Atsugi, 1945: the last aerial combat between fighters of World War II

On August 15, 1945, six days after the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, Emperor Hirohito announced the surrender of Japan.

Dottie Mae: the incredible story of the last American plane downed in Europe in WWII
Saburō Sakai: the story of a Japanese samurai pilot whose honor made him a hero

The surrender was formally signed aboard the battleship USS Missouri on September 2. The fighting should have ended on August 15. That day, at noon, the Japanese people heard their emperor's voice for the first time (until then, he had never addressed them by radio) in a message announcing the surrender, a message known in Japan as "Gyokuon hoso."

As soon as the emperor's message was broadcast, the Allied and Japanese forces received orders to cease hostilities. The order reached a group of six F6F Hellcat fighters from the US Navy's VF-88 "Game Cocks" squadron, commanded by Lieutenant Harold "Howdy" Harrison, just as they were preparing to attack Atsugi Airfield, near Tokyo. The attack was aborted and the naval aviators prepared to return to their aircraft carrier, the USS Yorktown (CV-10), having previously launched the rockets they were carrying into the air.

A group of Japanese Army and Navy fighters had already taken off to intercept them. They were under the command of a veteran Japanese naval aviator, Lieutenant Yutaka Morioka, who had lost his left hand in combat but continued to fly with a prosthesis. Morioka received orders to return after the Emperor's message, but he ignored them and continued the pursuit along with some fighters from his group. In that final engagement, after peace had already been declared, four American and nine Japanese airmen were killed.

That was the last aerial combat between fighters of World War II, but not the last aerial engagement of the conflict. Three days later, on August 18, 1945, two Consolidated B-32 Dominator bombers were attacked by Japanese fighters while on a reconnaissance flight over Tokyo. One of the B-32s was severely damaged. Due to injuries sustained in that engagement, Sergeant Anthony J. Marchione became the last airman killed in action in World War II.

Yesterday, Yarnhub (a YouTube channel I recommend to all military history enthusiasts) published an excellent video recreating the Atsugi air battle of August 15, 1945, showing it in great detail: