Aha! I have made a great discovery. I found a new book that has just arrived at our uni library called “Air To Air – The Story Behind The Air-To-Air Combat Claims of the RNZAF”, by Chris Rudge, which describes blow by blow every succesful kill made by RNZAF squadrons, even the bombers (only those in the Pacific sadly, not the (NZ) RAF squadrons. Hopefully he’ll write that one next).
Anyway, this book is very detailed and it has all the combat reports from each pilot involved in each engagement.
I looked up the one from the 22nd of November 1943 and discovered the other two pilots in the NZ section were Pilot Officer B.W. Williams and Pilot Officer R.W. Bremner.
Williams is the man who reported the blue aircraft. In fact in the formation of 30-40 Zeros, most were Zekes, but some were identified as Hamps. And yes, this one was a Hamp. He describes it thus:
“I cut the corner, closing into 70 yards, at which stage I identified the Zero as a Hamp. It was painted dark blue and the red roundels were prominent.”
Very interesting this one, a dark blue Zero. Might make a good model.
Rudge has compared the remaining Japanese records against the claims, and in this case he found that at least 2 Japanese pilots were killed on that day from Torokina who belonged to Air Group 204. Does anyone have any references to their aircraft in November 1943?
If anyone else is as interested in this as I am, I could scan the piece in the book about the engagement and post the scans here.
Sign In
