Tainan Air Group

Tainan Air Group
Enlisted fighter pilots of the Tainan Air Group pose at Lae in June 1942. Several of these aviators would be among the top Japanese aces, including Saburō Sakai (middle row, second from left), and Hiroyoshi Nishizawa (standing, first on left).
Active	October 1, 1941 – November 1, 1942
Country	Empire of Japan
Allegiance	Empire of Japan
Branch	Imperial Japanese Navy
Type	Naval aviation unit
Role	Air superiority Fighter aircraft support
Size	45-65 aircraft
Part of	25th Air Flotilla, 11th Air Fleet
Garrison/HQ	Tainan, Taiwan Legaspi, Philippines Balikpapan, Borneo Denpasar, Bali Rabaul, New Britain Lae, Papua New Guinea
Aircraft flown	A6M Zero A5M Claude
Engagements	World War II Battle of the Philippines (1941–42) Dutch East Indies campaign New Guinea Campaign Guadalcanal Campaign

The Tainan Air Group (台南海軍航空隊, Tainan Kaigun Kōkūtai) was a fighter aircraft and airbase garrison unit of the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) during the Pacific campaign of World War II. The flying portion of the unit was heavily involved in many of the major campaigns and battles of the first year of the war. The exploits of the unit were widely publicized in the Japanese media at the time, at least in part because the unit spawned more aces than any other fighter unit in the IJN.^[1] Several of the unit's aces were among the IJN's top scorers, and included Hiroyoshi Nishizawa, Saburō Sakai, Junichi Sasai, Watari Handa, Masaaki Shimakawa, and Toshio Ōta.