Two crack Japanese fliers, Lt-Cmdr. Ibun Sakamoto and ist. El 'W:° Off. Hideshi Wakita, met death in Nanking on Sept. 25, when their bomber was shot down by Chinese enti-aircraft guns, the local Japanese papers reported yesterday. The machine belonged to a squadron charged with bombing the Hsiakewan power plant.
Swooping down from 4,500 metres height, the fliers were just preparing to let loose their deadly missiles. when the /machine was hit By r Chinese shell. Enveloped in a crime son cloak, the plane hurtled to the ground, the two men.trapped within.
It. Jiro Tanaka, another flier who witnessed the death of his comrades, said the squadron revenged the demise of the two fliers by "destroying" the power plant.
It-Cmür. Sakamoto, according to It. Shigekazu Magi, another member of the naval air-corps, was a "man of high. courage and' energy.".|He arrived here on Sept 15, and first saw action in a raid on Nanking exactly a week later. The following day he again took part in an attack on the Kiangyin forts.
It. Magis younger brother, 2nd. Sub-It.
Sadatsugü Magi, of the Naval Landing Party here, was killed in action in Chapei on Aug '29. Thus. the local newspapers said, Lieut. Magi lost his brother and his close epi and classmate, Lt-Cmdr. Sakamoto, within four weeks.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.