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:
“O I know they make war because they want peace; they hate so that they may live; and they destroy the present to make the world safe for the future. When have they not done and said they did it for that?”
—Elizabeth Smart (1913–1986)
“A democracy which makes or even effectively prepares for modern, scientific war must necessarily cease to be democratic. No country can be really well prepared for modern war unless it is governed by a tyrant, at the head of a highly trained and perfectly obedient bureaucracy.”
—Aldous Huxley (1894–1963)