A propaganda video from the NHK collection, dated December 7, 1943, features a Yokosuka D4Y "Suisei" (Judy) taking off on a reconnaissance mission. Unfortunately, the tail marking is not visible and therefore we cannot confirm the unit based on that missing information.
According to the narrator:
"Under the scorching sun of the South Pacific, our Navy’s newest aircraft has taken off for the first time. Making the most of its speed in the Solomon Islands theater—where fierce aerial battles rage from dawn till dusk—it soars over enemy lines. Looking down, I see the enemy airfields at Tulagi, Guadalcanal, and Munda, where 100 million people swallowed their tears and swore revenge. Our reconnaissance and search-and-destroy network is tight and leaves no gaps."
In other words, the area covered in the reconnaissance mission is the South Pacific, and as we saw in the previous post, the "Suisei" equipped unit operating in the theater at that specific time was the 501 Kokutai.
Leave a comment if you know of any other "Suisei" equipped units the aircraft in the video could belong to.
A few years ago, I asked a veteran observer how they managed to take photos on a reconnaissance mission, given that the "Suisei" lacked windows on the sides of the fuselage, unlike other reconnaissance aircraft of the IJNAF and IJAAF. He explained that the observer had to communicate with the pilot, who banked the plane to the side the observer indicated and then took photos by leaning outside the cockpit while holding the portable camera.
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