instant judgement.
By the way, how did Sergeant-major train his stunt skill and strong mental power?
I had ever heard that he learned Aikido(an old martial art) since his elementary school and was teaching it as a special instructor when he was an aviation school student. He had explained me what Aiki is before -
"Aiki(*direct meaning is 'to adjust minds') is not the art of fighting and defeating an enemy. It is a training of your mind and heart so that you can abandon yourself and place your spirit in the state of a simultaneous hits when you faced the opponent "
He was a grade holder.
This is a by-talk. A Hollywood's action star Steven Seagal once visited Japan to master Aikido. He married a Japaense girl and opened his own dojo(gym) at Juso in Osaka. After eight years, he divorced and returned to US to be a movie actor. The dojo is now being managed by his ex-wife and holding about as many as one thousand members. This has been introduced on a TV program before.
"We encountered two Grummans --Km offshore Izu Peninsula and shot them down. We home now." I tapped telegraph with my paralyzed right hand.
The scar remains in my right elbow but fortunately the bone is normal. After the war, longing for Aikido martial art, I entered a dojo(gym) but I was so urgent about quick progress that I suffered from dislocation of the arm joint twice to quit.
I tend to long for something at once and quit soon.
/End of Article No.13
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Thank you Aaron and everybody for waiting
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