IJN
Barry Flood 1969
Aircraft History
Built by Nakajima. Manufacture Number is unknown, possibly A6M2 5355.
Houkoku Number 1045 (presentation number) visible on the right
side, donated by an 'inside outside printing company' (international
printing company, or domestic and foreign printing). Gakken No. 33 claims that A6M2 5450 carried Houkoku Number 1045
Wartime HIstory
Abandoned at Ballale
Island.
Recovery
Cut into components, and recovered by Robert
Diemert in 1969, along with: A6M2 3471, A6M2
CN? and a D3A2 3178, in addtion to other
Zero parts from other wrecks. These relics were transported to Port
Moresby where they were stored for a month, before being transported
to Canada in January 1969.
Ryan Toews adds:
"It has also been posited that the rear fuselage with the HKK number 1045 may be linked with A6M2 5459. While it may be possible that the front and rear fuselage sections identified by the HKK number 1053 may have come from A6M2 4362 the high HKK number seems to argue against that being the case. Although it is known that HKK number sequencing did not necessarily follow the sequential serial numbers it could be argued that the discrepancy in the comparative numbers is too great. If, and this is the last in a long line of ifs, the preceding is correct, the data plate marked 4362 may have come from the front fuselage section identified with the NMNA Zero.
References
Thanks to Ryan Toews, Jim Long and Alan Gaynor for info.
Yokoi Houkoku List
Zero
