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Lance of the Samurai by Stan Stokes.
As the war in the Pacific continued to intensify in 1943 and 1944, the naval air forces of Japan began to suffer from both quantitative and qualitative shortcomings in both aircraft and pilots that contributed to American domination of the air. The once dominant Japanese naval air arm was decimated in the Battle of the Philippine Sea, the defense of the Philippines, and other lesser battles. With American bombing forces now capable of reaching the Japanese islands with B-29 Superfortresses, the Japanese lacked any effective fighter defenses. In an effort to improve the situation and provide some semblance of air superiority, Captain Minoru Genda, the architect of the air operations for the attack on Pearl Harbor, formed a new elite fighter air group, the 343rd Kokutai, at Matsuyama in December of 1944. This group contained the best of Japans remaining fighter pilots which were personally selected for participation. Consisting of three squadrons, the 301st, 407th, and 701st hikotai, th.........
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