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Aces

Teruhiko Kobayashi (1920/1957) a Japanese flying ace, leader of the 244th Sentai, making him the youngest sentai leader in the IJAAF when he took command in Nov 1944. While leading this unit he achieved five kills (three B-29 and two F6F Hellcats). Kobayashi He survived the war but died in 1957 when he was crewing an American plane - irony of life - T-33 Shooting Star during training.
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Looks like he had a few more since that pic was taken.


Kobayashi with aircrew in front of a Kawasaki Ki-61 Hien of 244th Sentai May 1945

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Interesting markings on the fuselage: the Rising Sun and a Cross. Also, that sure is a lot of kill markings. I wonder if those are from the China Theater?
 
Rudolf-Heinz Ruffer (1920/1944), a Luftwaffe ground-attack ace and recipient of the Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross, achieved most of his 80 tank kills while piloting an Henschel 129. His record made Ruffer was one of history’s most successful tank-killing pilots.
But his love affair with the Hs 129 did not end well. In 1944, Soviet flak hit Ruffer’s aircraft while he was flying a mission over Poland.

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Yep, on 16 July 1944, Ruffer's aircraft was hit by Soviet flak over Poland while attacking Soviet armoured formations. The machine exploded and he was killed instantly. At the time of his death he had recorded 80 tank kills. Was only 24 y.o.
Overall, he graduated from the approximately 300 combat missions and destroyed about 80 tanks.
 
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Was not familiar with the Hs 128....

"One of the best-known ’129 examples was this Hs 129B captured at El Aouina airfield, Tunisia, during May 1943 and shipped to the US, where it received the evaluation identification code FE-4600. It had been serving with 8.(Pz)/SchG 2. Although later scrapped, its forward fuselage was subsequently preserved in Australia."

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