World War II
It is perhaps best known as a term used during World War II by the military of the Empire of Japan, for Imperial Japanese Army Air Force (IJAAF) and Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service (IJNAS) military aviation units equivalent to a group or wing in other air forces. However, the term had slightly different meanings in the IJAAF and the IJNAS.
An IJAAF Sentai was made up of two to four squadrons (chūtai). In the IJAAF, two or more Sentai comprised a hikōdan (air brigade). In the later stages of World War II, the IJAAF abolished chūtai and divided its sentai into hikōtai (flying units) and seibitai (maintenance units). A sentai commander (sentaichō) was generally a Lieutenant Colonel.
In the IJNAS, a sentai was a larger unit: a kōkūtai was the equivalent of an IJAAF sentai. Several sentai made up a kantai (air fleet). In the IJNAS, a Sentaichō was usually a Naval Captain.
Read more about this topic: Sentai
Famous quotes containing the words world and/or war:
“With all of its bad influences, T.V. is not to be feared.... It can be a fairly safe laboratory for confronting, seeing through, and thus being immunized against unhealthy values so as to be “in the world but not of it.””
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“The War was decided in the first twenty days of fighting, and all that happened afterwards consisted in battles which, however formidable and devastating, were but desperate and vain appeals against the decision of Fate.”
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