History The Misawa Air Group was established on 10 February 1942 in
Misawa,
Japan and operated
Mitsubishi G4M medium bombers. After the Allied landing on
Guadalcanal and
Tulagi on 7 August, the unit was dispatched to
Rabaul on
New Britain and was assigned to
26th Air Flotilla. First,
Lieutenant Hiromi Ikeda (group's
Buntaichō) 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). With them came also
Vice Admiral Nishizō Tsukahara, the commander of the
11th Air Fleet. 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 Richmond K. Turner's ships and intercepting
Grumman F4F Wildcat fighters from
Rear Admiral 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 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. For example, on 17 August, Lieutenant Nakamura led 25 bombers to attack
Port Moresby. 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 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 fighters from
Tainan Air Group and additional 27 from
6th Air Group 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, 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. The unit continued to be involved in the
Solomon Islands campaign until 5 September, when it was withdrawn to
Tinian.
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==