Freedom Rises With the Sun

[Nathan Madien]

Expanding the war into Albania...doesn't sound like a wise choice for Mussolini, given what the Japanese are about to unleash upon him.

 

[bocikris94]

I need update!

 

[unmerged(191057)]

I need update!

Necromancy!

 

[TremblingBlue]

I agree...an update!

Also...some map footage would be nice :] just to keep track....if you can ha

 

[Asami_T]

I'm sad to see this AAR die. *sigh*

 

[Cascadia]

I may well return to writing this long-running story, as my mind drifts to it with some regularity. However, I might also utilize a similar setup for a Victorian era Japan as well.

 

[KiMaSa]

Nice to hear from you my friend!

 

[Nathan Madien]

I may well return to writing this long-running story, as my mind drifts to it with some regularity. However, I might also utilize a similar setup for a Victorian era Japan as well.

Given that it has been two years since an update, you might be better off just starting afresh.

 

[Asami_T]

I'd like to see this finished; You left us at a crucial point. I want to see the young Japanese empress make Mussolini cry like a little baby D:

 

[KiMaSa]

Agreed. And can you picture the conferences with Churchill and FDR?

 

[KiMaSa]

Not necessarily... Or rather, if so it is because the pilot in question was a bit overdramatic himself. Frankly the IJAF did not assign him to command the SCS because he was the best suited. On that basis, Saburo Sakai would have been the choice but he has apparently been returned to his old outfit. Anzai could not have been totally incompetent or he would have been grounded, but from the IJAF point of view, he still had issues that would have kept him from getting a regular squadron command.

Namely excitability and a lean toward histrionics. this is supported by the manner in which he lost control (And indeed why he was probably the only SCS pilot killed that day.) He is a proficient pilot IF he were flying Nakajimas or Mitsubishis. He undoubtedly tried using standard Japanese combat techniques in a copy of a P-40. When these failed because his plane would not climb or turn like the planes he was familiar with, he panicked. The loss of control came not from battle damage as he assumed, but from the bane of pilots: over compensation in an emergency.

Yuki and the the other pilots like Kumoda went through Chennault's training and understood their birds. Anzai did not. Indeed his only real qualification for being squadron commander was his rank and the fact that no one wanted to give him a regular line squadron.

A more practical reason for Anzai's demise is a little known oddity in Japanese aircraft design: In IJN aircraft such as those that the women's instructors were trained on, the throttle controls are in the normal configuration like British and American planes. In the IJAAF, the aircraft throttles were patterned after the French style. These function exactly OPPOSITE of British and American designs.

In the heat of battle, Anzai fell back on the instincts he acquired in HIS training and was applying the throttle opposite of what he intended. I'm certain the sudden loss of control was very disorientating and startling to him... and he died.