SirFrancis
Airman 1st Class
- 166
- Feb 10, 2022
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That is pretty badass.No gun version in the wing of the 47th sentai was provided for ramming B-29s as the Shinten Seikutai (震天制空隊 - Shinten Air Control Unit).
I recall reading somewhere that they used their ammo up first and then attempted to ram, but this was not very successful.No gun version in the wing of the 47th sentai was provided for ramming B-29s as the Shinten Seikutai (震天制空隊 - Shinten Air Control Unit).
Shinpachi, you're killing me! .......so no guns? ......... I'm confused by the tail markings on the kit Ki44 for 47th Sentai. . It's not the jagged emblems blue, red or yellow for 1st 2nd and 3rd Chutai. The kit just has that tail painted all over red.According to Wikipedia, they used aged airframes with no all(4) guns. Pilots were requested to be skillful enough to ram and bailout without failure to fly again.
Ki-44-II with no wing guns and no hole panels
View attachment 752519
Hey Shinpachi,Isamu Sakamoto confirmed his Ki-44 profile as believed in the postwar.
Historian's research and opinion is always a theory which involves misidentification IMO.
View attachment 752547
Source: 陸軍二式戦闘機 鍾馗 塗装図
Isamu Sakamoto in 1981
View attachment 752546
Source: NHK interview in 1981
Now Olsthoorn's photo apparently has the ramming unit 'yamada' drum emblem on the fuselage........so it's the same aircraft, which brings us back to what the tail insignia was.Tail insignia color for the 1st and 2nd unit (chutai or hikotai formaly) of Ki-44 was red.
This would be why blue color was adopted for Ki-84.
If the insignia color of Ronnie Olsthoorn's Ki-44 was yellow, not blue, that would explain everything well as the original color scheme of Isamu Sakamoto's Ki-44 before he joined the ramming attacker unit in November 1944 IMO.