From: Gernot Hassenpflug

I had no idea of
the reference you mention,

To help with your search for it, I'll give the full title and authors: W.F.
Craven and J.L. Crate, "The Army Air Forces in World War II," Chicago, The
University of Chicago Press, 1953. Volume 5 covers the events you are
interested in.

The Japanese article is a personal account, so it does
not deal with other raids or other units,

Apparently fighters from the 252nd Kokutai on Iwo Jima flew night escort for
the bombers from the beginning of raids on the US position in Saipan, even
before the island was fully secure. P-61 night fighters had to deal with them
from th time they arrived towards the end of June, 1944. For example, on June
30, a P-61 shot down a Betty but was immediately attacked by a Japanese fighter
and was forced to take vigorous evasive action.
The November raids you mention were carried out, as you know, by the 2nd
Hikotai, which was apparently later assimilated into the 110th Sentai. There
were Japanese fighters in the air over Saipan the nights the Sallys raided. A
P-61 scrambling without benefit of runway lights reported nearly colliding with
a "Zero" as it climbed out. I wonder if this was one of the low-flying
Sallys.

I have not read (time...time...) reports of the Ki-67 squadrons, but I
think those might have been IJNAF aircraft. The IJAAF Peggy's I think
were all based in Formosa

Their biggest effort came on Dec. 25, 1944, the so-called Battle of Christmas
Night, with dozens of sorties against the airfields on Saipan. P-61s were
credited with six kills. Mixed in with the Peggys were Irving night fighters,
making things interesting for the P-61s. Last significant raids were on Jan. 1
and 2 after which the raids rapidly declined to nothing.
There is one report of a Japanese bomber being shot down, but the single P-61
in the air, which saw the fireball, did not attack anything and there was no
AAA because the P-61 was hunting. The conclusion seems to be that a Japanese
night fighter bagged a Japanese bomber.


Chris Mark