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| IJN 4th Kōkūtai   USN August 8, 1942 |
Pilot Reserve Lt(jg) Takafumi Sasaki (KIA) Crashed August 8, 1942 Aircraft History Built by Mitsubishi at Nagoya No. 3 Works. At the factory, painted with dark green upper surfaces and gray lower surfaces with the upper portion of the nose and inside of each engine cowling painted black. The leading edge of the wing was painted with a yellow identification stripe. Delivered to the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) as Type 1 Attack Bomber Hamaki / G4M1 Model 11 Betty manufacture number unknown. Wartime History Assigned to the 4th Kōkūtai (4th Air Group). No known tail code or markings. Mission History On August 8, 1942 took off from Vunakanau Airfield near Rabaul piloted by Reserve Lt(jg) Takafumi Sasaki as one of twenty-six Japanese bombers each armed with a torpedo (seventeen from 4th Kōkūtai and nine from Misawa Kōkūtai) on a low level strike torpedo strike against the American invasion force in Iron Bottom Sound between Tulagi and Guadalcanal. Inbound to the target, three Betty bombers aborted the mission. Just before noon, twenty-three G4M1 Betty bombers attacked ships from minimum altitude and eight were shot down by anti-aircracft fire and others were interepted by F4F WIldcats. Only nine managed to reach the ships and a few managed to release their torpedoes with one scoring a hit on USS Jarvis (DD-393). During the attack, this Betty piloted by Reserve Lt(jg) Takafumi Sasaki was damaged by F4F Wildcats from USS Enterprise (CV-6). At 12:02 his damaged bomber approached USS George F. Elliott (AP-13) from the starboard side and was fired on and hit by her gunners before impacting the starboard boat deck aft of the stack. Burning fuel and wreckage damaged the rear fire main and causing a massive fire from below decks fueled by supplies aboard and topside. Due to the fire, the engine room was abandoned and the ship stopped in the center of Iron Bottom Sound. The crew vainly attempted to use a bucket brigade to fight the fires. Other vessels were unable to render support due to the air raid. The rear bulkhead failed, releasing fuel into the rear hold. The crew abandoned ship shortly after 1:00pm and the ship sank. References Kodochosho, 4th Kōkūtai, August 8, 1942 Mitsubishi Type 1 Rikko Betty Units of World War 2 page 45-46 The First Team and the Guadalcanal Campaign page 76, 78, 621 Contribute Information Are you a relative or associated with any person mentioned? Do you have photos or additional information to add? Last Updated October 1, 2023 |
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