Aircraft History
Built by Mitsubishi, estimated date of assembly March 1943. At the factory, painted with green upper surfaces and gray lower surfaces with a black engine cowling. Delivered to the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) as A6M2 Model 22 Zero manufacture number 3600.

Wartime History
Assigned to an unknown Kokutai with tail code 3-??? (three digits unknown). Likely, this Zero operated from one of the Rabaul area airfields.

Wartime History
This Zero likely took off from the Rabaul area likely Lakunai Airfield or Tobera Airfield and was shot down or crashed near Ilugi Creek and the Warongoi River south of Rabaul.

Wreckage
This Zero crashed into a hillside with portions of the rear fuselage and tail relatively intact. The wreckage included manufacture number 3600, dataplates and the tail number prefix 3- was observed on the wreckage.

During the 1980s, the crash site was discovered by Brian Bennett who recovered parts of the aircraft including both tail stabilizers and portions of the rear fuselage.

Salvage
Later, Brian Bennett recovered parts of the aircraft including pieces of the rear stabilizer and both tail stabilizers and portions of the rear fuselage. The right stabilizer went to the Australian War Memorial (AWM) and used in the restoration of A6M2 Zero 5784. The left stabilizer went to Kermit Weeks / Fantasy of Flight Museum and is in storage in his off site storage facility and has a component dataplate and stenciled 3600.

A portion of this aircraft's rear fuselage with the lower portion of the Hinomaru with 75mm white border and the green and gray paint was offered for sale by Brian Bennett on Ebay and purchased by a buyer in New Hampshire. During March 2011, same buyer attempted to resell it on Ebay auction ID 120697126489 for $2,400 but it did not sell at that time.

References
Ebay Auction ID 120697126489 seller convalescent22 (ended) price $2,400
Thanks to Brian Bennett for additional details

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Last Updated
November 9, 2019