56 | FLIGHTPATH
ABOVE: A G4M1 tail gunner poses by his
mount at Vunakanau before embarking on
another mission against Port Moresby. 4 NAG
would eventually lose more than fifty G4M1s to
combat and operational accidents. Their losses
were so severe they were sent back to Japan
in late September 1942 to reform.
RIGHT: Target for the day was the town of
Port Moresby, as seen in this photograph
taken just prior to the outbreak of hostilities.
Lt Kawai Shirō leads FPO1c Ōshima Tōru and FPO2c Sakai Yoshimi from his assigned Type 21 Zero
V-153 back towards Lae on 9 April 1942, some 2,000 feet above the bomber formation they were
assigned to protect. V-153 sports two oblique yellow fuselage stripes, denoting his leadership of
the Tainan’s 3rd Squadron. This fighter was previously coded F-153 with the No. 4 Naval Air
Group’s fighter detachment when Kawai served with that unit at Lae before being reassigned to
the Tainan NAG. Kawai was one of the few Tainan pilots who returned safely to Japan in
November 1942 when the Tainan NAG was disbanded. [Artwork [email protected]]Koko da’s
Unidentified
Bomber