In July 1942, Lieutenant Kofukuda was assigned as the "Hikōtaichō" of the 6th Air Group, which was intended to be the garrison for Midway Island but since the Japanese failed to capture Midway. At the time the unit was stationed at Kisarazu in Japan and was then ordered to move to Rabaul on New Britain on 21 August. Lieutenant Kofukuda led a 5,000-kilomer over-water ferry flight of 18 Zero fighters from Japan to Rabaul via island bases (Iwo Jima, Saipan, Truk and Kavieng), which was unprecedented for a single-seat aircraft at the time.