The was an aircraft and airbase garrison unit of the

Imperial Japanese Navy The Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN; Kyūjitai: Shinjitai: ' 'Navy of the Greater Japanese Empire', or ''Nippon Kaigun'', 'Japanese Navy') was the navy of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945, Potsdam Declaration, when it was dissolved followin ...

(IJN) during the Pacific campaign of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. This article covers first generation, second generation, renamed unit the , and re-organised unit the also.

First generation

History

The Misawa Air Group was established on 10 February 1942 in Misawa,

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

and operated

Mitsubishi G4M The Mitsubishi G4M is a twin-engine, land-based medium bomber formerly manufactured by the Mitsubishi Aircraft Company, a part of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, and operated by the Air Service (IJNAS) of the Imperial Japanese Navy from 1940 to ...

medium bombers. After the Allied landing on

Guadalcanal Guadalcanal (; indigenous name: ''Isatabu'') is the principal island in Guadalcanal Province of Solomon Islands, located in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, northeast of Australia. It is the largest island in the Solomons by area and the second- ...

and

Tulagi Tulagi, less commonly known as Tulaghi, is a small island in Solomon Islands, just off the south coast of Ngella Sule. The town of the same name on the island (pop. 1,750) was the capital of the British Solomon Islands Protectorate from 1896 t ...

on 7 August, the unit was dispatched to

Rabaul Rabaul () is a township in the East New Britain province of Papua New Guinea, on the island of New Britain. It lies about to the east of the island of New Guinea. Rabaul was the provincial capital and most important settlement in the province ...

New Britain New Britain () is the largest island in the Bismarck Archipelago, part of the Islands Region of Papua New Guinea. It is separated from New Guinea by a northwest corner of the Solomon Sea (or with an island hop of Umboi Island, Umboi the Dampie ...

and was assigned to 26th Air Flotilla. First,

Lieutenant A lieutenant ( , ; abbreviated Lt., Lt, LT, Lieut and similar) is a Junior officer, junior commissioned officer rank in the armed forces of many nations, as well as fire services, emergency medical services, Security agency, security services ...

Hiromi Ikeda (group's ''

Buntaichō was a naval aviation position in the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service (IJNAS), normally held by a Lieutenant (navy), Lieutenant, who commanded a division of flight personnel (Organization of the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service#Buntai, ''bunta ...

'') brought nine G4M medium bombers in late afternoon on 7 August. The next day, the remaining 18 G4M medium bombers were brought by Lieutenant Tomoo Nakamura (group's ''

Hikōtaichō was a senior naval aviation position in the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service, normally held by a Lieutenant Commander or a very senior Lieutenant (navy), Lieutenant, who commanded all flight personnel in an air group. Administrative role On the ...

''). With them came also

Vice Admiral Vice admiral is a senior naval flag officer rank, usually equivalent to lieutenant general and air marshal. A vice admiral is typically senior to a rear admiral and junior to an admiral. Australia In the Royal Australian Navy, the rank of Vice ...

Nishizō Tsukahara , was an admiral in the Imperial Japanese Navy during World War II. Biography Tsukahara was born in Fukui Prefecture, but his official residence was Kofu, Yamanashi, Kofu city, Yamanashi Prefecture, where he was raised. Tsukahara graduated from ...

, the commander of the

11th Air Fleet The was a grouping of naval aviation and surface units. Assignments and Components Commanders Chiefs of Staff Notes References * {{Use dmy dates, date=June 2017 Fleets of the Imperial Japanese Navy Units of the Imperial Japanese N ...

. The unit first saw action on 8 August, when Lieutenant Ikeda's nine medium bombers joined 17 from 4th Air Group led by Lieutenant Shigeru Kotani, in order to make a torpedo attack on Allied shipping around Guadalcanal and Tulagi. The attack was a disaster since only five bombers made it back to Rabaul, while the rest were shot down by a combination of intense AA fire from

Rear Admiral Rear admiral is a flag officer rank used by English-speaking navies. In most European navies, the equivalent rank is called counter admiral. Rear admiral is usually immediately senior to commodore and immediately below vice admiral. It is ...

Richmond K. Turner's ships and intercepting

Grumman F4F Wildcat The Grumman F4F Wildcat is an American carrier-based A carrier-based aircraft (also known as carrier-capable aircraft, carrier-borne aircraft, carrier aircraft or aeronaval aircraft) is a naval aircraft designed for operations from aircra ...

fighters from

Frank J. Fletcher's carriers. Among those killed in action were also the leaders Kotani and Ikeda. In return, they only managed to put one

torpedo A modern torpedo is an underwater ranged weapon launched above or below the water surface, self-propelled towards a target, with an explosive warhead designed to detonate either on contact with or in proximity to the target. Historically, such ...

in the destroyer ''Jarvis'', in addition to damaging one transport when one damaged bomber rammed it. The following day, 9 August, Lieutenant Nakamura led 17 torpedo-armed bombers from Misawa Air Group to search for the enemy carriers. He could not locate the carriers and settled on attacking and sinking the damaged ''Jarvis'' that was leaving the area. The air group conducted frequent missions against Guadalcanal throughout August. On occasions, the focus was shifted to

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; , fossilized , also known as Papua or historically ) is the List of islands by area, world's second-largest island, with an area of . Located in Melanesia in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is ...

. For example, on 17 August, Lieutenant Nakamura led 25 bombers to attack

Port Moresby (; Tok Pisin: ''Pot Mosbi''), also referred to as Pom City or simply Moresby, is the capital and largest city of Papua New Guinea. It is one of the largest cities in the southwestern Pacific (along with Jayapura) outside of Australia and New ...

. The attack was relatively successful since they managed to destroy several aircraft on the ground. On 26 August, Lieutenant Nakamura led 17 bombers from Misawa and Kisarazu Air Group to attack recently finished Henderson Field on Guadalcanal. They managed to destroy 2,000 gallons of aviation fuel and damage several aircraft on the ground. Almost daily raids against Guadalcanal were carried out by the bombers of Misawa Air Group in the first half of September, where Lieutenants Nakamura, Rinji Morita and Yūsaburō Nonaka exchanged in leading the unit's formations within the larger strikes composed of Misawa, Kisarazu and

Chitose Air Group The Chitose Air Group (Chitose Kōkūtai) was an air group of the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service during World War II. The group was formed on 1 October 1939 at Chitose Air Base, Chitose Airfield, Hokkaidō equipped with Mitsubishi G3M, Mitsub ...

. The second half of September brought frequent bad weather and attacks against Guadalcanal were temporarily suspended and the attention was again shifted to New Guinea, when Misawa bombers participated in an attack on Port Moresby on 21 September. The weather improved at the end of the month and operations against Guadalcanal resumed. On 28 September, Lieutenant Morita led a combined strike of 27 bombers from Misawa, Takao Air Group, Kanoya Air Group against Guadalcanal. Even though they were escorted by 14

Mitsubishi A6M Zero The Mitsubishi A6M "Zero" is a long-range carrier-capable fighter aircraft formerly manufactured by Mitsubishi Aircraft Company, a part of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. It was operated by the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) from 1940 to 1945. The ...

fighters from Tainan Air Group and additional 27 from

6th Air Group was a unit of the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service (IJNAS) during the Pacific War that was involved in Battle of Midway and then extensively in the Guadalcanal Campaign and Solomon Islands Campaign. The air group was redesignated as the 204t ...

led by Lieutenant Mitsugi Kofukuda, most of the fighters failed to engage the intercepting 35 US Marine and Navy Wildcat fighters, which resulted in the loss of Morita command bomber and four more Takao bombers. After these significant losses of medium bombers, the command at Rabaul decided to temporarily change the tactics, where the bombers only served as a decoy and turned around before reaching Guadalcanal, while the fighters went ahead alone to surprise the defending enemy fighters. In accordance with this new tactic, nine Misawa bombers acted as a decoy on 2 October, while in the resulting air combat Lieutenant Kofukuda's Zero fighters shot down six Wildcat fighters and two Douglas SBD Dauntless dive bombers for the loss of only one Zero. The strikes by medium bombers resumed on 11 October, when Misawa under Reserve Lieutenant (jg) Nobuyoshi Takamura contributed nine medium bombers to the largest single strike in the

Guadalcanal campaign The Guadalcanal campaign, also known as the Battle of Guadalcanal and codenamed Operation Watchtower by the United States, was an Allies of World War II, Allied offensive against forces of the Empire of Japan in the Solomon Islands during th ...

, which was composed of 45 bombers in total. Nevertheless, due to bad weather, the result was disappointing since most of the bombers could not find the target. From 11 to 14 October Rabaul was sending two bomber raids per day, where Misawa contributed bombers (either led by Nonaka or Takamura) to at least one of the raid per day. From 15 October onward, they shifted back to one raid against Guadalcanal per day and Misawa continued to contribute bombers to these raids throughout the rest of October. On 1 November, Misawa Air Group was redesignated to 705th Air Group. On 11 November, newly promoted Lieutenant Commander Nakamura led 16 torpedo-armed bombers against the enemy ships around Guadalcanal. They were intercepted by 16 Wildcat and eight Bell P-39 Airacobra fighters and in combination with AA fire from the ships, they shot down 11 medium bombers, while the rest returned severely damaged. This put an end to further raids by medium bombers against Guadalcanal. On 29 January 1943, 705th Air Group was involved in the Battle of Rennell Island. Lieutenant Commander Nakamura led 16 torpedo-armed bombers against the enemy ships spotted near Rennell Island. They scored no hits and in return lost one bomber, however, subsequent attacks by other air groups managed to sink the cruiser ''Chicago''. On 12 April, the unit participated in Operation I-Go, where Lieutenant Commander Nakamura led 27 bombers against Port Moresby. Two days later, they also participated in a raid against

Milne Bay Milne Bay is a large bay in Milne Bay Province, south-eastern Papua New Guinea. More than long and over wide, Milne Bay is a sheltered deep-water harbor accessible via Ward Hunt Strait. It is surrounded by the heavily wooded Stirling Range (Papu ...

. The unit continued to be involved in the

Solomon Islands campaign The Solomon Islands campaign was a major military campaign, campaign of the Pacific War during World War II. The campaign began with the Empire of Japan, Japanese seizure of several areas in the British Solomon Islands and Bougainville Island, B ...

until 5 September, when it was withdrawn to

Tinian Tinian () is one of the three principal islands of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI). Together with uninhabited neighboring Aguiguan, it forms Tinian Municipality, one of the four constituent municipalities of the Northern ...

Structure

*Higher unit ** Ōminato Guard District (10 February 1942–31 March 1942) ** 26th Air Flotilla (1 April 1942–31 August 1943 ***Renamed ''705th Air Group'' on 1 November 1942. ** 25th Air Flotilla (1 September 1943–14 October 1943) ** 28th Air Flotilla (15 October 1943–1 October 1944, dissolved.) ***All land-based attack bombers were independent to the ''706th Attack Squadron'' on 4 March 1944. *Commanding officers **Commander/Captain Masao Sugawara (10 February 1942–9 December 1942) **Captain Yasuo Konishi (10 December 1942–23 May 1944) **Captain Tarōhachi Shinoda (24 May 1944–1 October 1944, dissolved.)

Second generation

Reborn as the preparatory flight training unit (Yokaren).

Structure

*Higher unit ** 19th Combined Air Group (1 September 1944–1 March 1945) ** Ōminato Guard District (1 March 1945–30 June 1945, dissolved.) *Commanding officers **Commander Takeo Higo (1 September 1944–29 September 1944) **Captain Shōgo Miyashita (29 September 1944–30 June 1945, dissolved.)

706th Attack Squadron

Structure

*Higher unit ** 755th Air Group (4 March 1944–10 July 1944, dissolved.) *Squadron leader **Lieutenant commander Fumio Iwaya (4 March 1944–10 July 1944, dissolved.)

First generation

History

Structure

Second generation

Structure

706th Attack Squadron

Structure

References

Notes

Citations

Sources

Combat reports

Further reading