Japanski asovi na A6M Rei Shiki :: Nauka ~ Tehnika ~ Military

Warrant Officer Takeo Tanimizu

Tanimizu belonged to the generation of fighter pilots who finished their training after Pearl Harbor. Initially a carrier pilot, he served at Rabaul, where on November 2, 1943, during his first combat, he claimed two P-38s shot down.

"P-38s were not difficult to fight," Tanimizu explained. "In 1942, the Americans lost many dogfights because their pilots did not fully utilize the capabilities of this fighter. They attempted to dogfight us and lost. At low altitudes, they were easy prey because they were not very fast. Later, their pilots got smart and stayed up where we couldn't reach them. They would swoop down like hawks, make their pass and then climb for altitude. We always had to keep looking up to prevent an ambush. The weakest part of the P-38 was the tail. One 20mm shell, and the tail would snap off."

Tanimizu continued: "The F4U was a tough plane. The only time you could shoot it down was when it was fleeing. You had to shoot at it from a certain angle-from the rear and down into the cockpit-or your bullets would bounce off. On a few occasions, I saw F4Us making low-level diving attacks and plowing right into a coconut grove or water because they couldn't pull out; the planes were too heavy. We would sometimes chase them into the ocean. We didn't have this problem because our Zeros were light."

"I think the toughest opponent was the Grumman F6F," Tanimizu recalled with a touch of respect. "They could maneuver and roll, whereas planes such as the P-38 and F4U made hit-and-run passes. The F6F could actually dogfight with us, and it was much faster and more powerful than our Zero."
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All the Zero pilots envied the firepower on the American fighters, and Tanimizu was no exception. "I would have preferred the six, .50-caliber machine guns of the F6F," he offered. "More bullets flying out and more chances to hit the other guy! We had the nose-mounted 7.7mm guns. Sometimes, during an engine malfunction, the bullets would strike the props!"

Tanimizu had certain philosophical thoughts about the War: "When fighting, my thoughts were that I was destroying an enemy aircraft, and I tried not to think about the pilot inside. I remember visiting a critically burned F6F pilot with a group of my comrades in Japan. In the air, he was the enemy. But on the ground, he was just a human being like the rest of us, and there was no animosity. I don't know if this pilot survived or not. He was terribly burned."

A P-51 Mustang nearly killed Tanimizu on November 3, 1944, over Amoy Harbor, China. He and his wingman were shot down by a pair of Mustangs while attempting a landing approach. Tanimizu bailed out from his burning Zero at 250 feet and survived with critical burns. This combat was so onesided that he could not evaluate the P-51's performance. Very few Japanese pilots survived their encounters with the Mustang.

Takeo Tanimizu claimed 32 victories at the War's end.