Here you go, Ernie:
In June 1933 he went to the Tokorozawa Flying School (
Tokorozawa Rikugun Koku Seibi Gakkō), graduating in January 1934 and he became enlisted as a corporal in the 1st Chutai of the
11th Hiko Datai,
[4] posted in
Harbin,
Manchukuo (
Manchuria). By the end of 1938 he had climbed through the ranks, becoming a
warrant officer, he was 25 years old and had six years of flying experience by the time the
Nomonhan Incident (
Battles of Khalkhin Gol) began in May 1939. During his first combat sortie, on 27 May 1939, Shinohara, flying a
Nakajima Ki-27, downed four Soviet
Polikarpov I-16 fighters,
[3] he became an ace within 24 hours, after he claimed six more victories, downing a
Polikarpov R-Z reconnaissance plane and five
Polikarpov I-15 biplane fighters. No other pilot in history scored 10 victories during his first day of combat, from then on his victories continued, culminating on 27 June 1939 in an Imperial Japanese Army Air Force record of eleven victories in a single day during an air battle over Tamsak-Bulak.
[3]
[5]
[6] Only top ace of all time
Erich Hartmann (12),
Emil Lang (18),
Hans-Joachim Marseille (17),
Erich Rudorffer (13 in 17 minutes), have surpassed him.Shinohara's luck however ran out on him two months later when on 27 August 1939 he himself was shot down by Soviet Polikarpov I-16 fighters after claiming three victories during a bombing escort mission,
[7] his aircraft fell in flames into Mohorehi Lake, ten kilometres south of Abdara Lake.
[8]Warrant Officer Hiromichi Shinohara was posthumously promoted to the rank of
second lieutenant, having claimed 58 victories in only three months of combat—the last three in the battle that would take him down—earning him the nickname of the
Richthofen of the Orient.
[5]
[9]