380th BG History -- Part XI: Table 3

WE WENT TO WAR

Part XI: Our Opposition

Japanese Anti-Aircraft Artillery and Fighter Units in the Southwest Pacific

TABLE 3

CODE NAMES OF JAPANESE FIGHTERS

NICK

Twin-engine Japanese Army fighter

IRVING

Twin-engine Japanese Navy fighter

OSCAR

Single-engine Japanese Army fighter

ZEKE or ZERO

Single-engine Japanese Navy fighter

HAP or HAMP

A variation of the ZEKE or ZERO

RUFE

A ZEKE on floats for water landings; used at islands with no established air fields

These are code names generated by the USAAF to make identification by our air crews easier, so they did not have to learn the longer Japanese names.

Source: Japanese Army Fighters, Part 1, ISBN 0-356-08224-5, MacDonald and James, London, 1976, 58 pp.

Table 1 Table 2 Tables 4 and 5

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Last updated: 02/22/2007 04:34 PM

NICK	Twin-engine Japanese Army fighter
IRVING	Twin-engine Japanese Navy fighter
OSCAR	Single-engine Japanese Army fighter
ZEKE or ZERO	Single-engine Japanese Navy fighter
HAP or HAMP	A variation of the ZEKE or ZERO
RUFE	A ZEKE on floats for water landings; used at islands with no established air fields