Summary of Dan King's The Last Zero Fighter

Everest Media

Description

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book.
Sample Book Insights:
#1 I met Kaname Harada, who was 93 years old and still active, at his private kindergarten in Nagano prefecture. He was one of the few aviators who experienced the war from the beginning to the end, and he was the only surviving member who flew during the USS Panay incident near Nanking in 1937.
#2 Kaname Harada was born in 1916. He was the eldest of three children. His family farmed in the little town of Asakawamura in currentday Nagano city. He did well in school, was athletic, and tough. As a child, he was nursed on tales of his grandfather’s experience as the last generation of the samurai class.
#3 In 1931, Japan owned a large and prosperous venture in the continent of Asia called the South Manchurian Railway. The railway line was received from Imperial Russia as a form of war reparations following the war of 1905. The Japanese had brought in large numbers of employees and their families to work the railroad. The potential for growth was enormous, but the area was often unstable.
#4 In 1933, sixteenyearold Harada joined the Navy to see the world. He was assigned to the destroyer Ushio as a lowly seaman third class, and he heard tales from the older sailors about their experiences fighting in the Chang River area during the 1932 Shanghai Incident.

Sujets

• World War II
• Général

Informations

• Publié par: Everest Media LLC
• Date de parution: 01 avril 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781669374688
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Insights on Dan King's The Last Zero Fighter
Contents Insights from Chapter 1 Insights from Chapter 2 Insights from Chapter 3 Insights from Chapter 4 Insights from Chapter 5
Insights from Chapter 1

#1

I met Kaname Harada, who was 93 years old and still active, at his private kindergarten in Nagano prefecture. He was one of the few aviators who experienced the war from the beginning to the end, and he was the only surviving member who flew during the USS Panay incident near Nanking in 1937.

#2

Kaname Harada was born in 1916. He was the eldest of three children. His family farmed in the little town of Asakawamura in current-day Nagano city. He did well in school, was athletic, and tough. As a child, he was nursed on tales of his grandfather’s experience as the last generation of the samurai class.

#3

In 1931, Japan owned a large and prosperous venture in the continent of Asia called the South Manchurian Railway. The railway line was received from Imperial Russia as a form of war reparations following the war of 1905. The Japanese had brought in large numbers of employees and their families to work the railroad. The potential for growth was enormous, but the area was often unstable.

#4

In 1933, sixteen-year-old Harada joined the Navy to see the world. He was assigned to the destroyer Ushio as a lowly seaman third class, and he heard tales from the older sailors about their experiences fighting in the Chang River area during the 1932 Shanghai Incident.

#5

Harada was the only man still living who had received an Onshi imperial commemorative gift. The top graduates of the Naval Gunnery, Torpedo, and Accounting Schools all received an Onshi fountain pen.

#6

Harada was assigned to the 12th Air Group, but it was the fighter squadron leader, Lieutenant Ryōhei Ushioda, who was in charge of ensuring that the unit's mission of providing air-to-ground support for army combat operations went smoothly.

#7

The 12th Air Group was deployed to China in October 1937. They were assigned ground support missions, but their planes were not equipped with radios, so communication between aircraft was done through quick one-handed gestures.

#8

The pilots of the Nirenku received news that fellow Imperial Onshisilver-pocket-watch recipient Heiichirō Mase had gone missing in November 1937. It was later learned that he had been downed by Chinese AA fire at Shanghai, captured, and later executed by the Chinese.

#9

The Japanese Naval 12th Air Group was ordered to bomb two of Nanking's heavily defended gates, the Taiheimon and Kokamon Gates, which were stalling the advance. The stubborn targets were part of Nanking's ancient massive walls that surrounded the city.

#10

On the morning of December 9, Harada's friend from the Yokosuka Kaiheidan days, PO3/c Kanichi Kashimura, was in his Type 96 Claude with the 13th Air Group over Nanchang. The Japanese fighters led by Lt. Takuma encountered a formation of nine Curtis Hawk biplane fighters. The two groups raced headlong at each other, and as a result, Kashimura clipped one of the enemy fighters and it crashed.

#11

The American patrol gunboat USS Panay was stationed on the Yangtze River in China in 1937, and was used to protect American lives, property, and religious activities. In November 1937, the Japanese army attempted to sink the foreign vessels on the river.

#12

On December 12, the 12th Air Group was sent to attack the Chinese flotilla of foreign-marked ships trying to escape the city of Nanking. The Japanese Army had been fighting the Chinese for months, but never obtained the decisive battle they longed for.

#13

The American crew of the Panay fought back, despite many of them receiving mortal wounds from Japanese shrapnel in near misses. The Japanese attack on the Panay was halted when a British flag was spotted.

#14

The attack on the USS Panay was captured on film by the American photographers. The Japanese initially denied it, but eventually offered a formal apology to the United States on Christmas Eve, 1938.

#15

The Japanese Navy conducted its own investigation in which the men were ordered to review and confirm their after-action reports. The pilots realized that they had either dropped bombs on Chinese vessels masquerading as Americans, or they were American vessels.

#16

Harada was quartered at the Ōmura Air Base from February 21 to February 26, when he was transferred to the Hyakkurigahara Air Group to continue teaching student pilots. He wanted to get back to the front, but it wasn’t in the cards.

#17

In the summer of 1941, storm clouds began to gather from the east. On July 26, 1941, in response to growing concerns of Japan's aggression in China, Roosevelt froze Japanese assets, bringing commercial relations between the nations to an effective end.

#18

In 1941, the Japanese government made the decision to take by force what had been denied them by politics. They decided to strike the American Fleet, hoping to seize the resource-rich but poorly defended neighbors to the south.

#19

On September 18, 1941, Harada was assigned to the aircraft carrier Sōryū. He was the third Japanese pilot to be assigned to a carrier, and he was happy to be there. However, he was also leaving behind the life he enjoyed, which was leaving home every night to come back to his young wife.

#20

In China, Harada flew the antiquated-looking but faithful Type 95 biplane fighter, and in Japan, he flew the Type 96 Claude open-cockpit monoplane. After his posting to the Soryu, he was handed the reins to the most nimble yet heavily armed fighter in the world, the A6M2 Model 21 Reisen Zero fighter.

#21

The Japanese pilots were jealous of the pilots who were assigned to lead the attack on Pearl Harbor. They didn’t know that the imperial special envoy, Ambassador Saburō Kurusu, was still engaged in peace negotiations.

#22

The Pearl Harbor raid was a success, but the Japanese lost 29 planes in the attack. The death of Fusata Iida, the leader of the third buntai, was personally devastating to Harada. He had led the third buntai on a sweep of Oahu at 18,000 feet, searching for American fighters, but finding none.

#23

The American defenders of the Territory of Hawaii received thousands of medals, while the Japanese pilots and air crews were given no medals.

#24

The Japanese invasion of Wake Island was repelled by strong winds and high waves. The American defenders survived the bombings with a few of their fighters intact. They also could rely on cleverly hidden AA guns and coastal artillery.

#25

The Sōryū launched twenty-six aircraft against the defenders of the tiny atoll on December 21, but they returned without incident. The dive-bombers had failed to take out any remaining coastal artillery, AA guns or enemy planes on the ground.

#26

On the day of the Kate level-bombers' attack, December 22, it was the level-bombers' turn to conduct a milk run against the atoll. The level-bombers were to drop high explosives to destroy any remaining emplacements and enemy personnel before the planned invasion on December 23.

#27

The Japanese once again underestimated the defenders of Wake Island, and paid for it dearly. The Americans shot down two of the Kate bombers, and one of the most highly skilled bombardiers/navigators in the Japanese Navy was killed.

#28

Sōryū was sent to assist in the invasion of Ambon Island in the Maluku Islands, Indonesia. The island was defended by three thousand Allied troops. The naval paratroopers were aided by Army troops from the 38th Infantry Division, which had just come from the battle of Hong Kong.

#29

On February 19, 1942, Cpt. Mitsuo Fuchida led the attack on Darwin, Australia, known as Australia's Pearl Harbor. The battle was marked by a similar coincidence involving the misidentification of the incoming Japanese attack force as a group of friendlies.

#30

There are many strange stories from the Second World War. One of these occurred at Kendari, Indonesia. Some reported seeing ghostly figures, hearing screams or being touched while asleep. The disturbances were said to be the ghosts of locals who had been mistreated by the Dutch for hundreds of years.

#31

On April 5, 1942, the Japanese launched a raid against the British forces at the port of Colombo, Ceylon. The Japanese pilots engaged a group of thirty-six Hawker Hurricanes from the British RAF 30th Squadron and RAF 258th Squadron.

#32

On June 4, Harada was flying a Zero over the harbor in Ceylon when he saw the British auxiliary cruiser Hector and the destroyer Tenedos sunk in the harbor. The Japanese also sank the British cruisers Cornwall and Dorsetshire that day.

#33

On April 9, the Japanese hit the British port of Trincomalee, Ceylon. The raid began at 6 a. m. when Val dive-bombers and Zero fighters arrived at the naval base, finding it deserted of warships. They then turned their attention on the facilities.

#34

The Doolittle Raid on April 18, 1942, forced the Japanese to withdraw Sōryū from Indian Ocean operations to pursue the fleeing American carriers Hornet and Enterprise. The raid was like a quick jab that sent the heavyweight back on his heels.

#35

The Japanese attempt to invade Tulagi and Port Moresby in May 1942, the result of which was the carrier Shōhō being sunk, as well as the loss of temporary use of the carrier Shōkaku due to battle damage that would take three months to repair.