Aircraft History
Built by Nakajima, estimated date of assembly March 1942.

Wartime History
Assigned to Tainan Kokutai with tail code V-1?? (last two digits unknown). Based at Lae Airfield during early 1942.

Mission History
Force landed at the edge of Lae Airfield. An aerial photo from May 31, 1943 shows the Zero already force landed, so the crash occurred sometime prior to that date.

Wreckage
Captured by Allied forces and investigated in September 1943.

Jim Long adds:
"FAOW 55 has this same photo on page 49. The caption with it reports that the manufacture number was Mitsubishi No. 5639. Apparently someone blew up the area around the fuselage stencil and could make out the MN that way. No. 5639 is listed in Crashed Enemy Aircraft Report #17, page 7. The report confirms that No. 5639 was captured at Lae. No date of assembly is reported for the plane. My own estimated assembly date is March 1942."

References
Crashed Enemy Aircraft Report #17, page 7
FAOW 55, page 49
Thanks to Edward Rogers and Jim Long for additional information

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Last Updated
December 15, 2008