Joachim Marseille’s Bf 109 Refueling at Quotaifiya Airfield, Egypt — I. Introduction

October 1, 1942, Quotaifiya, Egypt — 78 years ago today.

The disconsolate, careworn faces of the attendees contrasted sharply with the upbeat cadence of the Cuban Rumba Azul playing on the wind-up gramophone. The pilots and ground crews of Luftwaffe Fighter Wing JG 27 paid their final respects before the remains of their fallen comrade were to be flown to Derna, Libya, 300 miles west, where the body would be interred at the Heroes’ Cemetery that same day. Once in Derna, Generalfeldmarschall Albert Kesselring, the Wehrmacht’s Commander in Chief in the Mediterranean, delivered an emotional paean, recalling the deceased’s legendary aerial exploits.

Marseille’s body lies in state in Derna, Libya, on October 1, 1942.

Clearly, this was no ordinary funeral. This final farewell was for a highly decorated hero of the Third Reich, a man who had earned oak leaves, swords, and diamonds to his Knight’s Cross, the Luftwaffe’s youngest captain, and one of the greatest pilots of World War II. His unparalleled technical skills had earned the respect of comrades and foes alike, and his rebellious, yet kind, nature had won their admiration. The newly departed was a maverick – an iconoclast who, eschewing Nazi ideology, counted a black German-speaking South African POW as one of his closest friends and enjoyed “degenerate” American jazz and Latin music — Rumba Azul his favorite melody.

Marseille (left) with South African friend Matthew “Matthias” Letuku (right).

Hans Joachim Marseille, the 22-year-old “Star of Africa,” had shot down 158 enemy aircraft when the engine of his new Messerschmitt Bf 109G malfunctioned over the Egyptian desert on September 30, 1942. When the smoke from the engine filled the cockpit, entirely clouding visibility, Marseille baled out of his Gustav, accidentally hitting his head against the rudder that heralded his many victories. He was rendered unconscious immediately, before he could deploy his parachute, and plummeted thousands of feet to his death.

Members of JG 27 survey the wreckage of Marseille’s Bf 109.

Marseille was a legend even in life. In his eulogy, just one day after Marseille’s passing, Kesselring summed up Marseille thus: “Hauptmann Marseille is fallen. Unbeaten. With his passing, a heroic individual, a marvelous colleague, an artist in the air and the best fighter pilot in the world is gone from our ranks forever.” Adolf Galland, a Luftwaffe legend himself, called him “the unrivaled virtuoso among fighter pilots of the Second World War” in his memoirs.

Marseille was a man who clearly understood that each of his victories meant the loss of a son, father, brother, or husband. In a letter to his mother after his very first victory on August 24, 1940, during the Battle of Britain, Marseille wrote: “Today I shot down my first opponent. It does not set well with me. I keep thinking about how the mother of this young man must feel when she gets the news of her son’s death. And I am to blame for this death. I am sad, instead of being happy about the first victory. I always see the face of the Englishman in front of me and think about his crying mother.”

It is a tragic irony that following Marseille’s last seven victories — 152-158 — Erwin Rommel, the vaunted “Desert Fox,” called September 28 to request that Marseille accompany him to Berlin to attend a ceremony on September 30 — the day Marseille met his fate — where Marseille and Rommel were programmed to sit on either side of Adolf Hitler. Not fond of the Führer, Marseille declined, arguing that he would rather save his leave for December, when he intended to travel to Berlin to marry his fiancée. One can only wonder what destiny had in store had Marseille accepted Rommel’s invitation.

Marseille with Generalfeldmarschall Erwin Rommel.

Marseille’s career as a pilot spanned barely two years – from his first victory in August 1940 to his last in September 1942. Yet he is the subject of several books, countless articles, numerous documentaries, and a full feature German-Spanish film — Der Stern von Afrika (The Star of Africa). The reader is referred to those sources for an account of his aerial accomplishments and a sense of his extraordinary character.

This post is but an introduction to a 1/72 scale diorama depicting Marseille’s aircraft refueling in Quotaifiya, Egypt, circa late September 1942, just days before his death. The diorama will comprise several components, each the subject of a separate post as follows:

I. Introduction – The foregoing post provides a brief sketch of Marseille and outlines the components of the project.

JG 27 engineers and ground crew, stripped from the waist up and wearing shorts and pith helmets due to the extreme heat in the desert, refuel a Messerschmitt Bf 109.

II. Marseille’s Messerschmitt Bf 109s – Marseille flew a number of different Messerschmitt Bf 109s throughout his career. To my knowledge, four different manufacturers – Atlas, Corgi, Easy Model, and Gemini – have produced a total of six prebuilt 1/72 diecast models of Marseille’s various aircraft spanning the two years from his first victory in August 1940 to his last in September 1942. I will be using one of these six for the diorama. This post will provide photos and observations of these models.

Marseille with his Messerschmitt Bf 109 “Yellow 14.”

III. Marseille’s “OTTO” Kubelwagen – Upon Marseille’s downing of eight RAF P-40 Tomahawks in a 10-minute sortie on September 1, 1942, the Italians in the camp “borrowed” Marseille’s kubelwagen and painted “OTTO” – “eight” in Italian – on its sides, adorning the four letters with desert fauna. This post will describe the kubelwagen I intend to use for this diorama.

Marseille’s kubelwagen “OTTO.” Note the distinct balloon tires made specially for desert cross-country driving and the pennant on the driver’s side — characteristics often missed by model manufacturers.

IV. Luftwaffe Opel Blitz Tankwagen – The Luftwaffe used the Opel Blitz tankwagen Kfz. 385 to refuel their aircraft throughout the conflict, including in North Africa. As far as I know, three manufacturers have produced 1/72 model kits of the Kfz. 385 – two in plastic by Roden and MAC Distribution and one in resin by FM Detail Sets. This post will briefly discuss the tankwagen I intend to use for this diorama.

An Opel Blitz tankwagen refuels a Bf 109 of JG 27.

V. Neumanns bunte Bühne – JG 27 Commander Eduard Neumann’s trailer, known as “Neumanns bunte Bühne” (Neumann’s colorful stage), served as the headquarters of JG 27, Marseille’s fighter wing. There is no available model of this trailer in any scale so I will be creating it with plastic card mostly from scratch. Given that, to my knowledge, only a handful of photos of the trailer exist, information on dimensions and details is lacking. Of necessity, a significant portion of this effort will be educated guesswork. This post will describe this most challenging part of the project.

The headquarters of JG 27, a trailer Commander Eduard Neumann had appropriated in France.

VI. The Figures and other details – No diorama is complete without the figures to bring it to life and provide a sense of scale. We may not know the wingspan of a Messerschmitt Bf 109, but a human figure next to it provides immediate perspective. I am aware of two figures in 1/72 scale – one from Preiser and one from Dragon – clearly intended to represent Marseille. This post will cover these two figures as well as the approximately 60 other figures (plastic, resin, and metal) from many figure sets that I will use in the diorama. The challenge is that there are currently no shirtless figures wearing shorts and pith helmets. Thus, the project will involve many conversions using torsos, heads, and limbs from different figure sets.

Engineers of JG 27 enjoy a break. Again, note the pith helmets, shorts, and lack of shirts.

Lagniappe: Rumba Azul, by the Lecuona Cuban Boys

Finally, for those curious about Rumba Azul, here’s a YouTube video. Music begins at about the 30-second mark and lyrics at about the 90-second mark.

As is probably clear, this is an extremely ambitious project, at least for me, and it will likely take months to complete. Please bear with me and visit the site often.

One Hundred Countries; One Million Views

Less than five years ago, when I first contemplated a website to display and discuss my WWII miniatures, I intended it as a way to stay in touch with fellow collectors at the Armored Fighting Vehicle Forum, where I had been posting for some time. Teeming with enthusiasm, I pitched the idea to my family. One of my kids glanced at me quizzically and wondered out loud if there were enough people out there interested in my “stuff.” My wife, on the other hand, was characteristically brutally honest: “Ah, so your three friends from the Forum can look at your little toys,” she quipped with a smirk. It was an inauspicious and discouraging beginning for my proposed endeavor.

Today, a reader in Poland visited this site. It was an insignificant click for that reader but a milestone for this website, for with that click the site reached one million views. I realize that it may not seem like much in a time when a post on YouTube can go viral with millions of views in a couple of days. And yet, I’m thrilled. I had always assumed that I was one of a small brotherhood of geeks obsessed with war miniatures. Not so.

After wondering who was visiting the website, I installed a flag counter earlier this year (the widget at the very bottom on the right hand side of the screen). I was stunned to find that there are people all over the world visiting the website. In five months, miniature enthusiasts from over 100 countries, including unlikely places such as Iran and Iraq, have visited the website, as graphically demonstrated by the flag counter map below. I’m now certain that I’m not alone.

I would like to thank everyone who happens upon this site — loyal readers and casual browsers alike — for their support. I do this because I know there are people out there who read it. I can’t think of a greater reward.

Der Kommissar’s in Town: The Soviet Politruk in 1/72

I. Kombat

II. The Red Army Politruk in WWII

III. The Kombat Figure in 1/72

A. ESCI 203 Russian Soldiers (1982)
B. Revell 02510 Soviet Infantry (1994)
C. Zvezda 8077 Soviet Infantry Platoon (2012)
D. Other Box Covers
E. The Figures

IV. The NKVD Commissars in 1/72

A. The Commissar from A to Z (Atlantic to Zvezda)
B. Other Soviet Officers
C. CP & TQD White Metal Officers
D. Painting the Figures

V. The Political Officer in Russian Cinema

VI. Lagniappe: Der Kommissar’s in Town by After the Fire

I. Kombat

Possibly the most iconic Soviet image of World War II is this photo of a political officer exhorting his comrades to battle on the Eastern Front. Entitled Kombat (a portmanteau of komandir and batal’on, literally “battalion commander”), war correspondent Max Alpert’s timeless photo depicts Alexey Yeremenko just minutes before his death during fighting in Voroshilovgrad Province, Ukraine, on July 12, 1942. Yeremenko, of the Soviet 220th Infantry Regiment, was not a battalion commander but a politruk (political officer).

Alpert’s image holds a special place in the Russian imagination and has been immortalized in monuments in the former Soviet Union.The bronze statue at left is in Stepove; the stone monument at right is in Zaporizhia, both in southern Ukraine, where Yeremenko, who was Ukrainian, was killed.

Yeremenko’s image has also appeared on postage stamps and commemorative coins.

As recently as 2017, a commemoration of the 75th anniversary of Alpert’s photo took place in Sloviansk, Ukraine.

Our hobby — ideally a miniaturized reflection of actual historical events — has not been immune to the photo’s allure, with three manufacturers offering a 1/72 scale plastic model of Yeremenko. However, before delving into the 1/72 world, a short description of the politruk (a Russian portmanteau of politicheskiy and rukovoditel, literally “political leader”) is in order.

II. The Red Army Politruk in WWII

In broad terms, the politruk, commonly referred to as “political officer” or “political commissar,” was a military official appointed specifically to ensure civilian control of the military — at least in theory. In practice, the politruk ensured the Soviet military remained under the Bolshevik Party’s control. To become a political officer, an individual must have been registered as a communist and attended special political training. Units from company to division had two officers — a military officer in charge of military decisions, and a political officer of coequal rank and authority who ensured those decisions were carried out in accordance with Communist ideology. Although most lower-level political commissars had little or no military training, they had the authority to countermand the unit’s commander if in their estimation an order undermined party dogma.

The politruk position came and went, abolished and restored as circumstances dictated, and its role morphed as necessary, with slightly different roles at different times during the war. At the outset of the conflict, the politruk’s primary function was to ensure that soldiers did not retreat in the face of the German onslaught and had authority to shoot transgressors on sight. Following the Red Army’s heavy losses in 1941 and 1942, the dual-command system was deemed unworkable. Politruks were removed from direct command and charged with improving morale, ensuring regulations were followed, indoctrinating troops, and spreading communist propaganda. Thus, distilled to its essence, the politruk’s function was to interpret everything he saw through a political lens and ensure all actions were in accordance with party ideology. Many a Soviet soldier lost his life because a politruk informed on him. The cartoon at left by Knottipine, from the instabusters website, aptly captures what most Red Army soldiers likely thought of the omnipresent politruk [instabusters website].

The Germans so feared political commissars that on June 6, 1941, just prior to the invasion of the Soviet Union, the German High Command issued the “Guidelines for the Treatment of Political Commissars,” commonly known as Kommissarbefehl (Commissar Order), directing the German army to summarily execute any captured political commissars as enforcers of “Judeo-Bolshevism.” Predictably, the Commissar Order resulted in an unwillingness to surrender by Soviet forces and the upshot was increased Soviet resistance to the Werhmacht. Nonetheless, thousands of commissars are believed to have been executed before Hitler cancelled the Commissar Order exactly a year after it was issued.

III. The Kombat Figure in 1/72

Three plastic soldier manufacturers have tried their hand at sculpting Yeremenko’s distinctive pose — ESCI, Revell, and Zvezda — and all three feature the pose on their Soviet soldiers box covers, as can be seen below. There’s little sense in providing thoughts on these three sets as the terrific Plastic Soldier Review (PSR) website has done a thorough review of each. Click on each title to access the PSR review.

A. ESCI 203 Russian Soldiers (1982)

B. Revell 02510 Soviet Infantry (1994)

C. Zvezda 8077 Soviet Infantry Platoon (2012)

D. Other Box Covers

ESCI re-released their 203 Russian Soldiers set in a diorama pack entitled Berlin: Die Götterdämmerung (“Berlin: Twilight of the Gods”). A-Toys 1103 also released the ESCI set in a combination pack with the ESCI 201 German Soldiers. Finally, Revell re-released their 02510 Soviet Infantry with new box art. Note that all three boxes have a depiction of Yeremenko’s image somewhere on the cover.

E. The Figures

As is readily apparent from the photo below, the three sculpts vary significantly, with the ESCI figure being the smallest and the Revell figure being the tallest. I found that under high magnification all three sculpts hold up fairly well, with the Zvezda figure having the greatest detail and the Revell figure the least — the Revell figure’s facial features are particularly poorly defined. To my eye, the ESCI figure has the best anatomical proportions as I find the head on the Zvezda a smidgen oversized. On the whole, however, the Zvezda figure most closely resembles Yeremenko’s pose, though the sculptor gave him a closed left hand, probably to make the sculpting easier.

IV. The NKVD Commissars in 1/72

Yeremenko’s uniform notwithstanding, the typical Red Army commissar belonged to the NKVD (People’s Commissariat for Internal Affairs) and was characterized by a different and distinctive uniform: olive green gymnastiorka shirt-tunic (same as the three figures above), blue sharovari trousers, high black leather boots, Sam Browne brown leather belt with its distinctive strap passing diagonally over the right shoulder, holster for the Tokarev TT-33 pistol, brown webbing, and a royal blue peaked cap with a red band and a black visor. Like all Red Army headgear, the cap bore on the forehead a red star on a gold background. Some officers also carried a brown dispatch or map case and, in the field, a brown case for their black binoculars. However, a surefire way to recognize a political officer was the distinctive red worsted star with gold hammer and sickle on the sleeves, about two inches in diameter and three inches from the cuff.

This photo of a painted Evolution Miniatures EM-35122 NKVD 1/35 figure portrays the typical uniform of an NKVD officer.

A. The Commissar from A to Z (Atlantic to Zvezda)

The photo below shows Soviet officers from the various plastic soldier manufacturers painted in the typical commissar uniform. While there’s loss of detail with a photograph of the whole lot, comparison of relative sizes is possible. Click the photo to enlarge.

To provide higher resolution and better appreciate the figures, I also photographed five at a time. Below is the first tranche.

1. Atlantic 84 Red Army
This is possibly the scrawniest officer in the history of 1/72 scale plastic soldier models. PSR called this set no more than a poorly sculpted “toy.” However, I find the sculpting, at least on this particular figure, considerably better than the miserly 3 out of 10 for sculpting the set received on PSR and, in fact, the facial features are fairly well defined.

2. Hat 8263 Russian Tank Riders
At first blush, these Hat soldiers are, as PSR put it, “not particularly appealing figures.” Surprisingly, however, though admittedly a bit clunky, they paint fairly well. PSR called this “[n]ot a great sculpt but a very worthwhile set.” I found the detail to be not too bad and, while the PPSh-41 is not particularly well detailed, it is easily recognizable. However, the Sam Browne belt on this officer goes over the left shoulder, which is incorrect. This is one of four figures wearing the traditional gymnastiorka shirt-tunic (Plastic Soldier, Revell, and Zvezda are the other three). The figures in this set come without bases as they are intended to sit on a tank. I added the base to ensure consistency in comparing height.

3. Italeri 6131 Anti Tank Teams
The first thing that strikes you about this officer is his huge size. The head and hands are particularly large when compared to the other figures. While PSR rated these figures as being of average size, I’m fairly certain the entire set is well overscaled. Still, I don’t mind using one soldier from the set as there were, in fact, men in WWII who were considerably larger than the average. Known as the “Gargoyle,” Japanese Vice-Admiral Jisaburō Ozawa, for example, was 6’7”. The other notable feature about this officer is that he looks to be wearing the fur lined polaschubuk sheepskin coat.

4. Pegasus 7269 Russian Infantry Winter Dress 1
This was Pegasus’ first attempt at this advancing officer pose. This figure and its twin in 7272 (No. 5 below) are the only ones wearing the telogreika quilted jacket and trousers. While it is not a bad sculpt, the photo hides the excess plastic between the PPS-43 submachine gun and the body, where the area is blind to the mold. Although an officer, he does not carry a pistol as there is no holster on the figure. Finally, his submachine gun has no shoulder sling to carry it. It bears noting that PSR gave this set a perfect 10 for sculpting.

5. Pegasus 7272 Russian Infantry Winter Dress 2
Initially indistinguishable from its twin in 7269 (No. 4 above), this was Pegasus’ second attempt at the pose. By molding the figure in two parts — the right arm and submachine gun are a separate piece — Pegasus solved the excess plastic problem and produced a significantly improved figure. Note that making this a two-part figure also allowed Pegasus to add a shoulder sling to the submachine gun. This being an officer, Pegasus correctly added a gun holster and, upon closer inspection, shoulder boards.

Below is the second tranche. (Yes, alphabetically the Plastic Soldier figure should have come before Preiser as in the photo above showing all ten figures. Sorry, senior moment. 😳 )

6. Preiser 72522 Soviet Infantry Riflemen and Partisans
Despite an 8 score for sculpting from PSR, to my mind this Preiser hard plastic figure is the best sculpt in the lot. Proportions are perfect and facial features and hands are well defined (even at this scale you can count all five fingers on his left hand). However, I do have my doubts about the peaked cap, which looks suspiciously like a German peaked cap. Soviet peaked caps tended to be completely round, like the other nine in the group. Akin to the second Pegasus figure (No. 5 above), this is a two-part sculpt comprising the body and two options for the left arm. Like the Hat figures, the soldiers in this set have no bases. I added the base to ensure consistency in comparing height.

7. Plastic Soldier 20001 Russian Infantry in Summer Uniform
Generally speaking, I’m not partial to Plastic Soldier sculpting as the figures tend to be rather short and chunky. Because Plastic Soldier figures are intended for wargaming, which requires constant handling, these hard plastic figures must be robust, like their 28mm metal counterparts. This particular figure, however, is oddly pleasing and passes for a rather rotund, well-fed commissar. Like the Preiser and second Pegasus figures, this officer is made up of two parts, with the left arm being a separate piece. PSR noted that the “extra parts make some of these poses particularly deep and natural,” and gave the set a 10 for sculpting. My only quibble with this officer is that he’s carrying his right hand gun holster cross draw, i.e., on his left hip as Hollywood tells us was done in the Wild West, but something WWII officers would be unlikely to do.

8. Revell 02510 Soviet Infantry
As PSR points out, this Revell set was generally overscaled, with most figures 26mm tall, well above the average 25mm for 1/72 scale soldiers. However, this particular chap is about the right size, though, to my eye, he has an odd feminine shape with pronounced hips and a very small head compared to the rest of the figures — particularly the Plastic Soldier figure, whose head is twice as large. This officer is the prototypical commissar who does not engage in combat, as he is lacking a pistol holster or any webbing at all.

9. Ultima Ratio UR003 Soviet and Polish Infantry
In addition to the typical accoutrements of an officer — peaked cap, pistol holster, and binoculars — this commissar also carries a map and is armed with a PPS-43 submachine gun. This is an attractive figure, though his ears are so large — just take a gander from the back — that he would be completely at home in the Caesar 105 Goblins set. There are four officer poses in this set — three Poles, identifiable by their traditional Polish four-pointed rogatywka peaked cap, and this Soviet officer.

10. Zvezda 6179 Soviet Regular Infantry
To my mind, this is probably the second best figure in the group and is basically a peaked cap version of the Kombat pose that spawned this article. He wears a dispatch case over the left hip and a pistol holster over the right. The detail is crisp as is typical of Zvezda figures. PSR described this set as “perfectly well done and very natural” and “the sculpting . . . of the usual high Zvezda standard.”

B. Other Soviet Officers

Below are a few other figures that can be used as Soviet officers, purely for the sake of completeness.

1. Zvezda 6161 Soviet Cavalry

2. Zvezda 6144 Soviet Frontier Guards
Click on the photo to enlarge.

As was pointed out by a commenter, these four are not all officers. The peaked cap was an element of the NKVD uniform — of which the Frontier Guards was a part — for all ranks. However, any of these figures could be used as officers.

To my knowledge, these are all the Soviet officers — or those with a peaked cap that can be used as officers — available in plastic in 1/72, with two exceptions: Preiser 72526 Soviet Tank Crewmen and Zvezda 6132 Soviet Headquarters, both of which include an officer, and neither of which I could get in time for this post.

C. CP & TQD White Metal Officers

After I had finished painting and photographing the plastic commissars and writing this post, I discovered that CP Models and TQD Castings have a diverse assortment of 1/72 scale Soviet sets in white metal. I ordered the sets that included officers and got them just in time to include below. Note that I only photographed the ones with officers or with a peaked cap, though some sets include several non-peaked cap figures.

1. CP-SOV01 Red Army Infantry with Officer
2. CP-SOV04 Red Army Banner Party
3-5. TQD-RI10 Red Army Officers
6-10. TQD-RK02 NKVD Riflemen I
11. TQD-RK04 NKVD Interrogators
12. TQD-RK05 NKVD Mortar and Anti-Tank Rifle
13-15. TQD-RK06 NKVD Maxim Heavy Machine Gun

As far as I know, these are all the Soviet officers or those with peaked cap available in the CP/TQD line except for TQD-RK03 NKVD Riflemen II, which I could not find.

D. Painting the Figures

In painting these figures, I used Vallejo acrylic colors almost exclusively as listed below. However, I used Testors enamel gold on the peaked caps, buttons, and buckles as I find metallic colors look more realistic in enamel. The Soviet uniform varied somewhat in the shade of green during the war, depending on what fabric was available, so modelers have some latitude in choice of color.

The photos below show four figures undergoing the painting process: The first photo shows them unpainted out of the box; the second photo shows them primed with surface primer; and the third photo shows them fully painted. These four figures are my first serious attempt at painting using various shades of the same base color — a technique most noticeable on the trousers. While the result may not reflect it, I actually spent considerable time painting the faces using various shades of Vallejo’s flat flesh. If anyone is wondering, I fully recognize that going into battle with a bright blue peaked cap is asking for it.

For those interested, I used the following Vallejo Model Color acrylic paints, going from head to toe:

70.963 Medium Blue – top of caps;
70.957 Flat Red – band on caps;
70.861 Glossy Black – peak on caps
70.955 Flat Flesh – faces and hands;
70.921 English Uniform – tunic on Preiser and gymnastiorka on Zvezda;
70.983 Flat Earth – coats on Italeri and Ultima Ratio;
70.918 Ivory – sheepskin trim on Italeri coat;
70.963 Medium Blue – trousers;
70.950 Black – boots;
70.940 Saddle Brown – Sam Browne belts and webbing;
70.863 Gunmetal Grey – pistols and submachine gun on Ultima Ratio;
70.950 Black – binoculars;
70.912 Tan Yellow – bases;
74.601 Grey Surface Primer – all figures; and
1144 Testors Enamel Gold – buttons, buckles, and star on caps.

V. The Political Officer in Russian Cinema

Politruks are ubiquitous in contemporary Russian cinema and television and, at least for this non-Russian-speaking outsider, hint at an apparent love-hate relationship with them on the part of the Russian public. Often portrayed as petty obstructionists, a quick survey of recent Russian shows on Amazon Prime will reveal that the politruk has become a popular staple of Russian films, which are often based on older Soviet literature. An outstanding series currently on Amazon Prime, Night Swallows, about Soviet female pilots in WWII, depicts a pesky political commissar whose mission in life appears to be to make life miserable for the pilots. A similar portrayal can be seen in Stalin’s Tanks, about the legendary T-34 tank. However, in both films the politruk displays some positive traits, including falling in love with one of his victims. A much more positive characterization can be found in Spies, a lavish series about Soviet female spies in WWII.

For a downright chilling portrayal that likely hews closest to reality, the reader is directed to Life and Faith, a series based on Vasily Grossman’s 1960 book that was banned in the Soviet Union due to its brass-knuckled depiction of Stalinism and Soviet culture. The book was considered so detrimental to the Soviet state that it was not published until 1980, when a copy of the manuscript was smuggled out of the Soviet Union. Finally, the summary execution of a political officer under the aforementioned Commissar Order can be seen in the Belorussian film Fortress of War, a harrowing account of the siege of Brest Fortress in Belarus, in June 1941. Yefim Fomin, who commands the defense of the fortress, is ultimately captured and summarily executed after declaring, “I’m a commissar, a communist, and a Jew.”

The politruk was also the subject of a compelling scene in Hollywood’s 2001 Enemy at the Gates. Starring Joseph Fiennes as political officer Danilov and Bob Hoskins making a cameo appearance as Stalingrad’s chief political officer Nikita Khrushchev, the scene captures the essence of what a political officer is supposed to do. Khrushchev eventually succeeded Stalin as Premier of the Soviet Union. Tellingly, Volume I of his memoirs is entitled “Commissar.” For those interested, I’ve pasted below a clip of that scene from YouTube. Unfortunately, the clip comes with YouTube advertisements. Please close the ad when it pops up.

VI. Lagniappe: Der Kommissar’s in Town by After the Fire

For those not familiar with the reference in the title of this post, Der Kommissar was a Billboard Top 10 song recorded by After the Fire in 1982 — actually a cover of Falco’s 1981 German language song of the same title. On the surface, the song is about a reckless young woman living in the fast lane, high on cocaine. However, Der Kommissar is in reality a protest song about the state security police in the socialist Eastern Bloc countries before the fall of the Soviet Union, whose role was essentially unchanged from that of the Soviet political commissars of WWII. By the early 80’s, citizens were increasingly resentful of the secret police who watched their every move and kept surveillance files on them, though it was still uncommon for individuals to air these grievances. The song, with its Don’t turn around, Der Kommissar’s in town refrain, was groundbreaking and reflects the transformation in the social conscience that was beginning to take place. To conclude this post, I’ve pasted below the official video of the song from YouTube.

The A6M Zero in 1/72: Akagi’s Zeros Prepare for Pearl Harbor – Finished Diorama

At long last, below are photos of the finished diorama depicting the Zeros of the Imperial Japanese Navy’s Akagi aircraft carrier preparing to take off as part of the first wave attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. I finished this project back in June 2017 but, as often happens, life got in the way of the hobby and I never posted the finished piece.

Below is a photo of my first attempt at this diorama from 2017, taken by the side of the pool.

For a variety of reasons, I was not satisfied with it:

The diorama was too small to take good photos;
The Zeros came from different die-cast companies and looked odd as the shades were slightly different and the Akagi’s red recognition bands at the rear of the fuselage were different widths;
The tail numbers on three of the Zeros were not decaled and looked shoddy;
One Kate — even if that Kate was Fuchida’s famous AI-301 — seemed insufficient for the occasion since there were 27 Kates but only nine Zeros on the Akagi’s deck that day;
The flags were significantly underscaled and I had inadvertently switched the ones on the inside for the ones on the outside;
The island, which was scratchbuilt, lacked some details, including voice tubes, proper staircases, and, notably, the rolled futons used during the Pearl Harbor attack to guard against shrapnel from the expected counterattack that never came;
The 4.5 meter rangefinder on the deck just fore of the island was missing, as were the two antennas fore and aft of the rangefinder;
The deck needed more figures to simulate the beehive of activity seen in actual photos; and
The diorama needed a more appropriate backdrop.

So I kept at it, as time permitted, slowly correcting all the aforementioned problems. I doubled the length of the deck, used nine identical Witty Zeros all with appropriately decaled tail numbers, included seven Kates, recreated the flags at the right scale and placed them on the proper side, added more details to the island, included the range finder just fore of the island, painted more figures (for a total of 85), and added a backdrop that showed the horizon at sea.

I finally finished the improved diorama this week, just in time to post these photos today, on the anniversary of the attack. Nonetheless, I will continue to detail how I constructed each piece of the diorama in future posts.

Starboard Shots

View from the Front

Portside Shots

View from the Rear

Overhead Views

Detail Shots

Lagniappe 360 Degree Video of Island

Below is a 360 degree video of the Akagi island without the futons used at Pearl Harbor to protect from shrapnel from the expected American counterattack that never materialized.

Thank you for your indulgence and I hope you enjoyed the photos and video. As always, comments, questions, corrections, and observations are welcome.

Once again I want to thank my friend and fellow collector Joe Buccellato, of NY, who painted all the best figures in this diorama. I also want to thank Tim Lau, of Maryland, who created the decals for the Zeros and gave me solid advice when I was stuck, and Chris Pflueger, of California, who gave me some great tips on photographing the diorama. I also want to acknowledge Sidnei Maneta, of Brazil, who took the time to provide great information on the Kate tail numbers, which will be covered in a future post. I’d also like to thank Sasa Drobac of Serbia, who designed the incredibly detailed 3D printed binoculars, searchlights, and rangefinders used on the island. Finally, I want to thank Ara Hagopian, of Massachusetts, whose constant encouragement provided the push I needed to actually turn my ideas into these 1/72 scale scenes.

The A6M Zero in 1/72: Akagi’s Zeros Prepare for Pearl Harbor, Part 3.3 – Japanese Pilots and Crew in 1/72 Scale

This is Part 3.3 of a series of posts on the construction of a diorama depicting the Zeros of the Imperial Japanese Navy’s Akagi aircraft carrier preparing to take off as part of the first wave attack on Pearl Harbor. This post concerns only the 1/72 pilots and crew to be used in the diorama. To view the finished diorama, please click here.

I. Plastic 1/72 Japanese Pilot Sets

As recently as five years ago, modelers would have been hard-pressed to build a diorama using 1/72 plastic Japanese pilots. The only figures available were the two pilots included in the 1998 Hasegawa WWII Pilot Figures set. Fortunately, with the explosion of 1/72 plastic figure manufacturing in recent years, modelers have significantly more choices. Below is a brief survey of the various plastic Japanese pilot sets. Resin and metal figures are covered in a separate section.

Although I generally paint my own figures, my skills are mediocre at best. As I’ve said before, I’m a dilettante — I dabble in everything and master nothing. Thus, as I have in the past, I turned to a genuine hobbyist with real expertise for help. The results of his skill and patience follow. These are the figures I intend to use in the diorama, obviously clipping the bases.

A. The Hasegawa Set: The Two Lone Japanese Pilots

Issued in 1998, the only Japanese pilots available to modelers until 2013 were the two figures in the Hasegawa 35008 WWII Pilot Figures, a hard plastic set that included two Allied, two German, and two Japanese pilots. Plastic Soldier Review (PSR) described these figures as “realistic” with “fair but not particularly sharp” detail. As can be seen in the photo below, the two Japanese poses are traditional fare and, being made of hard plastic, are easy to clean up the seams and take paint very well. I intend to use the two painted figures in the bottom right of the composite photo below.

Hasegawa 35008 WWII Pilot Figures

B. RedBox Fills the Vacuum

The vacuum was finally filled in 2013, when RedBox, a Ukrainian company, released three sets of Japanese WWII pilots: 72048 Japanese Kamikaze; 72052 Japanese Army Aviation Pilots and Ground Crew; and 72053 IJN Pilots and Ground Crew. Modelers could not have asked for more to end the 15-year famine as RedBox produced three superb sets, each with 6 to 8 different pilots. PSR gave all three sets 10/10 for historical accuracy and 10/10 for sculpting — quite an achievement given PSR’s notoriously exacting standards. PSR described the sculpting of the three sets, respectively, as having “good proportions and excellent detail,” “completely natural look throughout, expressive faces and good detail,” and “excellent [with] good detail in all the areas where it is needed.” Below are side-by-side photos of the three sets with the PSR unpainted figures on the left and my painted figures on the right (photos used with permission from PSR).

RedBox 72048 Japanese Kamikaze

RedBox 72052 Japanese Army Aviation Pilots and Ground Crew

RedBox 72053 IJN Pilots and Ground Crew

C. The Modelkasten Tainan Pilots

A superb but not widely available Japanese pilot set is the Modelkasten 1800 JNAF Aircrew “Rabaul Zero Fighter,” a hard plastic set depicting a wartime photo of the famous Tainan Air Group. Released in Japan in 2016, the seven-figure set, which was previously released in 2013 by Modelkasten in 1/48 scale, is considerably more expensive and offers far fewer figures than other sets. The figures are standing or squatting, apparently posing for a photo. Saburo Sakai, arguably Japan’s most famous ace, is presumably in the group. While there are seven figures in the box, there are only six poses in the set as one of the seated figures is duplicated. Note that the box photo is of the 1/48 figures. For some unknown reason, the set is not listed on the PSR website.

Modelkasten 1800 JNAF Aircrew

D. Hasegawa Returns

In 2018, modelers were treated to yet another Japanese aviation set, the Hasegawa 35116 Japanese Navy Airmen set, a hard plastic kit of bomber plane crews that requires assembly of body parts. PSR rated this set 10/10 in every single category, describing it as “a terrific set which delivers everything it promises . . . all are very well sculpted and can be posed in a variety of useful and realistic positions.”

Like Modelkasten, Hasegawa appears to have scaled down the figures to take advantage of the ever-growing 1/72 scale market. The photo on the box cover below is almost certainly of a scale larger than 1/72. My guess given the “35116” stock number is that they were originally sculpted in 1/35 scale but this is merely speculation. The PSR photo below of the actual assembled figures shows that an interesting characteristic of the set is the distinctly Asian features of the figures.

Hasegawa 35116 Japanese Navy Airmen

The kit contains four identical sprues, each with four different torsos, four different heads, and four different sets of arms that, as mentioned, require assembly. See photo of sprue below. Thus, it is possible to mix and match and create up to 16 different figures — 12 slightly different seated figures and four different standing figures. I assembled the four standing figures to give a sense of the flexibility afforded in creating different poses. See photo of standing figures below. While the four torsos are the same, they have four different heads and four different sets of arms, resulting in four very different figures.

I found the figures quite pleasing, with great proportions and no overscaled heads — a common problem in 1/72 scale. Being made of hard plastic, I also found it easy to clean up the seams. (Note that I didn’t assemble the sitting figures as I couldn’t think of a use for the Akagi diorama. Note also that the four standing figures will be painted for the diorama but I didn’t want to delay the post.)

II. Resin and Metal 1/72 Japanese Pilots

A. CMK Figures

There are several small resin sets available to modelers, primarily from Czech Master Kits (CMK), a Czech company that makes resin figures and accessories in various scales. I know of five CMK Japanese aviation-related sets — three that I will use for the diorama. The other two sets have pilots wearing two-piece uniforms inappropriate for Pearl Harbor. The photo below shows the three relevant sets: CMK F72077 Ki 21 Japanese Crew; CMK F72043 Japan Navy Pilots and Mechanic; and CMK F72290 Japanese Army AF Mechanics. Though the Ki 21 was a Japanese Army bomber plane, the three pilots in the F72077 are dressed like naval pilots, including the kapok life vests, clearly indicating they’re flying above water. As can be seen on the right side of the composite photo below, the three army mechanics wear essentially the same uniform as the navy mechanic to the left. (Note: Again the third figure will be painted for the diorama but I didn’t want to delay this post.)

CMK Japanese Aviation Figures

CMK also produced at least a couple of Japanese Army sets: F72042 Japan Army Pilots and F72113 Japanese Kamikaze Pilots. I couldn’t use these for the Akagi diorama because their two-piece uniform is noticeably different from the naval uniform used at Pearl Harbor.

B. RedBox Resin Figures

RedBox had previously released its plastic Japanese aviation sets in resin three-figure packages. Because the plastic sets are already pictured above, there is no reason to cover the resin sets here. However, to give a sense for the quality of the resin figures, below is a side-by-side picture of one of the Kamikaze resin sets and its plastic counterparts. While the appreciably more expensive resin figures are generally more realistic and have crisper, better-defined detail, that is not the case here. RedBox’s plastic figures are virtually identical to the resin ones. If anything, one of the shortcomings of resin — its brittleness — is shown here, with the geisha’s handheld flower bouquet being broken off.

RedBox R72011 Japanese Kamikaze

C. Orion Resin Figures

Orion, another Ukrainian company that is somehow affiliated with RedBox, released at least one Japanese aviation three-figure resin set, the 72010R WII Japanese Army Aviation Tropical Set 1. Very likely the only Orion Japanese resin set, it was never released in their plastic line. I will not be using these figures in the Akagi diorama since, as the photo below shows, two of the figures are in tropical short sleeve uniform. They’re included here simply to alert the reader to their existence. Perhaps Orion will release these figures in plastic in the future.

Orion 72010R WII Japanese Army Aviation Tropical Set 1

D. Hecker & Goros Metal Figures

The only metal Japanese aviation set I’m aware of is the Hecker & Goros 226 Japanische Luftwaffe 1941-45, which includes one crewmember, one pilot, and one mechanic. Although the figures may be just slightly overscaled, the detail is rather fine and, being metal, paints quite well. The photo below of the painted figures does not show the mechanic figure, which I will not use in the diorama.

Hecker & Goros 226 Japanische Luftwaffe

III. Relative Pilot Sizes

The relative size of the figures from different companies is important to many readers. The best way to get a sense for those differences is by displaying the figures from different companies side by side. See photo below. The white figures in the top row are from the RedBox Kamikaze set. The figures in the middle row, from left to right, are CMK (2), Hecker & Goros (1), and Hasegawa (2). Finally, the figures in the third row are from the RedBox Army Aviation set.

As the photo below shows, the CMK figures (second row, far left) have tiny heads but look realistic. The Hecker & Goros figures (second row, middle) are larger but, as the final diorama will show, look just fine when displayed separately from their counterparts from other companies. In my opinion, the Hasegawa figures (second row, far right) are spot-on in terms of proportions. Anyhow, I leave it to readers to come to their own conclusions.

IV. Japanese Cockpit Pilots

Though I don’t intend to use seated cockpit pilots in the diorama, included here for the sake of completeness are two such sets: HobbyMaster HP0004 WWII Pilots Set; and JP Productions 721114 Japanese Pilots. The HM set includes two Japanese, two German, and two British pilots that have been factory painted. While there was very likely a difference in the size of real German and Japanese pilots, HM has greatly exaggerated that difference, as the left half of the photo below clearly shows. The PJ pilots, on the other hand, are beautiful little figures with realistic proportions. Of course, they’re correspondingly more expensive and require painting. Nonetheless, the PJ figures make their HM counterparts look like trolls.

HobbyMaster HP0004 & PJ Productions 721114
Japanese Cockpit Pilots

V. Deck Crew

It is impossible to build a diorama of the Akagi deck without crew. While pilot figures were scarce, deck crew figures were even more so. As the sections on RedBox and CMK above show, there is now a decent number of options. However, I still needed more deck crew for my project, so I scrounged around and eventually found that Spanish company Barcelona Universal Models (BUM), which releases kits under various labels, had included Japanese crew figures in several of its Sword tank and vehicle kits. They’re made of an awful spongy plastic-like material that breaks easily but, in the end, they paint well. As mentioned, they’re included in at least five different Sword sets: Sword 172179 Isuzu Truck Workshop (pictured below); 172130 Chi-Ro Tank; 172131 Sumida Armored Car; 172138 Isuzu Fuel Truck; and 172211 Chiyoda Staff Car.

Sword 172179 Isuzu Truck Workshop

To be sure, modelers can never have enough support figures. But, as the photo below hopefully shows, diorama builders now have a fair number of Japanese crew figure options.

VI. Japanese Naval Uniforms

The basic question every modeler faces when painting soldiers is what colors to use on their uniforms and other accoutrements. Alas, the subject of WWII Japanese naval uniforms is expansive enough that several books have been written specifically on it. I found Gary Nila’s Japanese Naval Aviation Uniforms and Equipment (Osprey, 2002) and Osamu Tagaya’s Imperial Japanese Naval Aviator (Osprey, 1988) particularly useful. The reader is directed to those sources as it is beyond the scope of this article to try to cover such a broad topic.

However, I do want to offer some brief but possibly useful observations. Descriptions of the colors of any uniform and kit are generally helpful but rarely specific. When it comes to painting guides, illustrations are inarguably more effective than descriptions. The composite photo below shows several illustrations of Japanese navy pilots that I gathered from various sources. I chose these because they were the most representative of a Japanese naval pilot around the time of Pearl Harbor. It is immediately evident that interpretations of the colors of the uniform and kit vary considerably. Thus, modelers have a certain degree of latitude in the tint of the colors that they use.

Japanese Naval Pilot Uniforms

Source of each illustration:
1. Sakaida, Henry. Imperial Japanese Navy Aces 1937-45. Osprey, 1998, p.76 (artist Mike Chappell);
2. Tagaya, Osamu. Imperial Japanese Naval Aviator. Osprey, 1988, p.35 (artist John White);
3. Sakaida, p.76 (artist Mike Chappell);
4. Healy, Mark. Midway 1942: Turning Point in the Pacific. Osprey, 1993, p.14 (artist Chris Warner); and
5. Tamiya box art for its 1/16 Japanese Navy Fighter Pilot (artist unknown).
All are used under the Fair Use exception to the copyright laws.

Below are a few more brief observations on some common characteristics of naval aviators that I believe merit attention and readers may find useful:

Helmet – Although there were three types of helmets used by Japanese aviators during WWII, the differences between them are indiscernible at this scale. Suffice it to say that they were made of dark brown leather, fur-lined, usually with rabbit fur. It was fashionable for the right flap to be turned upwards.

Headband – In a tradition that dated back to the samurai, many IJN pilots used a white or red headband called Hachimaki — literally “helmet scarf” — both for good luck and to keep the sweat off their eyes. These were often adorned with inspirational slogans or mottoes. The hachimaki given to Commander Mitsuo Fuchida just before the Pearl Harbor attack, for example, bore the motto “Certain Victory.” See illustration 3 above.

Scarf – It was also common for pilots to wear a white scarf usually made from parachute silk around the neck. A white wool muffler was also used. See illustrations 3 and 4 above.

Uniform – The Japanese naval uniform is most often described as “brown gabardine.” Tagaya, for example, states that “all IJN airmen, regardless of rank, wore a one-piece dark brown gabardine flight suit with a large breast pocket located on the left side of the chest, as well as pockets on both trouser legs.” Nila is slightly more helpful with regards to color, describing the uniform as “a heavy, tight-weave wool gabardine material that ranged in color from a dark-chocolate brown to dark brown with a dark green tint.” Again, the description is helpful but not specific enough without an accompanying illustration.

Life Vest – When flying over water, Japanese pilots — Army and Navy — wore life jackets filled with kapok, a light cotton-like fiber from the pods of the tropical Ceiba tree that is inherently buoyant and resistant to water. The kapok life vest was flexible and comfortable and also provided a certain degree of protection from shrapnel. Note that all the pilots in the illustrations wear kapok life vests, essentially a hallmark of IJN pilots.

Gloves – Japanese pilots wore gauntlets with long loose wrists made of deerskin leather thin enough that it afforded freedom of finger movement to use instruments. Note that four of the five pilots in the illustrations have their gauntlets in hand.

Parachute – It has become conventional wisdom that IJN pilots did not use parachutes. The notion probably originated with Gordon W. Prange’s incomparable Tora! Tora! Tora! (Readers Digest, 1963) (p. 85), where he writes: “Like all the fliers, Takahashi carried a map of Oahu, a pistol, a knife, and waterproof cork jacket, the latter to give a slim chance of survival in case he had to ditch at sea, for these men wore no parachutes” (emphasis mine). Professor Prange was most probably right about the pilots at Pearl Harbor. However, many post-Pearl Harbor photographs show IJN pilots using their parachutes.

In an interview with Military History (December 2002), Saburo Sakai, Japan’s legendary Zero ace, was asked whether it was true that Japanese pilots were not allowed to carry parachutes. He responded: “That was never true. Some commanders ordered pilots to take them, although most of our battles were over enemy territory, and we would never have considered being captured. I flew with the thing as a seat cushion, if at all, since the straps reduced range of motion in the cockpit.” See illustrations 1, 2, and 4 above.

Boots – Early in the war, IJN pilots wore brown boots made of cowhide leather taken from China with a lambskin lining and black rubber heels and soles. However, as the war continued and the Japanese empire expanded, the need to produce equipment faster meant that boots were only made in black leather with a white canvas lining. By war’s end, as materials became progressively more scarce, naval flight boots were made of natural untanned pigskin. Thus, the modeling guideline is straightforward. For the early part of the war, such as Pearl Harbor, only brown boots are appropriate. From 1943 on, either black or brown boots will work. See illustrations 4 and 5 above.

Map – Naval aviators flew over vast distances and often carried a map that they sometimes tucked into the boot or into a trouser pocket. See illustration 4 above.

Sword – Naval pilots above the rank of lieutenant commander or higher were allowed to carry their swords into action. However, most declined to do so as they flew vast distances over the ocean where there were no landmarks and the metal sword could throw off their navigational instruments. See illustration 4 above.

Gun – IJN pilots often carried a side arm, though it was not intended for self defense but to commit suicide rather than be captured. Probably the most popular pistol was the Nambu, whose appearance closely resembled the German-made Luger. The pistol was tied to a lanyard that hung from the pilot’s neck, and was then tucked into the flight suit or one of the trouser pockets. See illustrations 2 and 3 above.

Timepiece – Some INJ pilots often wore a pocket watch suspended from their necks with a silk parachute cord. The timepieces, usually made by Seikosha (Seiko’s predecessor), were luxury items bought by the pilots themselves. See illustration 4 above. Note that several of the RedBox IJN Pilots wear just such a watch. See inset thumbnail at right.

VII. List of 1/72 Japanese Pilots and Crew

Below is a list of all the 1/72 Japanese aviation figures I could find. Although I included PSR photos above, I’m also including links, where available, for anyone who wants to read the PSR reviews.

CMK F72042 Japanese Army Pilots (2 pilots & 1 mechanic)
CMK F72043 Japan Navy Pilots (2 pilots & 1 mechanic)
CMK F72077 Japanese Crew (3 pilots)
CMK F72113 Japan Kamikaze Pilots (3 pilots)
CMK F72290 Japanese Army AF Mechanic (3 mechanics)
Hasegawa 35008 WWII Pilot Figure Set (2 pilots)
Hasegawa 35116 Japanese Navy Airmen Set
Hecker & Goros 226 Japanese Navy Fighter Pilot Mechanics (1 pilot)
HobbyMaster HP0004 WWII Pilots Set
JP Productions 721114 Japanese Pilots
Modelkasten 1800 JNAF Rabaul Aircrew (7 pilots)
Orion 72010R Japanese Army Aviation Tropical Set 1
RedBox 72048 WW2 Japanese Kamikaze (6 pilots)
RedBox 72052 WW2 Japanese Army Aviation Pilots & Ground Crew (6 pilots)
RedBox 72053 WW2 IJN Pilots & Ground Crew (8 pilots)
RedBox RBR72011 Japanese Kamikaze Resin Figures
Sword 172179 Isuzu Truck Workshop (PSR link is not Isuzu truck but it shows the same figures)

As the list makes clear, there are plenty of options for anyone wanting to create a diorama involving Japanese Navy pilots. Hasegawa has the distinction of making excellent figures and being the first and — to date — the last company to produce 1/72 scale Japanese pilots.

Lagniappe Photos

While working on the diorama, I realized I would need more deck crew than I had anticipated. While painting is not my forte, I resigned myself and began preparing 25 figures. The photo below shows the deck figures from various companies in plastic, resin, and metal with their bases clipped off, seams cleaned up, glued to bottle caps, and ready for priming.

The photo below shows the figures after they had been primed using a brush with Tamiya Surface Primer.

And finally, the photo below shows the figures after painting with Vallejo acrylic paints. I apologize again for my meager painting skills but I hope these figures will at least look the part.

As I had mentioned in a recent post, my intention going forward was to include more photos and less text. With over 20 photos and a lot less text than previous posts, I hope I succeeded.

Thank you for your indulgence and I hope you enjoyed the post. If something looks amiss, please let me know. I would be delighted to correct inaccurate information so that this may be useful to other 1/72 scale collectors and wargamers. As always, comments, questions, corrections, and observations are welcome. Following the plan for this diorama that I set nearly two years ago, stay tuned for the construction of a section of the deck of the Akagi in 1/72 scale in the next post.

Once again I want to thank my friend and fellow collector Joe Buccellato, of NY, whose workmanship and patience far exceed mine. He again enthusiastically painted most of these figures and to the extent they succeed the credit is all his.

The A6M Zero in 1/72: Akagi’s Zeros Prepare for Pearl Harbor, Part 3.2 – Masanobu Ibusuki: The Unsung Ace

This is Part 3.1 of a series of posts on the construction of a diorama depicting the Zeros of the Imperial Japanese Navy’s Akagi aircraft carrier preparing to take off as part of the first wave attack on Pearl Harbor. This post only concerns Masanobu Ibusuki. To understand the concept of this diorama project, please refer to this post. To view the finished diorama, please click here.

As mentioned in the preceding post, the Japanese pilots who participated in the Pearl Harbor attack were considered some of the most experienced, most highly skilled, and best-trained pilots in the world at the outbreak of the Pacific War. Still, their odds of surviving the war were minimal, irrespective of experience, skill, or training. As previously discussed, only two of the nine pilots survived the war. One of these was Masanobu Ibusuki, whose post-war story I found compelling.

As with Shigeru Itaya, I could find no biography of Ibusuki in any book or on the internet. What follows is derived from one-sentence references in various books as well as bits and pieces from obscure corners of the internet.

Assigned to the IJN’s Flagship Akagi

Ibusuki graduated from the Japanese Naval Academy in April 1940 and joined the fleet as a lieutenant in March 1941, less than a year later. He was assigned to the Akagi as a Zero fighter pilot and by early October was training for Pearl Harbor at Kagoshima Harbor, a Japanese harbor with similar terrain. Below is a photo of Akagi’s fighter pilots taken six months before Pearl Harbor (Japanese Naval Fighter Aces 1932-45, Ikuhiko Hata et al).

Attack on Pearl Harbor

At Pearl Harbor, Ibusuki was second in command to Shigeru Itaya, leading the second Shotai of Akagi Zeros in the first wave. His primary mission was to intercept American resistance above Pearl Harbor; his secondary mission was to strafe battleships anchored at Ford Island and parked aircraft at Hickam Air Field. The box art below from Trumpeter’s 1/24 scale Zero kit shows Ibusuki’s aircraft (AI-103) at Pearl Harbor. The two yellow stripes on the tail designate him as chutai (squadron) leader of the nine Akagi aircraft in the first wave.

Along with Itaya, Ibusuki was one of two Zero pilots credited with shooting down Captain Raymond Swenson’s B-17 (#40-2074) Flying Fortress at Hickam Air Field – the first B-17 casualty of the war. The public domain photo below shows what was left of the B-17 (Pearl Harbor Visitors Bureau website).The panoramic photo below was created by friend and fellow hobbyist Ara Hagopian by merging and enhancing three separate screen captures from color film taken by Sgt. Harold Oberg just three hours after the attack. The wreckage of the B-17’s fuselage can be seen on the far left. The severed tail can be seen on the far right of the photo.Raids on Port Darwin and Colombo

Ibusuki participated in numerous attacks on allied ports and ships while assigned to the Akagi. In February 1942, shortly after Pearl Harbor, he participated in the raid on Port Darwin, Australia and in April 1942 in the raid on Colombo, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) – two Japanese attacks on British ports that were virtually identical in scope and execution to the attack on Pearl Harbor. The photo below shows Australian ships burning at Darwin Harbor after the attack (Wikipedia MV Neptuna entry). Cheating Death at Midway

Probably more than at any time during the war, Ibusuki showed his mettle on June 4, 1942 at the Battle of Midway. While the entire Combat Air Patrol (CAP) — the Zero fighters charged with patrolling overhead to protect the Japanese fleet — worked extraordinarily hard throughout the battle, no one worked harder than Masanobu Ibusuki. Shattered Sword: The Untold Story of the Battle of Midway, Jonathan Parshall and Anthony Tully’s outstanding 600-page tome on Midway, includes Japanese operational records from the carrier air groups. The data shows when each CAP watch group launched and when it returned, as well as the pilots who comprised each group.

I gleefully added the periods each Akagi pilot was in the air during the various watches and produced the table below. As the table demonstrates, Ibusuki participated in two watches: the Third for 2 hours and 4 minutes; and the Eighth for 7 hours and 15 minutes, totaling 9 hours and 19 minutes patrolling overhead. The pilot with the next highest time, Zenji Ono, spent a total of 7 hours and 13 minutes during four watches. It bears mentioning that the average flight duration for all 19 Akagi pilots was 2 hours and 34 minutes — roughly a third of Ibusuki’s time. While I did not tabulate the periods for the pilots of the three other Japanese carriers at Midway, a review of the data revealed that no pilot even came close. Ibusuki showed his commitment and love of country that fateful day as he fought off American fighters and bombers hour after hour.

Ibusuki launched for his second watch at 9:45 a.m. that morning. Merely an hour later, fires raged uncontrollably throughout the Akagi deck after SBD Dauntless dive bombers from the USS Enterprise led by Richard Best hit it with 1,000-lb. bombs. Ibusuki continued to fight for another six hours before exhausting his fuel and being forced to ditch his Zero in the ocean as he could no longer land on the burning Akagi. Like several other Akagi Zero pilots at Midway, Ibusuki was rescued by the light cruiser Nagara. The Battle of Midway decimated the Imperial Japanese Navy but Ibusuki and several others cheated death that day. The photo below from Midway 1942: Turning Point in the Pacific, by Mark Stille, shows Japanese survivors of the Hiryu, rescued by a U.S. ship after drifting 14 days — their despair is an apt metaphor for the Battle of Midway. (NB: Corgi [PR99405] produced a lovely 1/72 scale limited edition of Best’s SBD-3 Dauntless with Midway markings.)

Unscathed After Crash-Landing at Guadalcanal

The Akagi now sunk, Ibusuki was transferred in July 1942 to the Shokaku, another carrier that had been present at Pearl Harbor. In early September, during fighting at Guadalcanal, Ibusuki’s Zero’s fuel tanks were ripped by enemy fire. Out of fuel, he was forced to crash-land just off-shore, in an area controlled by the Japanese. Again, he survived unscathed and was soon back in action.

A few months later, in October 1942, he led 20 Zero fighters at the Battle of Santa Cruz. Though the Shokaku was severely damaged from three direct hits, requiring it to return to Japan for repairs, it did not sink, yet it counted a meager four surviving Zeros by the end of the battle. Ibusuki had survived yet another close call. The photo below shows the crew of the Shokaku fighting fires on the flight deck during the battle of Santa Cruz (Wikipedia Shokaku entry).

Surviving the “Turkey Shoot” with the “Tora” Unit

As the Shokaku underwent repairs until February 1943, its experienced pilots were reassigned to other carriers and land-based units. While it is unclear where Ibusuki was assigned during the Shokaku’s repairs, by June 1943 he was serving as group leader of the newly formed land-based Air Group 261 — the Tora (“Tiger”) unit — at Kagoshima. The cover illustration below, from Japanese Naval Air Force Camouflage and Markings, Donald W. Thorpe’s seminal work on Japanese markings, could well be Ibusuki’s aircraft. Without mentioning Ibusuki, Thorpe describes the Zero in the illustration (虎-110) as belonging to the Group Leader of Air Group 261; on the other hand, without referencing this specific Zero, Hata names Ibusuki as the Group Leader of Air Group 261. It is reasonable to conclude from these two references that this might be Ibusuki’s aircraft since his membership covered the entire life of the Tora unit. (NB: Both Dragon [50049] and Witty [72-012-005] have produced 1/72 scale models of 虎-110.)

In June 1944, Air Group 261 suffered heavy losses during the Battle of the Philippine Sea, the largest carrier-to-carrier battle of the war. The aerial part of the battle came to be known as the Great Marianas Turkey Shoot because of the disproportionate losses suffered by the Japanese — over 600 aircraft were lost versus only 123 lost American aircraft. The photo at left is a graphic symbol of the destruction suffered by the IJN. While Ibusuki survived the battle, his unit was decimated. In July 1944, only a month after the Turkey Shoot, Air Group 261 was disbanded and what remained of its personnel was reassigned to Air Group 201, yet another prestigious land-based fighter unit operating out of the Philippines.

Surviving the First Kamikaze Unit

Barely three months later, Ibusuki was involved in one of the most controversial decisions of the war. Amid continued Japanese losses and distressed by the inexorable American march to his homeland, Takijiro Onishi, the Admiral in charge of the First Fleet under which Air Group 201 operated, reluctantly concluded that special attack suicide units willing to crash their explosives-laden aircraft into Allied vessels would be more effective than conventional bombing in slowing the rapidly advancing American forces. On October 19, 1944, Onishi consulted with Air Group 201 leadership, including Ibusuki, regarding the creation of such a unit. Cognizant of the Emperor’s Rescript requiring subjects to carry out their duty at any cost, Ibusuki assented. Onishi, now known as “father of the Kamikaze,” thus ordered Air Group 201 to form the first Kamikaze special attack unit. As the special attack units met with some success, the tactic spread throughout the IJN as the war reached its inevitable conclusion. Of the estimated 3,800 Kamikaze pilots who sacrificed their lives in these deliberate suicide attacks, more than 200 belonged to Air Group 201. In January 1945, surviving Air Group 201 pilots, including Ibusuki, were transferred to Taiwan.

Finishing the War with the Yokosuka Kokutai

Whereas most Air Group 201 pilots lost their lives, Ibusuki again survived, ultimately joining possibly the most elite unit of the Japanese Imperial Navy — the Yokosuka Kokutai. Created in 1916 as an aircraft testing and research unit, and to develop aerial fighting techniques, the Yoko Ku, as it came to be known, attracted the cream of Japanese pilots from all armed forces. In February 1944, as the IJN became desperate for pilots following Japanese heavy losses, the Yoko Ku was forced to become a fighting unit. Ibusuki must have joined the Yoko Ku in early 1945, after Air Group 201 was dissolved. According to Hata, in mid-February 1945, a group of 10 Zeros, Shiden-Kai, and Raiden aircraft led by Ibusuki shot down 19 American F6Fs and F4Us operating from aircraft carriers over Atsugi, Japan, about 25 miles southwest of Tokyo. The photo at left from Ikuhiko Hata et al’s Japanese Naval Fighter Aces shows Ibusuki while with the Yoko Ku.

The last Ibusuki wartime reference I could find was from August 1945. Following Japan’s unconditional surrender, American B-29s were spotted flying over Japan contrary to the terms of the ceasefire. Eager to intercept the American bombers, his men turned to now-commander Ibusuki for guidance. “International law forbids us to attack the enemy after surrender, but it is okay to get back at planes that attack us. Come on men, go get [them],” Ibusuki responded. Ibusuki’s WWII service was thus book-ended by the beginning of the Pacific conflict at Pearl Harbor and by its conclusion with the Japanese surrender.

The few paragraphs above are the sum total of what I could cobble together regarding Ibusuki’s wartime service from the score of brief one-sentence references to him in a couple dozen books at several libraries. Having concluded definitively that Ibusuki had survived the war, I began searching in post-WWII sources. My persistence was soon rewarded.

Ibusuki in His Own Words

I eventually found a reference to an article Ibusuki had written in 1955 for the English-language Nippon Times (now Japan Times) entitled “My Life as a Zero Pilot.” Lacking access to the Nippon Times, I learned that the article had been reproduced in a little-known journal called Japan Digest. Unfortunately, the digest was nowhere to be found online and only a handful of libraries in the U.S. carried the hard copy. I wrote to Indiana University Library and, after paying a fee and waiting a few days for someone to scan it, received a three-page PDF file by email.

At long last here was Ibusuki, telling his story in his own words – in English no less! While copyright laws prevent me from posting the entire article, these are the most salient points: Ibusuki had participated in some of the most intense episodes of the war, including Pearl Harbor, Port Darwin, Colombo, Midway, Rabaul, Saipan, and other Pacific battles. “I was not afraid – as I recollect – but I doubted that I would survive the war,” Ibusuki muses of Pearl Harbor. But he had indeed survived the war and was fortunate not to have been wounded, particularly as he had participated in the bloodiest fighting of the war. However, he had several brushes with death, including once ditching his plane at Midway, as previously discussed, and twice crash-landing after suffering battle damage at Guadalcanal and Peleliu. As I had surmised, he had indeed made ace – six times over – having shot down 30 planes (25 American and five British) during the war, including five in just one battle off the coast of Ceylon (two Hurricanes, two Spitfires, and a Swordfish torpedo bomber), according to his account.

Joining the Japanese Air Self-Defense Force

Ibusuki had joined the National Safety Force formed by Japan with American aid in 1952. In 1955, now nearly 40 years of age, he had learned English and was a member of Japan’s newly formed Air Self-Defense Force, which replaced the Imperial Japanese Army and Navy (the non-bellicose name complied with a provision in the new Japanese Constitution that Japan may not maintain war-making potential). Ironically, Ibusuki was flying U.S.-donated F-86 Sabre Jets (the American response to the Soviet MiG-15) and being trained by U.S. instructors. According to some sources, there were 30 applications for every opening and recruits were required to have a university education and proficiency in English. Ibusuki had nothing but praise for his American trainers and was pleased to be sitting in the cockpit once more. “I have won my wings again, and I am flying once again,” Ibusuki declares in closing. The photo below shows F-86 Sabres of the Japanese Air Self-Defense Force (Asian-Defence-News.blogspot.com July 2015).Encouraged by the Japan Digest article, and armed with more information, it became easier to locate additional articles. In March 1956, several U.S. dailies carried a brief article, similar to the one below from the San Rafael Daily Independent Journal dated March 1, 1956, detailing Ibusuki’s participation in joint U.S.-Japan training exercises in Japan. (The article is brief and mostly factual, and I felt comfortable posting it under the theory that facts cannot be copyrighted.)

Further research yielded several other 1956 articles that referenced Ibusuki in connection with the formation of Japan’s first tactical fighter wing since WWII. The most important of these was a September 1956 New York Times article entitled “Japanese Air Ace to Lead New Wing.” The article is noteworthy because of its unequivocal reference to Ibusuki as an “ace” with 25 victories over U.S. aircraft. The article details the creation of the Air Self-Defense Force and, among other things, describes how Ibusuki was a favorite of American pilots at the officer’s club. The first part of the article appears at right. Copyright laws prevent me from posting the entire article.

Nearly Cheating Death Again

However, less than four months later, the 41-year-old Ibusuki was dead. On January 9-10, 1957, just over 15 years after Pearl Harbor, several U.S. newspapers carried variations of the blurb below — this one from the Arizona Republic dated January 10, 1957:

Japanese Jet Pilot Dies in Air Collision TOKYO, Thursday (INS) – Japan lost one of its leading jet pilots yesterday when Lt. Col. Masanobu Ibusuki, 41, was killed in a collision between two American-built F-86 Sabrejets of the Japanese Air Defense Force. The pilot of the second plane, Maj. Gen. Hachiro Setoyama, commander of Japan’s Second Air Wing, parachuted to safety (emphasis mine).

Another brief article from January 9, 1957, in the Jamestown (N.Y.) Post-Journal provided additional information:

Japanese Pilot Dies in Aerial Collision HAMAMATSU, Japan (IP) – One of Japan’s best pilots, a veteran of the Pearl Harbor attack, was killed today in the new Japanese air force’s first aerial collision in its three-year history. Sabre Jets piloted by Lt. Col. Masanobi Ibusuki and Maj. Gen. Hachiro Setoyama brushed while flying in formation and went out of control. Both pilots were ejected from their cockpits but Ibusuki’s parachute did not open. His body reportedly plummeted into the ocean (emphasis mine).

Setoyama, himself a navy bomber pilot during WWII, parachuted to safety. Ibusuki, who had repeatedly cheated death during the war, actually survived the collision and successfully ejected from the Sabre. Ultimately, however, he was unable to cheat his destiny when his parachute failed to open. The sea, over which he flew his entire career as a naval pilot, made good its claim over him – perhaps fittingly. If death was unavoidable, Ibusuki could not have chosen a more suitable end, particularly given his dedication to duty as a Japanese pilot steeped in the Code of Bushido – “always prepared to die.”

The Unsung Ace

Ibusuki’s own article, published in the Nippon Times, where anyone could have contested his assertions, the New York Times article, which holds itself to the most stringent fact-checking standards, as well as many other short articles from various newspapers, invariably either credit Ibusuki with 25-30 kills, or otherwise refer to him as an “ace.” Why then does Ibusuki not appear on available lists of aces, such as Ikuhiko Hata et al’s Japanese Naval Fighter Aces 1932-45 (1989) or Henry Sakaida’s Imperial Japanese Navy Aces 1937-1945 (1998)? Ibusuki’s situation is similar to Itaya’s, an issue covered in a previous post. It is simply inconceivable that any pilot could survive four years of constant “kill-or-be-killed” aerial combat in WWII, including nine hours of fighting at Midway, without achieving five victories. The logical and inescapable conclusion is that the lists are incomplete, at least with regard to Ibusuki. If anyone reading this post has access to Henry Sakaida, one of the foremost experts on Japanese aces of WWII, please refer him to this post. Perhaps the record can be set straight — if indeed it is incorrect — and Ibusuki can claim his rightful place in Japanese naval history.

Thank you for your indulgence and I hope you enjoyed the post or at least found it informative. If something looks amiss, please let me know. I would be delighted to correct inaccurate information so that this may be useful to other 1/72 scale collectors and wargamers. As always, comments, questions, corrections, and observations are welcome. As mentioned, stay tuned for an overview of IJN pilots available in 1/72 scale in the next post.

I’d like to thank the great folks at Indiana University Library for their courteous and quick service in locating, scanning, and sending me Ibusuki’s article. I would also like to remind readers that I’m merely a 1/72 scale plane, tank, and soldier collector — not an academic or expert on this subject by any means.

Lagniappe Paragraph: “Life Imitates Art Far More than Art Imitates Life”

I realize this is totally off-topic, but as I avidly read about Ibusuki’s death, my thoughts drifted to the eerie similarities with the backstory of Bartholomew Quint, the ill-mannered professional shark hunter in Spielberg’s 1975 blockbuster movie Jaws. Serving on the USS Indianapolis, which had just delivered “Little Boy” to Tinian to be used on Hiroshima, Quint was one of just over 300 out of 1,200 men who survived its sinking by a Japanese submarine torpedo on July 30, 1945 – literally 16 days before the Japanese surrender. Approximately 900 men survived the sinking itself; of those, almost six hundred perished over the next four days from dehydration, salt-water poisoning and, more importantly for this article, shark attacks. Quint, who had been traumatized after witnessing many of his shipmates being eaten by sharks, ironically met his fate in the same terrifying manner – only thirty years later. Like Ibusuki, Quint eluded his fate during the war – but it was merely a reprieve.

For anyone interested in Robert Shaw’s unforgettable performance as Quint, particularly as he recounts the sinking of the Indianapolis, below is a four-minute YouTube video. Please note that Quint’s dates and figures are slightly inaccurate.

Back in the Saddle

Dear Readers:

I have spent over a year serving in a war-torn country where I didn’t have access to the hobby. While being away from family and friends was undoubtedly the toughest part of the tour, being away from the hobby — my books, tanks, planes, soldiers and, of course, fellow collectors — was easily the second hardest part. At any rate, I’m back, eager to resume where I left off before my long absence.

As I reread some of my previous posts, I realized that some included more text than necessary and not enough photos to illustrate the narrative. A long list of nearly completed articles also made me conclude that I often failed to publish articles because of some missing piece of information that, in any event, was minor and not crucial to the post. I will apply two aphorisms going forward: First, “a picture paints a thousand words” so I have resolved to be less verbose and include more photos; and second, “perfect is the enemy of the good” so I will seek to publish pieces when they convey sufficient information to make them useful, even if some information is still missing.

When I began this blog I aspired to publish one post each week. Alas, as some fellow bloggers with similar websites had cautioned, daily life often interferes with the hobby and even a single post a month can be challenging. Still, I have enough in the pipeline that a monthly post is feasible. Anyhow, I will strive to make it so.

To those readers who left comments that went unanswered during my absence, I sincerely apologize. It is precisely for you that I write this blog. I genuinely appreciate that you visited the blog and cared enough about the content to leave a comment. I will endeavor to respond to those comments as time permits.

Regarding the Pearl Harbor diorama I enthusiastically began more than a year ago, I promise you I completed it and photographed it — Scout’s Honor. I simply didn’t get a chance to write the narrative to accompany the photographs. You will see several posts on the diorama over the next couple of months.

Thanks for visiting the site. Our enjoyment of the hobby is greatly enhanced when we share it with like-minded individuals.

Warm regards,

chules

The A6M Zero in 1/72: Akagi’s Zeros Prepare for Pearl Harbor, Part 3.1 – The Pilots

This is Part 3 of a series of posts on the construction of a Pearl Harbor diorama. It will depict the Zeros of the Imperial Japanese Navy’s Akagi aircraft carrier preparing to take off during the first wave attack. To understand the concept of this diorama project, please refer to the previous posts. This post concerns only the nine Zero pilots who participated in the first wave. It’s important to make abundantly clear at the outset that I’m not an expert on this subject and what follows is superficial research compiled from the dozen books I own on the Zero, supplemented by bits and pieces from obscure corners of the internet.

I. Introduction

It is often stated that few of the highly skilled pilots of the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) at the beginning of the Pacific War — most of them highly experienced veterans of the China War — survived the conflict. While there is little doubt the assertion is generally accurate, information specifically summarizing the fate of IJN Pearl Harbor pilots proved elusive — at least in English. My interest, of course, was on the fate of the nine Akagi Zero pilots who participated in the first wave. Below is a June 1941 photo of Akagi’s fighter pilots from the new edition of Ikuhiko Hata et al’s Japanese Naval Fighter Aces 1932-45, translated from the Japanese by Christopher Shores. Itaya Akagi Cropped Conveniently for purposes of this post, Peter Smith’s Mitsubishi Zero: Japan’s Legendary Fighter provides a narrative that names all nine Akagi Zero pilots of the first wave:

“The Akagi had contributed the No. 1 Fighter Strike Unit comprising a hikotai of nine A6M2s divided into three shotai of three planes each. No. 1 Shotai was Lieutenant-Commander Shigeru Itaya, who was in overall command of the 1st Wave fighter aircraft, with Petty Officers 1st Class Takashi Hirano and Shinatsugu Iwama. No. 2 Shotai consisted of Lieutenant Masanobu Ibusuki, with Petty Officer 1st Class Yoshio Iwashiro and Seaman 1st Class Toichiro Hanyu. No. 3 Shotai comprised Warrant Officer Suekichi Osanai, Petty Officer 2nd Class Masao Yaguchi and Seaman 1st Class Mitsuyoshi Takasuka.”

Curiously, Smith does not provide a similar narrative for the pilots of Akagi’s second wave, nor does he provide any narrative whatsoever for the pilots of the other five aircraft carriers at Pearl Harbor. A rare and serendipitous occurrence, it’s as if Smith knew that these were the nine names I needed. 🙂 At any rate, once armed with the names of the nine pilots, obtaining additional information was simply a matter of checking indices, lists of aces, lists of deaths, and lists of academy graduates in other books, plus bits and pieces from the internet.

Notations

Two notations are necessary at this point. First, the spelling of Japanese names can often get mangled in translation. Thus, for consistency I’ve used the spelling in Hata et al’s Japanese Naval Fighter Aces 1932-45. For example, after several searches proved futile, I concluded that the following corrections were necessary to Peter Smith’s list: Shinatsugu Iwama was actually Shinaji Iwama; Yoshio Iwashiro was actually Yoshio Iwaki; Masao Yaguchi was actually Masao Taniguchi; and Mitsuyoshi Takasuka was actually Mitsuyoshi Takasuga.

Secondly, I thought it best to avoid using ranks after Pearl Harbor to avoid confusion, as pilots were promoted over the course of the war and it was not uncommon to promote pilots posthumously. For example, a pilot may have held the rank of seaman during Pearl Harbor but had been promoted to petty officer at the time of his death.

II. The Pilots: Low Odds of Survival

Below is a table of the Zeros that participated in Akagi’s first wave used in a previous post, modified to include the pilots’ names and the date of their deaths (DOD). I used various sources, most notably the aforementioned new edition of Hata et al’s Japanese Naval Fighter Aces 1932-45, which helpfully includes a couple of profiles of the Zeros used by these pilots.Though the Japanese pilots who participated in the Pearl Harbor attack were considered some of the most experienced, most highly skilled, best trained pilots in the world at the outbreak of the Pacific War, the odds of surviving the war were minimal, irrespective of experience, skill, or training. It is a sobering thought that, as the table graphically demonstrates, of the nine Akagi Zero pilots who participated in the first wave, six had perished by October 1942 — less than a year after Pearl Harbor — and another was killed by the end of the war. Only two of the nine pilots survived the war. While this sample size is too small to extrapolate to the 78 Zero pilots from all six carriers in both waves, it does provides a reasonable estimate of the number of survivors: probably around 17.

The table also makes clear just how difficult it was to make ace; i.e., to score five victories. As can be seen on the table, only two of the nine pilots accomplished the feat, one with 14 victories and one with 8 victories, despite the fact that these were some of the most experienced pilots in the world involved in arguably the most target-rich episode in human history. Thus, the odds of making ace were the same as those of surviving the war — roughly one in five. (NB: Let’s be clear, “victory” is a euphemism for “kill,” the term more commonly used. To be an “ace,” a pilot had to shoot down five enemy planes, which often resulted in killing five or more men. I use the term “ace” without any value judgment. These men were merely doing what their country asked of them. To the extent there’s admiration for an “ace,” it is not because the pilot killed other men but rather because of the skill necessary to survive.)

III. Notable Pilots

While I’m fairly certain that much could be written about each one of these nine pilots, my goal was to identify them and their Zeros and ascertain whether they survived the war or made ace. I hope the table above achieves that modest purpose. However, I want to bring the reader’s attention to four of these pilots, without disrespect or attempt to diminish the achievements or sacrifices of the other five. These four pilots are pictured below; from left to right, they are Shigeru Itaya, Yoshio Iwaki, Masao Taniguchi, and Masanobu Ibusuki. Uncannily, all four appear in the first photo above and are specifically identified in the caption, despite the fact that only six of the 19 pilots pictured are mentioned in the caption.

Shigeru Itaya, the overall commander of the 43 Zeros in the first wave, was covered in a previous post, soon to be rewritten with assistance received from readers familiar with Japanese sources. Please refer to that post by clicking here. Yoshio Iwaki, one of the two pilots who made ace, had earned eight victories when he met his death August 24, 1942, in the Eastern Solomons, incidentally serving on the Shokaku — another carrier present at Pearl Harbor.

The other ace was Masao Taniguchi, pictured in the lagniappe photo at left, who not only has the distinction of achieving the most victories — 14 — but was also one of the two pilots who survived the war. After being shot down in October 1944, he was fortunate to be convalescing in Japan when the war came to an end. Coincidentally, Taniguchi, like Iwaki, also served on the Shokaku after the Akagi was sunk at Midway.

Because Iwaki and Taniguchi both made ace, information on them is slightly more available. See, for example, Hata et al’s Japanese Naval Fighter Aces for short biographies of these two. However, it was Masanobu Ibusuki, the other pilot who survived the war, and for whom little information is available, whose story I found compelling — and the subject of the next post.

As always, thank you for your indulgence and I hope you enjoyed the post. If something looks amiss, please let me know. I would be delighted to correct inaccurate information so that this may be useful to other 1/72 scale collectors and wargamers. As always, comments, questions, corrections, and observations are welcome. As mentioned, stay tuned for a brief biographic note on Masanobu Ibusuki in the next post.

The A6M Zero in 1/72: Akagi’s Zeros Prepare for Pearl Harbor Diorama, Part 2.4 – The Decaled Zeros

This is Part 2.3 of a series of posts on the construction of a Pearl Harbor diorama. It will depict the Zeros of the Imperial Japanese Navy’s Akagi aircraft carrier preparing to take off during the first wave attack. This post is a follow-up to the previous post and concerns only the pre-built 1/72 scale Zeros to be used in the diorama with renumbered tail markings. To understand the concept of this diorama project, please refer to the previous posts.

The Actual Akagi Zeros

As previously mentioned, the Akagi contributed nine A6M2 Zeros to the first wave attack. As a refresher, below is a table from a previous post of the Zeros that participated in Akagi’s first wave. The Prebuilt 1/72 Scale Models

The photo below shows the prebuilt 1/72 scale Akagi Zeros currently available. It is immediately evident that of the nine actual Zeros that participated in Akagi’s first wave, only AI-155 and AI-154 have been produced in diecast. Unfortunately, the Corgi AI-154 is unusable as is, since Corgi used black, rather than red, tail numbers.The Diorama Zeros

For purposes of the diorama, the goal is to use the five models in the photo above plus four spares — two additional Wittys and two additional FOVs. Only the Dragon AI-155 will be used unmodified; the remaining eight will require new tail numbers as per the chart above. Below is a notional photo of the expected result once the decals are applied.

The Decaled Zeros

I searched extensively for MYK Design’s A-72009 Tora! Tora! Tora! Carrier Akagi 1/72 decal sheet (pictured below), since it includes five of the nine necessary tail numbers: AI-103, AI-107, AI-151, AI-155, and AI-158. (The AI-155 decal is unnecessary as I’ll be using the Dragon model that already carries that tail number.) Alas, I was unsuccessful as the sheet has been out of print for years.

Ultimately, I had no choice but to make the decals myself. I enlarged the image at left, cleaned it up, enhanced the numbers as much as possible, and then reduced it back to 1/72 scale. I then printed the image on Micro-Mark decal paper.

To my dismay, I found that handling the decal sheet resulted in slight smudging. After rereading the decal paper directions, I reprinted the image and “fixed” it onto the sheet with Winsor & Newton fixative. Failure to apply a coat of fixative to protect the image will result in the image smudging like lead on a pencil drawing when touched.

The photo below shows the decal sheet printed on the Micro-Mark decal paper after the fixative had been applied.With decals in hand, I prepared the three Witty models for application of the decals by removing the tail numbers and yellow stripes as necessary — leaving two stripes for the AI-103; one stripe for the AI-107; and no stripes for the AI-158. See photo below.

There are essentially two ways to remove the tampo markings on diecast models: 1) by scraping them off, preferably with an X-Acto #10 curved blade; or 2) by applying some sort of solvent, such as Testors 1148 thinner or standard acetone for nail polish removal. I found that a combination of the two methods worked best for me. (Note: Do not use enamel thinner on plastic models. It will ruin the plastic finish.) Once the original markings were totally removed, I applied a coat of Pledge (Future) floor finish to ensure that the decals found a glossy base that would prevent silvering. (Pledge’s self-leveling properties are amazing!) After waiting a day for the Pledge to cure, I used Micro Set and Micro Sol solutions to apply the decals.

Micro Set prepares the surface where the decal is to be applied by cutting the oils in the paint, thus allowing the decal to slide on the surface, making it easier to reposition the decal as necessary. Micro Sol softens the decal, allowing it to conform to the surface of the model, which is particularly useful on irregular surfaces such as the panel lines and ridges on the Zero tails. Using these two solutions will help make the decals look “painted-on.”

After waiting another day for the decals to dry, I again applied a coat of Pledge to completely seal the decals between two layers of Pledge. Of course, the Pledge application resulted in a glossy finish. After waiting yet another day, I sprayed the decals with Testors Dull Cote to give the tails a matte finish that matched the rest of the model. The photo below shows the results after the Dull Cote had dried.

In addition to an unmodified Witty model (AI-155), the photo below shows the three decaled Witty models (AI-103, AI-107, and AI-158), plus one decaled FOV model (AI-151). Note that some paint came off the tail of the FOV when I removed the tampo markings, giving it an unintended — though not totally unwelcome — weathered look. (Yes, I’m accepting that which I cannot change. 🙂 )As previously mentioned, Corgi inexplicably applied black tail numbers to the AI-154 (see inset in the photo below), rather than the well-documented red numbers. I removed the black numbers with Testors thinner and applied a decal with correct red numbers following the process discussed above. Note that the MYK Design A-72009 decal sheet did not include the AI-154 so I made the decals using letters and numbers from different fonts to simulate the MYK Design numbers. The lagniappe photo below shows the result. I made the extra decals standing by the tail in case I botched the first application — a common occurrence, at least for me, when applying decals. To summarize, six models are now ready: the unmodified Dragon AI-155 plus five decaled planes — three Witty models (AI-103, AI-107, and AI-158), one FOV (AI-151), and one Corgi (AI-154). I’ve decided not to decal the last three (AI-152, AI-153, and AI-156) as the FOV model did not respond well to removal of the tampo markings. Instead, I’ll use paper covers using the stencil in the previous post.

I apologize for such a tedious post. I realize that except for diehard readers, discussion of the tail numbers can get repetitive and confusing. Still, I think the photos by themselves tell the story.

Again, thank you for your indulgence and I hope at least some of you enjoyed the post. If something looks amiss, please let me know. I would be delighted to correct inaccurate information so that this may be useful to other 1/72 scale collectors and wargamers. As always, comments, questions, corrections, and observations are welcome. Stay tuned for a brief discussion of the Zero pilots who participated in Akagi’s first wave attack in the next post.

The A6M Zero in 1/72: Akagi’s Zeros Prepare for Pearl Harbor Diorama, Part 2.3 – The Diorama Zeros

This is Part 2.2 of a series of posts on the construction of a diorama depicting the Zeros of the Imperial Japanese Navy’s Akagi aircraft carrier preparing to take off as part of the first wave attack on Pearl Harbor. Providing the history of the Zero or its technical details is beyond the scope of this article. This post concerns only the prebuilt 1/72 scale Zeros to be used in the diorama. To understand the concept of this diorama project, please refer to the previous posts.

The Actual Akagi Zeros

As previously mentioned, the Akagi contributed nine A6M2 Zeros and 27 B5N2 Kates to the first wave attack. As a refresher, below is a table from a previous post of the Zeros that participated in Akagi’s first wave. As is readily apparent, the tail numbers are all in the AI-150’s except for AI-103 and AI-107. Up to this point, I had deliberately avoided discussing the tail numbers as creating the correct numbers will be one of the more difficult parts of this project, as discussed below. The Prebuilt 1/72 Scale Models

The photo below shows the prebuilt 1/72 scale Akagi Zeros currently available.* It is immediately evident that of the nine actual Zeros that participated in Akagi’s first wave, only AI-155 and AI-154 have been produced in diecast. AI-155 — Shigeru Itaya’s Zero — has been produced by Dragon, Forces of Valor, and Witty. A review of each can be found by clicking on the name of the manufacturer. A short biography of Itaya is also available by clicking on his name. AI-154 has been produced by Corgi. Unfortunately, despite all evidence to the contrary, Corgi inexplicably used black tail numbers rather than red numbers, for which there is abundant proof. AFV Club also produced an Akagi Zero — the AI-101 — that participated in the second wave. For the sake of completeness, it will be used in this project so collectors may compare models from all five manufacturers that have thus far produced an Akagi Zero. The Diorama Zeros

For purposes of the diorama, the goal is to use the five models in the photo above plus four duplicates. The challenge is to create models with all of Akagi first wave numbers other than AI-155. Even AI-154 will be required as the tail number must be in red. The idea is to scrape off the original painted numbers and replace them with appropriate decals so that they match the table above. As thus far I have been unsuccessful in finding the decals, I made a stencil of the tail to cover the tail numbers in the interim. I then scanned the color of each model and applied it to the tail stencil. Matching base colors proved more difficult than I had anticipated.

For those interested in how the colors of the five manufacturers compare, below is a plate showing a scan of each model’s base color. The color of the Corgi model is actually beige and the inset at left matches the model reasonably well. I’m perplexed, however, by the difference in the color of the Corgi model in the photos and conclude it’s due to the lighting. The FOV and Witty colors look very similar but that’s as close to the models as the scanner could make them. Once I made stencils for all five colors, I covered the tail of each model with a new number.The lagniappe photo below provides a notional idea of the intended result. At this point, the tail numbers appear to be a weak part of the project. That will change, however, once the decals are applied. Again, thank you for your indulgence and I hope you enjoyed the post. If something looks amiss, please let me know. I would be delighted to correct inaccurate information so that this may be useful to other 1/72 scale collectors and wargamers. As always, comments, questions, corrections, and observations are welcome. Stay tuned for photos of the models once the decals are applied.

* Witty also produced AI-101 and AI-102 but both were used in the second wave and, except for the tail numbers, are identical to the AI-155. While Atlas/Oxford (same casting) also produced aircraft carrier A6M2 Zeros, they did not make an Akagi Zero. Instead, Atlas produced a model from the Kaga while Oxford produced one from the Ryujo.

WWII in 1/72 Scale

My Obsession with Miniatures and WWII

Joachim Marseille’s Bf 109 Refueling at Quotaifiya Airfield, Egypt — I. Introduction

One Hundred Countries; One Million Views

Der Kommissar’s in Town: The Soviet Politruk in 1/72

The A6M Zero in 1/72: Akagi’s Zeros Prepare for Pearl Harbor – Finished Diorama

The A6M Zero in 1/72: Akagi’s Zeros Prepare for Pearl Harbor, Part 3.3 – Japanese Pilots and Crew in 1/72 Scale

The A6M Zero in 1/72: Akagi’s Zeros Prepare for Pearl Harbor, Part 3.2 – Masanobu Ibusuki: The Unsung Ace

Back in the Saddle

The A6M Zero in 1/72: Akagi’s Zeros Prepare for Pearl Harbor, Part 3.1 – The Pilots

The A6M Zero in 1/72: Akagi’s Zeros Prepare for Pearl Harbor Diorama, Part 2.4 – The Decaled Zeros

The A6M Zero in 1/72: Akagi’s Zeros Prepare for Pearl Harbor Diorama, Part 2.3 – The Diorama Zeros