Date:	Sunday 30 January 1944
Time:
Type:	Mitsubishi A6M Zero
Owner/operator:	Ryuho air unit
Registration:
MSN:
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 1 / Occupants: 1
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	Rabaul area, East New Britain -   Papua New Guinea
Phase:	Combat
Nature:	Military
Departure airport:
Destination airport:

Narrative:
On 30 January 1944, 26 B-25s and 18 B-24S, both with large fighter cover, bombed in the morning airfields near Rabaul, respectively Lakunai and Vunakanau. Twenty or thirty Zekes were intercepted on this strike, with two being destroyed and another four reported as being probably destroyed by VF-17. On this mission one of the F4U’s was damaged by fire from a Zeke, but no bombers were lost to enemy aircraft. A pilot of VMF-217 was lost due to mechanical failure and of VMF-215 was reported missing for an unknown reason (this unit had no contact with enemy).

But the big battle of the day over Rabaul was in late afternoon. A carrier was reported in Rabaul port and a strike was hastily arranged involving all readily available torpedo-bombers and dive bombers, ie 18 TBM of VMTB-233 and 20 SBDs, escorted by 50 fighters from the two Piva airstrips and Torokina. No carrier was present but the American airmen sank the water supply ship Iwata Maru and damaged auxiliary vessel Juzan Maru. Fifty to sixty Japanese fighters were reported by the Allied airmen and 22, identified as Ki-44s, Ki-61s and A6Ms, were claimed shot down while one F4U-1 of VF-17 was shot down in the air battle and one TBF of VMTB-233 was downed by AA fire. Real Japanese losses for the day are not known, but between 26 and 31 January 1944 American pilots claimed 134 enemy fighters shot down in the area, while Japanese real losses were 36 planes missing or written off, almost a four-to-one overclaiming ratio. The Zero pilots of the 2nd Carrier Division, who were then based at Ra
baul, flew 29 sorties in the morning and 26 in the afternoon, claiming 2 Corsairs and one Avenger shot down in the latter battle. Two of them were shot down and killed, Nito Hiko Heiso (PO2c) Hideo Kishita of the Junyo in the morning and Nito Hiko Heiso (PO2c) Hirochi Arai of the Ryuho in the afternoon.

This time the planes had to return to base at 1930 hrs, which meant making a night landing. The heavy concentration of planes caused considerable congestion in the air around the Cape Torokina air strips. Two pilots of VF-17 and VMF-211 were killed in an air collision as they were coming in for landing. Another pilot of VF-17 ditched his Corsair off Cape Torokina and two other aircraft of the same unit were wrecked in crash-landings at Piva. All three had been damaged by Japanese fighters in the air battle.
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26 Japanese fighter pilots of the 2nd Carrier Division (8 of Junyo, 8 of Hiyo and 10 of Ryuho, led by by Tai-i (Lt) Saneyasu Hidaka) scrambled again to intercept the afternoon strike. They reported intercepting around one hundred American aircraft (not far from the truth) and fought against them from 1600 to 1640 hrs (Japanese time). The Junyo pilots claimed two Corsairs and an Avenger shot down without loss, while Nito Hiko Heiso (PO2c) Hirochi Arai of the Ryuho was shot down and killed.

VF-17 War Diary, January 1944 (available online at https://www.fold3.com/image/1/274221597)
VMF-211 War Diary, January 1944 (available online at https://www.fold3.com/image/273593170)
VMF-215 War Diary, January 1944 (available online at https://www.fold3.com/image/271020417)
VMF-217 War Diary, January 1944 (available online at https://www.fold3.com/image/273573220)
VMTB-233 War Diary, January 1944 (available online at https://www.fold3.com/image/276952715)
http://www.aviationarchaeology.com/src/USN/LLJan44.htm
https://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USN/USN-Chron/USN-Chron-1944.html
"Air War Pacific: Chronology: America’s Air War Against Japan in East Asia and the Pacific, 1941 – 1945", by Eric Hammel. ISBN: 978-0-93555-326-0
"Target: Rabaul: The Allied Siege of Japan’s Most Infamous Stronghold, March 1943 - August 1945", by Bruce Gamble. ISBN: 978-0-76034-407-1
"Samouraï sur porte-avions. Les groupes embarqués japonais et leurs porte-avions. 1922-1944", by Michel Ledet. ISBN 2-914017-32-4
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rabaul
http://www.maplandia.com/papua-new-guinea/east-new-britain/rabaul/

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
21-Nov-2018 08:50	Laurent Rizzotti	Added
26-Jun-2023 05:23	Ron Averes	Updated