Last air battle of WW II

RE: Last air battle of WW II

Seahawk,

I read about it ages ago and the book I think its in is eluding me at the moment, but I am pretty sure it was with a Russian Yak-9, but I don’t recall the German type.

Regards, Glenn.

RE: Last air battle of WW II

>
>Don’t forget, in Germany the last air action by the
>Luftwaffe occured on May 8th, even though German forces had
>layed down their arms officially several days before.
>
>Regards, Glenn.

Could you suplly more informations about that incident ??

RE: Last air battle of WW II

I think it was more a case of actually intending to take on both types for the same role,rather than competition.The Flying Fortress operated alongside the Liberator,and the Mitchell alongside the Marauder etc etc.In a world where today the military procures one type to do as many jobs as possible,the ordering of multiple types for a single role seems a bit like using a sledgehammer to crack a nut,but the combined forces of Nazi Germany and Imperialist Japan made for one very tough nut indeed,so a sledgehammer was no bad thing!

RE: Last air battle of WW II

So, the B-32 was made as a back up in case of a B-29 failure?

RE: Last air battle of WW II

The Convair B32 Dominator was designed as the stablemate of the B29,rather than as a competitor.It was decided even before the two types were in service that the B32 would be used in the European theatre,while the B29’s took on the Japanese.The principal reason for this was that the B32 needed a longer take off and landing run,and it was felt that it would be easier to construct longer runways in the UK than to cram them into Pacific islands.Although the USAAF extended a number of thier runways in the UK in preparation for the B32’s arrival,the development troubles which beset the type meant that none ever arrived in Europe.
With the end of the war in Europe,it was decided to send the first combat ready B32 group to Okinawa,where they flew perhaps half a dozen missions alongside B29’s.
When the european war ended,the Americans had to think about which bases they wanted to keep occupied and which they wanted to vacate.One of the key factors in thier decision making was the runway length of a particular airfield,the USAF needing european runways long enough to cope with thier new generation of strategic and nuclear bombers.Thanks to the runway extensions for the B32,places such as Lakenheath and Alconbury were chosen,and so the B32 had a more far reaching effect in America’s operations in Europe than is often appreciated,even though a B32 never touched European soil.

RE: Last air battle of WW II

August 13/14 makes sense! I didn’t know that the B-32 reached combat? Wasn’t the B-32 the aircraft that lost out to the B-29 for America’s Long Range Bomber contract during WWII!

RE: Last air battle of WW II

This doesn’t surprise me, and I have the same from my sources, although it quotes a B-29 as the victim. Despite the fact that Japan may have offcially surrendered, with the state the country was in and communications been almost non-existant over wide spread area, some pilots may not have known, or refused to accept it if they did.

My source says it was August 13/14 that Sakai took off without orders, so it was actually before they surrendered.

Don’t forget, in Germany the last air action by the Luftwaffe occured on May 8th, even though German forces had layed down their arms officially several days before.

Regards, Glenn.

RE: Last air battle of WW II

well thats true scooter, but lets not forget the Americans were dealing with a volatile and fanatical enemy that had suffered its greatest shame. Perhaps they thought it was best to keep quiet about the incident than to create a stink by prosecuting one of Japans war heros. After all the Americans let Hirohito go scott free just to keep the Japs calm, which I feel was great maturity on their path.

Of course this is only one reason amongst other probable ones.

RE: Last air battle of WW II

If, this story was true. How would the Japanese consider it legal? One sole B-32 on a recon mission! The allies flew hundreds on sortie over Japan after VJ day. If, one was attacked there would have been severe repercussions! Sounds like we are missing part of the story?

RE: Last air battle of WW II

Just got this off the net. apparantly the last battle of the war was between Sakai’s Zero and a B-32 Dominator.

Saburo Sakai’s Last Battle
———————————————————————-

The war was over on August 15th, 1945, but Saburo Sakai’s last combat mission took place two days after that day.
———————————————————————-
The 15th and the 16th went by quickly, and it was a little past 11:30 AM on the 17th when we suddenly heard an air raid alarm. We were caught totally off guard because we thought it was all over, and we all stood up with a tense feeling. Intelligence says the enemy is one large bomber flying up the Boso Peninsula. The war is over now, do they still want to fight?

“Commander what should we do? Intercept him?” I asked.

Lt.Cmdr Ibusuki hesitated for a moment, then called the Hikocho and asked something, hung up, and hollered “Start the engines!”

We surrounded Lt.Cmdr. Ibusuki with excitement.

“International law forbids us to attack the enemy after surrender, but it is okay to get back at planes that come to attack us. Come on men! Go get him!” he said.

The pilots who were all frustrated at the sudden surrender sprung on to their planes which were already started. There were ten Zeros and five or six Shiden-kais. I chose the nearest Zero. I thought I would never fly the Zero again, so I was very excited about having the chance to fly again.

It wasn’t just because the Zero was nearest to me that I chose the Zero. Ever since it’s debut in 1940, I was into my sixth year flying and fighting on the Zero. In fact a Shiden-kai, then the state-of-the-art fighter plane, was paked even closer to where I was than the Zero I flew. However, I instinctively chose the Zero, not even considering the Shiden-kai. the thought that flashed in my mind then was this;

“The Pacific War was started by the Zero. This is probably going to be the last air battle in WW2, and I would want to let the Zero place it’s name in history as having fought that last battle!”

Three or four planes followed me up. We were heading for Narita. If you were not a pilot, you may wonder why we would still fight; the war was over and shooting down the enemy was not going to do us any good. On the contrary, we may lose our lives which had been saved. But such logic just did not make sense to us then.

At around this time, the Yokosuka Kokutai was working on the improvement of radio equipment on fighter planes and, performance had improved considerably, so we had no trouble finding the enemy. We found him at 6,000 meters. I had assumed the enemy was a B-29, but what I saw was a completely different aircraft. The single vertical stabilizer was enormous, and sweeped upwards towards the rear. I had never seen this plane before (I later found out that this was the Convair B-32 Dominator).

Altitude 6,000 meter is where the 2nd speed of the Zero’s supercharger works best. My wingman got to him first and started shooting. The enemy was obviously surprised at the interception, and started fleeing south, shooting it’s defensive guns frantically. I managed to catch up after a while, but the enemy’s airspeed was very high. I made a run from the upper right side, but got interrupted by another Zero that got in my way. There were more fighters than the enemy so I had to wait for my turn to attack again. The enemy went into a shallow dive to increase air speed. It was so fast! I thought they used some kind of rocket acceralator device or something.

We had quickly flew past Tateyama and the enemy was fleeing towards Ohshima. I noticed that the enemy was trailing white smoke from the left wing root. Someone’s bullet hit the enemy!

“We can get him”, I thought. However, I was having a hard time catching up. I noted our fighters started turning back one by one. They were out of 20mm shells. I fired my last cannon shells. Several shells exploded on the enemy’s right wing. My wingman followed with a burst. The enemy kept getting lower, and by the time it was near Miyake-jima, it was skimming the water. I thought I should confirm it going down, but if an enemy carrier was around, we would have to fight fresh fighters. Then it would be our turn to die. I turned around and headed back to Yokosuka Kokutai. If my memory is right, the other Zero that followed me to the last attack was another ace, PO1 Komachi.

This apparently became the last air battle of the Pacific War.

According to US records, on august 17th 1945, a B-32 that took off from Iwo Jima on a recon mission over Tokyo splashed down near the Izu islands due to malfunction. All crew were rescued.

Apparently, the action was legal and we were never questioned about this action by McArthur’s forces.

RE: Last air battle of WW II

…… to continue form my previous post, a B-29 was also shot down by Saburo Sakai – Japans second highest ace on the last day of the war. Not sure if this was the last.

RE: Last air battle of WW II

If i am not mistaken, it was a Kamakaze attack on US ships off Okinawa. A group of pilots that knew surrender was due and didnt want to live in a defeated Japan. Understand all these guys were shot down and didnt damage any ships.