The 48th Sentai (Squadron) was formed on July 21, 1943, at Yanji in eastern Manchuria (present day Northeast China) with personnel drawn from the 77th and 204th training Sentai. In late April, the 48th Sentai, which by that time had been fully equipped with 43 aircraft organized in three chutai (flights), was ordered to be dispatched to Central China, and the Ki-43s led by squadron leader Major Masao Matsuo, left Yanji on the 27th and assembled at Wuchang Airfield on the 29th.
A photo from a vintage publication featuring 48 Sentai pilots receiving instructions from sentai commander Maj Matcuo Masao. The location is Wuhan and the photo is dated end of April 1944. The "Hayabusa" in the background are all Model 2 Otsu. At that time the unit did not use any specific tail marking but had numbers applied on the tail. According to some sources, the 1st Chutai numbers were in white, the 2nd Chutai in red and the 3rd Chutai in yellow. The squadron headquarters had its numbers painted in "sky blue". The visible numbers are "47", "66" and "98".
From then on, they carried out daily attacks on enemy strongholds such as Suichuan, Shayang, Changsha and Hengyang as part of the Operation Ichi-go, and achieved considerable success. But the unit also suffered heavy losses, including the wounding of squadron leader Matsuo and the death or injury of all the officers. By September 1, they were down to 14 aircraft.
In early November, in response to the ground forces' Guilin campaign, the squadron advanced to Hengyang Airfield as a forward base and engaged in attacks and interception operations in the area, but the counterattacks of the US Army Air Corps in China, which had been greatly strengthened, were extremely fierce, and after heavy combat on the 11th, the number of operational aircraft in the squadron fell drastically to just two.
In order to restore its fighting strength, the 48th Sentai, which had retreated to Wuchang, gradually replaced their aircraft with Type 1 Model 3s.
A rare 48 Sentai group photo taken on May 5, 1945, in Tenga Airfield in Canton. Sitting third from the left with the mustache is Maj Kaburagi Tateo, the second sentai commander of the unit.
During the second raid against Hankow on January 14, 1945, by over 100 US aircraft, the unit took part in the air battles in full force, but suffered heavy losses with few results. Between February and March, it was dispatched to Canton (present-day Guangzhou) in South China to provide air defence and and convoy protection. In May the unit moved to Tushanzen, near Nanking (present-day Nanjing) and in June to Taixian (present day Taizhou), but concentrated on training for anti-ship attacks in preparation for the imminent landing of US forces in Shanghai, and they avoided air combat until the end of the war.
A well-known NARA photo featuring a Manshyu Ki-79 trainer on the right side of the photo and a long line-up of 48 Sentai Model 3 Koh "Hayabusa" fighters. The NARA caption mentions that these aircraft were found in Shanghai but Japanese sources explain that the location is the Taixian Airfield, 100km east of Nanking. As we saw in the unit history above, the 48 Sentai was based in Taixian Airfield at the end of the war, not in Shanghai.
Hasegawa has released a kit, number 07418, of the aircraft featured in the photo above and the profile from the Hasegawa site shows the Ki-43 in color. The 48 Sentai adopted this tail marking design when they changed their older Model 2 "Hayabusa" fighters to the new Model 3. The aircraft belonged to the 1st Chutai as indicated by the tail marking in white. Note that the spinner is of the same color.
A lesser known NARA photo featuring the same "Hayabusa" line-up but this time we can see that the aircraft closer to the camera on the right has a dark spinner, which would indicated that it belonged to the 2nd Chutai which had red tail markings.
An often reproduced photo I spotted on the internet features another 48 Sentai Model 3 "Hayabusa". Behind the white "gaiseibutai shikibetsu tai" band that indicated that the unit was deployed outside Japan, there are two kanji (abe) that identify the pilot of this particular aircraft as Sgt Okabe. Again, some non-Japanese sources have identified the location as "Kiangwan Airfield" in Shanghai but Japanese sources disagree and mention Canton.
Last but not least, a photo I recently spotted on the net featuring some 48 Sentai, 2nd Chutai "Hayabusa" that have been taken over by the Nationalist Army of China.
More exciting stuff in part 2!
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