A small clip from the 1942 movie "Umiwashi" (Wild Sea Eagles) showcases a Mitsubishi C5M2 "Babs," the IJNAF version of the Army's Army Type 97 Command Reconnaissance aircraft Ki-15, flown by the 12th Kokutai as indicated by the number "3" on the tail, which operated a small number of this aircraft type for reconnaissance missions.
Brief unit history.
On 7 July 1937, the Marco Polo Bridge Incident erupted, leading to military clashes between Japan and China and the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War. Just four days after the incident, on the 11th, the Navy decided to dispatch six aviation units to the continent. The First Combined Air Group, responsible for strategic bombing, was composed of the Kisarazu Naval Air Group and the Kagoshima Naval Air Group. Two air groups tasked with air superiority and two air groups responsible for reconnaissance were organised into the ‘Second Combined Air Group’ .
The 12th Kokutai was formed on July 11, 1937, by selecting 30 aircraft from the Saeki Naval Air Base as the attack and combat unit of the 2nd Combined Air Squadron and deployed to the Central China region. It was initially equipped with 12 Nakajima A4N fighters, 12 Aichi D1A dive bombers and 12 Kugisho B3Y torpedo bombers. In August it moved to Zhoushuizi airfield at Dalian and in September to Kunda airfield near Shanghai. Between October and November, it converted to new Mitsubishi A5M fighters. After the capture of Nanking the unit moved to Dajiaochang airfield at Nanking, where it conducted missions against Nanchang and Hankou.
In March 1938, it was designated as a fighter-only unit and assimilated fighters from the 13th Kokutai, which in turn became a medium-bomber unit. The strength of the 12th Kokutai then became 30 A5M fighters.
After the capture of Hankou, the unit transferred to an airbase near Hankou. Nevertheless, due to the lack of range to escort the medium bombers into inland China, they did not see much action. This changed in the summer of 1940 when the first batch of new Mitsubishi A6M Zero fighters arrived in the China theater.
Until the summer of 1941, the 12th Kokutai in Central China and the 14th Kokutai in South China made a combined claim of 103 aircraft shot down and further 163 destroyed on the ground for the loss of three aircraft. Both naval units were disbanded on September 15, 1941, which left air operations in China entirely to the Imperial Japanese Army Air Force.
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