Tetsuzo Iwamoto is practicing marksmanship.
In May, 1938, Tetsuzo Iwamoto flew ten times for patrolling over Nanjing and Wúhú, and had two emergency takeoffs to stop enemy raids. In both cases, enemies flew away to have no air battle. On the page for May of his “Aviation Record” says:
“3rd Sergeant Minami, on his way back to the base, had an engine trouble, landing on the bank of Yangtze River and having a narrow escape.” On May 31, Yoshitomi Company fought against about 50 enemies in the raid to Hankou and shot down 20 of them. 3rd Sergeant Yoshimi Minami got hit at the time, and actually landed on the bank of Yangtze River. Then, he was rescued by a patrol boat and came back to his base later. At the end of May, 1938, Tetzsuzo’s total flight hours were 541 hours and 5 minutes with 1,021 flight times, and in this month, he was promoted to 3rd Sergeant.
On Jun 26, Tetsuzo shot down an I-16, and scored another as a coordinated kill when he escorted bombers for raiding Nanchang. On this day, 18 bombers and 28 Type 96 Fighters headed for the city, but due to a bad weather, only 3 bombers and 12 fighters reached an enemy airfield. The Japanese fighters engaged with 35 enemies, shooting down about 20 of them, and Tetsuzo downed two including one coordinated score. There was no casualty at all in the Japanese air force so that it was a lopsided victory.
In July 23, Tetsuzo escorted carrier-based bombers to raid Nanchang with no air combat. Other missions were only patrolling over the base and moving from base to base, engaging no air battle at all in July.
On July 18, Captain Mochifumi Nangoh was killed in action in the raid on Nanchang. Though Tetsuzo didn’t participate in the raid on this day, he jotted a memo on the page for July of his “Aviation Record”: “Captain Nangoh, MIA on 7.18”
On Aug 3, eighteen medium size bombers with twenty-one Type 96 Fighters raided Hankou. The Japanese carrier-based fighters engaged in a battle with about 50 enemies, shooting down about 30 of them. On the other hand, only three Japanese planes were lost. The types of enemies included Curtis Hawk and British Gloster Gladiator, and Tetsuzo shot down four Gladiators.
Could be a type of chrysanthemum.
