"Japanese Navy Airmen Set" Topic

"Unlike the other major powers in World War II, the Japanese did not have an independent air force. Instead both the Army and Navy had their own forces, and these have been modelled in several other sets before this one, including the WWII Pilot Figure Set also from Hasegawa. The Naval Air Force was naturally primarily concerned with supporting the operations of the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN), which during the years of the China War were fairly minimal. However with the outbreak of the Pacific War in 1941 this task became enormous, as Japan sought to conquer and then defend a vast empire. The small and highly-trained IJN Air Force had to expand to manage this new challenge, but this occurred too slowly, and the decision to keep most of the experienced flyers in theatre to support the war effort meant they soon lost a high proportion of their best crews. Replacements were quickly trained and rushed to the front, but were not of the same quality, and this, coupled with increasing difficulties in providing serviceable aircraft, meant the impact of the Japanese Naval Air Force declined markedly as the war developed, while the American flyers grew in experience and numbers.

We need to explain what this set offers. In the box are four sprues (see our image), each of which contains four figures. These figures are kits made in a hard plastic, and each figure comes in four parts: torso/legs, left arm, right arm and head. This gives some freedom to mix and match parts to let you design your own poses, so the four poses pictured above are merely examples of what can be done (in this case they are all following recommendations on the set leaflet), and it would be possible to produce 16 different poses from a set. Basically three of the torsos are seated and the fourth is standing but stooping. The first three are of course for pilots, navigators and gunners while the last is for the side gun position in a bomber. The set leaflet also helpfully provides illustrations of where each man should be situated in a G4M, a typical IJN bomber. The four figures we have pictured exactly use every component on a sprue, so you get some idea of the parts that are available, but this method works really well for figures that could be adapted to precisely fit a particular model, and the separate arms allow a realistic grip on their weapon or instrument. The result works very well, and is a smart way to deliver such figures when crewing any aircraft, bomber or not…."

Full review here

link

Amicalement
Armand

1:72 scale.

You can get a 28mm Japanese pilot from Company B…along with the Zombified version of course!

link

Nice!

Amicalement
Armand

"Unlike the other major powers in World War II, the Japanese did not have an independent air force. Instead both the Army and Navy had their own forces…"

Hmmm. Ahem. Other major powers? Cough. Like who? Ahem. Maybe the U.S.? Cough cough.

-Mark
(aka: Mk 1)

Well Mark, yes and no. Technically correct the US did not have an independent air force in World War II functionally they did.

In June 1941 the Army Air Corps became the U S Army Air Force. The change was not merely cosmetic but meant to endow the air portion of the Army with greater autonomy and control over doctrine.

In Feb of 1942 Executive order 9082 "Reorganizing the Army and the War Department" the Army was divided functionally into 3 equal and autonomous areas (there is that word autonomous again). There was the Army Ground Forces, the Services of Supply and the Army Air Force. Of note is the AAF was not made the equal of other branches, such as armor, infantry, artillery and so on but on a par with all Army ground forces.

The AAF was given control over training, organizing and equipping it forces. It was not given a combat mission as such and all command decisions were to be issued through the Army Chief of Staff.

Perhaps the final step was the March 43 reorganization of the AAF. If not then, certainly in 44-45 the AAF was essentially an independent service. General Arnold was promoted to 5 star general (still the only Air Force officer to hold that rank) in December of 1944 and pictures showed Arnold seated with General Marshall and Admiral King seemingly as an equal. By 1944 Arnold was exercising almost complete control over the AAF in all phases, to include combat, and orders were no longer going through the Army Chief of Staff office.

Of course this all becomes official with the National Security Act of 1947 and in September of that year the fully independent US Air Force is born.

So perhaps De Jure there was no independent air force but certainly 43 on De Facto. :)