Nangó, Šigeo

Lieutenant Colonel Shigeo Nangō

Born on February 26, 1917 in Tokyo.


In April 1939 he graduated with the 51st Course from the Army Military Academy and in August of that year completed fighter training at the Akeno Flying School. He was subsequently sent to the 33rd Sentai, which was then engaged in combat during the Nomonchan Incident. Nango, however, as an inexperienced pilot, did not participate in operational flights. In the spring of 1941, Nango returned to Akeno, where he served as an instructor.


In January 1942, he moved again, this time to the fighter-armed Ki-43 armed 59th sentai, where he became commander of its 2nd platoon. However, he did not join the unit, which was fighting in Java at the time, until March, when the main fighting ended. The 59th sentai was then responsible for the defense of the area and the protection of convoys. In June 1943, its pilots participated in two raids against Darwin, Australia, and it was Nangó who led the unit's pilots in the second attack on the twenty-second, but the enemy did not show up.


In early July 1943, the 59th Sentai moved to But Airfield, New Guinea, where Nangó won all of his victories. By then, however, the Americans already had both numerical and technical superiority in the area, and neither had the more powerful Ki-43-II, which the unit had rearmed in February 1943, were no longer equal opponents to the new versions of the P-38 and P-47. Nangó did well, however, and on August 15 he struggled. Near Tsili Tsili airfield, he managed to shoot down a transport C-47, which exploded. However, debris and oil from the stricken aircraft also hit Nangóe's plane, and he tried to crash it into a suitable target. After a moment, however, he found that he was in full control of the aircraft and returned to base. The very next day he returned at the head of his unit over Tsili Tsili. Here a dogfight with a P-38 from the 431st and a P-47 from the 340th Fighter Squadron ensued, after which the Japanese claimed 21 victories with three losses of their own. Nangó scored two of them, and in a somewhat curious way. He attacked a pair of fighters that collided during wild evasive maneuvers. The Americans, however, reported no losses.


In October Sentai moved to Manila for rest, but by November she was back. Nangō was one of the most experienced Japanese fighters in the area at the time, and he often brought men from his own unit as well as from other fighter units into combat.


On 23 January 1944, over Wewak, Nangó led his sentai against a formation of B-24 bombers with fighter escorts. Although the Japanese reported 12 certain and 6 probable victories after the battle, seven aircraft did not return from the action. One of them was piloted by Nangó ...


Nangó had scored at least 15 victories by then. After his death, he was promoted two ranks and received a personal citation. Coincidentally, they wanted to pull him back to Japan at that time.


His brother Mochifumi was a naval air ace in China, where he won 8 victories and was killed in aerial combat on 18 July 1938.


References:
Sakaida H.: JAAF Aces 1937-1945, Osprey pub., Oxford
Hata - Izawa - Shores: Japanese Army Fighter Aircraft Units and their Aces 1931-45, Area, Prague 2008
www.cieldegloire.com
www.ipmsdeutschland.de



Figure
Ki-43-II, 59th Sentai, New Guinea, September 1943, pilot S. Nangó
The aircraft is also shown with red stripes on the fuselage, the stripe on the SOP was red (the color of the 2nd chutai)


Side view by Thierry Dekker http://dekkerartwork.over-blog.com/ (used with permission of the author)