Aichi D3A1 Val Manufacture Number 3470 Tail Number T3-261

IJN
582nd Kokutai

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August 11, 1943
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1943 via Ryan Toews
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1943 via Rocker

 

Aircraft History
Built June 1942. This aircraft had green overall paint, with tail code painted in white with red stripe horizontal across the tail and vertical stripe on the rear fuselage.

Wartime History
Abandoned at Munda Airfield, with a damaged right wing and shrapnel damage over the airframe. The wreck was examined by US Army TAIU in August 1943.

Richard Dunn adds:
"The crash report says that the stencil port side forward of horizontal stabilizer translates: "Type 99 (no model) carrier borne bomber." The report talks about 3029, 3106, and 3263 and lumps them together as the same type and mentions salvage of parts from 'both models' clearly implying 3470 is different. A separate summary CEAR identifies 3470 as a Val Mk 1 assembled June 42. The fact that the stencil fails to note a model number implies it was a mark 1 as no model number was necessary on the original type (there being no mark 2 at that time)."

References
Thanks to Richard Dunn and Jim Long for additional information.
FAOW #3, page 53
Japanese Naval Air Force Camouflage and Markings, World War II, p 83, 116

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