Hinoki's tale

At right: Lt. Hinoki poses in front of his Hayabusa fighter

Hinoki caught a glimpse of a wing nearby in the clouds and fired at it. The enemy pilot fired at him same moment. [My own research gives me no doubt that Hinoki's antagonist was R. T. Smith, whose recollection of this combat matches that of Hinoki like one map transparency laid over another.] Hinoki heard bullets tearing through his plane, and he found that his face was covered with blood. Believing that it was the end, he "decided to die in the mountains," and flew off toward the nearest peak. His Hayabusas had been hit in right wing, and fuel was spilling out but did not burn.

The Tomahawks still pursued him, but two Hayabusas came after them and engaged them. (One was evidently flown by his wingman, Sgt. Misago.) Hinoki signaled farewell and continued toward his predetermined resting place in the hills. Again a Tomahawk fired at him, and again he heard the bullets ripping through. Both wingtips disintegrated. The Tommi then broke off.

Hinoki looked down and saw the Salween river, the agreed-upon rendezvous for their return to Chiang Mai. Realizing that both the Hayabusa and he were still airworthy, he decided to forego suicide for the moment and attempt to fly back to Chiang Mai. Throughout the two-hour flight, he worried about his fuel supply, meanwhile suffering extreme pain from his wounds. Finally he saw the airport ahead. In his final glide onto the runway, his engine cut out and he made a dead-stick landing with dry fuel tanks. The ground crew counted 21 bullet holes in the Hayabusa's fuselage, and Hinoki himself was wounded in the back.

An unhappy ending

Sgt. Misago also did not return from this battle. In the first engagement, when Hinoki had dashed to the rescue of Sgt. Endo's flight, Misago had stayed as top cover and lost sight of his leader because of scattered clouds. Misago found Hinoki again when he was already hit by a [R.T. Smith's] P-40 and trailing fuel. Then Misago found two P-40s were going to attack Hinoki. He drove them off, but a P-40 [probably flown by Bob Brouk] attacked him from out of the sun. When last seen by his comrades, the left wing fuel tank of his Hayabusa was burning and he was going down to a corner of the enemy airfield.

Sgt. Yasuda and Lt. Endo each claimed a P-40 in the battle. [The AVG lost no aircraft on April 10, but two RAF Hurricanes went down.] Having exhausted his ammunition and lost his flight leader, Yasuda turned south to his base. He found a P-40 coming form the west but fought. Yasuda was proceeding for his base and found some orange balls in front of him and felt some hits. He saw a P-40 around 600 meters behind him, and maneuvered to evade it. The enemy aircraft was then joined by another, and the limping Hayabusa struggled to survive against the two P-40s [flown by Chuck Older and Duke Hedman] for 30 minutes. Yasuda's mouth was dry, his throat sore, and he found it difficult to breathe. Finally he managed to escape, his plane trailing oil. But he managed to fly one and half hours more. One thousand meters short of Chiang Mai airfield, his engine quit, and he landed dead stick on the runway with 17 hits on his plane.

64 Sentai lost two planes in the afternoon raid, with two more damaged during the battle, for two confirmed kills which were credited to Lt. Endo and Sgt. Yasuda.

Too badly wounded to be treated in the Chiang Mai infirmary, Lt. Hinoki was evacuated to a hospital in Bangkok. After a month of treatment and convalesence, he was discharged on May 18, went to Don Muang airport, and caught a flight to Toungoo, where the 64th Sentai was now located.