Clarify something please.

[dasuto247]

I have read different accounts but still not totally clear who the main opposition in New Guinea was in 43 and beyond.I read that the IJN handled things but once became heavily involved in the Guadalcanal and Solomons campaign the Japanese Army sent air units and gradually took over the fight.Correct? I wonder as still read accounts of pilots downing Zeros in late 43 etc. Did remain a joint venture? Not a lot of clarity despite some reading.

[bearcat241]

No clarity needed in terms of which branch shouldered the fight beyond '43. The army concentrated on defending their occupied islands on land and in the air, while the navy's operations mostly focused on countering allied threats in the sea lanes around the SoPac, but their strategic missions often overlapped in mutual support. It was always a joint venture to the bitter end, albeit a weak and troubled one. Their coordination suffered heavily under the weight of counterproductive in-fighting and competition at the brass level which trickled down to the regional commands. This fact is often downplayed by western war historians.

Notwithstanding, there were many air battles around the Solomons, Rabaul, the Philippines, Okinawa, Iwojima, Formosa and the DEI where allied forces encountered a mixture of both IJN and IJA aircraft routinely. Even the kamikaze threats came from both branches. After the Ryukyu campaign in late 45, with the fight centered on attacking mainland Japan, allied pilots were still engaging both army and navy defenders over the mainland. Only in the Asian campaign can one say that the main opposition was the IJA -- everything else was random. This was in large part due to Japan's carrier losses, which forced the naval aviators to use land bases more towards the end of the the war than they had in the early stages. This is why there were so many encounters with land based Zeroes, Vals, Kates and Judy's in the latter stages. Despite what you may have read (and historians are known to be wrong or just half-informed sometimes), there was never a time when one branch actually took over the aerial fighting completely.