Sadamu Komachi

Sadamu Komachi (小町 定, Komachi Sadamu, 18 April 1920 – 15 July 2012) was an ace fighter pilot in the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) during World War II. Participating in many of the Pacific War battles and campaigns as a member of several units, Komachi was officially credited with destroying 18 enemy aircraft.[1][2]

Sadamu Komachi
Komachi aboard the carrier Shōkaku in early 1942.
Born	(1920-04-18)18 April 1920 Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan
Died	15 July 2012(2012-07-15) (aged 92)
Allegiance	Empire of Japan
Service/branch	Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service (IJN)
Rank	Warrant Officer
Unit	Shōkaku Ōmura Air Group 204th Air Group 253rd Air Group Yokosuka Air Group
Battles/wars	World War II: Attack on Pearl Harbor Indian Ocean raid Battle of the Coral Sea Battle of the Eastern Solomons Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands Solomon Islands Campaign Operation Hailstone Battle of the Philippine Sea

Early life

Sadamu Komachi was born in 1920 in Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan. He was the third son of a part-farming, part-merchant family. He joined the training program for marines at Kure naval base in 1938. He was briefly stationed on a battleship Fuso. He applied and was accepted for the enlisted pilot training program and graduated from the 49th class in June 1940. After the graduation he was assigned to a fighter squadron based at Ōmura Naval Air Station in Nagasaki Prefecture on Kyushu. He first flew A6M Zero fighter in the autumn of 1940.[3][1]

He was reassigned to the aircraft carrier Akagi in October 1940 for carrier-based fighter specialization. In May 1941 he was assigned to the fighter squadron of the newly built aircraft carrier Shōkaku and in the autumn of the same year took part in naval exercises around Kyushu in preparation for the Attack on Pearl Harbor.[3]

Pacific War

During the Attack on Pearl Harbor he was assigned to cover the carrier fleet as part of the combat air patrol (CAP) and therefore did not see any combat. During the Indian Ocean Raid, he was again assigned to cover the carrier fleet. There he saw air combat for the first time and had a dogfight with a British Hurricane fighter. While he managed to hit the enemy fighter, which started to emit smoke, he could not confirm the crash and was therefore not officially credited with the kill.[3]

In May 1942, Petty Officer Third Class Komachi participated in Operation MO that resulted in Battle of Coral Sea. While being part of the CAP that was protecting the IJN carrier fleet, he was credited with shooting down one SBD Dauntless dive bomber and one F4F Wildcat fighter. Additionally, he was credited with 4 shared kills.[3] Since the flight deck of his carrier Shōkaku was damaged in the battle, he was forced to land on Zuikaku instead. After the battle, Shōkaku was sent to be repaired and therefore IJN 5th Carrier Division did not participate in the subsequent Battle of Midway.[4]

During the Battle of the Eastern Solomons in late August of 1942, Petty Officer Komachi was assigned to cover the strike force that attacked US carriers. The escort of nine Zeros was led by Lieutenant Yasuhiro Shigematsu. When they spotted the USN aircraft approaching IJN fleet, five of them broke away from the strike force to attack the enemy. Komachi did not follow his section leader Petty Officer First Class Shigetaka Ōmori and stayed with Shigematsu. However, this left only four escorting Zeros with the strike force.[5]

As a result of five other Zeros abandoning the escort duty, when the remaining four arrived over the US fleet, they were outnumbered by the enemy CAP. While engaged in a lengthy dogfight near USN carriers, Petty Officer Komachi hit a couple of Wildcats, however he did not have the time to confirm their crashes.[3] At one point he countered a surprise attack by a Wildcat by dropping his Zero into an intentional spin, from which he recovered at low altitude. Komachi survived the dogfight and proceeded to the meeting point where the dive and torpedo bombers would wait for the fighters in order to lead them back to the friendly carriers. However, when he arrived at the meeting point, the strike force had already left and he was forced to navigate back to the friendly carriers on his own during the late afternoon. He could not manage to locate the carriers before the sunset and was forced to make an emergency landing on water. He was later picked up by one of the friendly destroyers.[6]

During the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands in late October of 1942, Petty Officer Komachi was involved in defending IJN fleet against the US aircraft, while the Japanese strike force eventually sank the carrier Hornet and badly damaged the carrier Enterprise. During the CAP, he and his section leader Petty Officer Ōmori attacked the USN strike group led by Lieutenant Commander Gus Widhelm that was approaching IJN carriers. They managed to shoot down or damage several SBD Dauntless dive bombers (including that of Widhelm), however the rest passed through the CAP and attacked Shōkaku; causing severe damage to the carrier.[7]

In autumn of 1942, he returned to Ōmura airbase on Kyushu and served as an instructor for fighter pilot specialization. There he married Katsumi Furuta; a woman he met during his training at naval marines. In August 1943 he was transferred to Rabaul airbase in the South Pacific, where he saw extensive air combat for several months. He was first assigned to the 204th Air Group and then in December he was transferred to the 253rd Air Group. There he fought alongside Tetsuzō Iwamoto[3][1]

In February 1944, he was moved to Truk. He left Truk in June 1944 in order to participate in the Battle of the Philippine Sea. While he was about to land on an airfield on Guam, his fighter was shot down by USN F6F Hellcat fighters. He made an emergency landing on the coast and was afterwards evacuated to Japan as he sustained a severe burn injury.[3][1]

Komachi participated in the last Air engagement of World War II on 18 August 1945, when he attacked two B-32 Dominators on a photo-reconnaissance mission over Tokyo. One bomber received damage and suffered one crew fatality, but both aircraft returned to Yontan Airfield, Okinawa.[8]

Later life

In 1992 Komachi attended a symposium at Naval Air Station Pensacola, Florida about the Battle of the Coral Sea, as a guest panelist. Komachi died of natural causes on 15 July 2012. He was 92.[9]

References

Notes

1. Hata, Izawa & Shores 2011.
2. Millman 2019.
3. 川崎 2003.
4. Lundstrom 2005a.
5. Lundstrom 2005b, p. 124.
6. Lundstrom 2005b, p. 129-166.
7. Lundstrom 2005b, p. 374-377.
8. "The Last to Die | Military Aviation | Air & Space Magazine". Airspacemag.com. Retrieved 2012-07-18.
9. 訃報 [Obituary]. Sankei Shimbun (in Japanese). July 18, 2012. 社会面 [society and local news].

Sources

• Hata, Ikuhiko; Izawa, Yasuho; Shores, Christopher (2011). Japanese Naval Air Force Fighter Units and their aces, 1932-1945. London, UK: Grub Street. ISBN 9781906502843.
• Lundstrom, John B. (2005a). The First Team: Pacific Naval Air Combat from Pearl Harbor to Midway (New ed.). Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 1-59114-471-X.
• Lundstrom, John B. (2005b). First Team and the Guadalcanal Campaign: Naval Fighter Combat from August to November 1942 (New ed.). Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 1-59114-472-8.
• Millman, Nicholas (2019). A6M Zero-sen Aces 1940-42. Aircraft of the Aces #137. Osprey Publishing. ISBN 1472821440.
• Sakaida, Henry (2002). Aces of the Rising Sun, 1937–1945. Great Britain: Osprey Publishing. ISBN 1-84176-618-6.
• 川崎, 浹 (2003). ある零戦パイロットの軌跡 (in Japanese). トランスビュー. ISBN 4901510177.