Aloha All,
In the "Ryu Ichi-go Sakusen", the IJN helped the IJA in their Malayan battles. To keep from being shot down, the participating Japanese ZEROs were especially marked.
The Japanese "Military Classics magazine" #19 (issued by Icarus Publishing in Japan) gives details:
A Direction by Imperial Japanese Army and Navy is shown, which dictates that all Navy fighters participating in the "Ryu Ichi-go" Operation should paint light gray-green paint on the RIGHT upper wing top and on the vertical tail.
Despite the directive, sensei Keishiro Nagao notes, all known photos of Zeros participated in this Operation painted light gray-green on BOTH wing tips and vertical tail.
Thus far I know the 331 and 381 Kokutai participated. Below is a detail scan of a 381 Ku Zero during this operation, from R. Watanabe's Zero volume.
note the leading edge shows the wing tip color is ONLY on the top...and compare the density of that color compared to the white command stripes.
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Any more scans and if possible of original images?