On 29 April, while operating from Anqing and escorting medium bombers to Hankou, the unit's pilots claimed 30 Chinese aircraft shot down and seven more probables.

Attacks on Hankou continued until July, during which the unit claimed 100 aircraft destroyed and 12 probables for the loss of five fighters.

On 13 September, 13 Zeros led by Lieutenant Saburō Shindō engaged 30 Chinese fighters in a dogfight and claimed 27 of them shot down.

[1][2] The unit at some point or another included many future fighter aces, like Tetsuzō Iwamoto, Saburo Sakai, Ayao Shirane, Tadashi Kaneko, Shigetaka Ōmori, Kaname Harada, Kenji Okabe and Akira Yamamoto.

[1][2] In addition, many prominent bomber pilots and aircrew also served with the unit, such as Shigeharu Murata, Sadamu Takahashi, Kiyoto Furuta, Keiichi Arima and Jūzō Mori.