31st Kōkūtai (31st Air Group)
Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN)

Background
On February 1, 1942 the 31st Kōkūtai (31st Ku) was established at Nichols Field in Manila operating the D3A1 Val. During April 1942 assigned to the 31st Naval Base Force and transfered to Rabaul On August 1, 1942 when the 33rd Kōkūtai ceased operating dive bombers, their remaining D3A Vals were transfered to the 31st Kōkūtai. During late 1942, also operated from Kahili Airfield (Buin).

On October 16, 1942 nine Vals took off from Kahili Airfield on Bougainville armed with two 60kg bombs on a mission to search for an enemy aircraft carrier reported southeast of Guadalcanal. Finding none, the formation instead bombed a "tanker" in fact USS McFarland (AVD-14) unloading north of Guadalcanal. The dive bombers claimed four direct hits causing a fire and four near misses. During the attack, three Vals were shot down over the target area and observed to crash including one shot down by an F4F Wildcat. Returning, the formation encountered bad weather. Lost is D3A1 Val. The five surviving Vals landed returned to Kahili Airfield at 9:30pm.

On November 1, 1942 the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) redesignated air groups with three digit identifiers. The 31st Kōkūtai was redesignated as 954 Kōkūtai (954 Ku).

References
Documents in the Japanese Defense Archives cover until August 31, 1944
Thanks to Minoru Kamada and Jim Long for this information

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