Akio Matsuba

Akio Matsuba (松場 秋夫) was an officer and ace fighter pilot in the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) during the Second Sino-Japanese War and the Pacific theater of World War II. Matsuba was officially credited with destroying a total of 18 enemy aircraft in aerial combat.

Akio Matsuba was stationed aboard the fleet aircraft carrier Kaga on the very first day of combat operations in the Second Sino-Japanese War-Second World War at the Battle of Shanghai, and flying an A2N in his very first combat mission in support of Japanese troop-landings in Shanghai on 16 August 1937, Matsuba would share in the shooting down of a Chinese Air Force Douglas O-2M, the first kill of many kills to come for him as the war eventually expanded into the Pacific War. He would claim six F6F Hellcats from Task Force 58 shot-down in two days of battles fought over Iwo Jima on 03 and 04 July 1944, half-a-year before the official Battle of Iwo Jima.