Monday, 30 June 2025

"Nihongun Rokakuki" #7 - North American P-51 Mustang


According to the clip naration:
"On the same day as the capture of Guilin, 10 November, the elite troops of the Imperial Japanese Army also captured Liuzhou, and on 24 November, they pursued the defeated enemy from Guilin and Liuzhou and successfully captured Nanning
In Liuzhou, the enemy had deployed a massive force of 16 divisions, but our troops charged forward with fierce close combat and routed the enemy within 10 days. 
At the southern end of Liuzhou, the Americans were rushing to establish a dedicated runway to turn the airfield into a B-29 base, but it was destroyed before completion. Pursuing the defeated enemy, our elite troops advanced rapidly toward Nanning. Nanning, the last stronghold in Guangxi Province, was the base of the hated American Air Force that had obstructed our maritime transport routes along the southern coast centred on French Indochina. On 24 November, our troops entered the city. Coincidentally, exactly five years later, Nanning returned to our hands. With the capture of Nanning, the enemy's crucial air bases in southwestern China are now completely under our control, and the situation on the mainland is now developing in our absolute favour."

Wartime Japanese propaganda aside, the facts are that "On 24 November, the Japanese captured Nanning, completing the Ichi-Go objective to establish a rail link from French Indo-China to Hankow, Shanghai and Peking." (from here)

I found the attached photo of the same Mustang featured in the clip here. The date of the caption is off but Gary Lai added: It is P-51C-11-NT 44-10789, 26th FS, 51st FG, 14th AF
(for those not familiar with US military abbreviations: 26 Fighter Squadron, 51 Fighter Group, 14 Air Force)

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