Aircraft History
Built by Mitsubishi at Nagoya during January 1943.

Mission History
The circumstance of this aircraft's loss is unclear.

According to unit records, this bomber took off from Rabaul, and was part of an evening attack on Rendova. Shot down by a P-70 night fighter over Guadalcanal, and crashed on a hillside, near the Bonegi River. All the crew were killed.

It is unknown why the aircraft ended up over Guadalcanal. All that can be speculated is that during the Rendova attack, the pilot became disoriented, and after dark started flying the wrong direction towards Guadalcanal and was shot down. Perhaps this was due to pilot error, equipment failure, panic or a futile attempt to harass the American rear area.

Wartime Investigation
Investigated by the US Army on August 16, 1943, four bodies were found at the crash site, and left undisturbed.

Jim Long / J-Aircraft adds:
"Betty No. 1570 with white tail marking 377 was inspected by Allied air intelligence personnel on Guadalcanal during 1943 and reported upon in Crashed Enemy Aircraft Report No. 10, issued by the Office of the Assistant Chief of Air Staff, Intelligence, Washington D.C., dated 16 August 1943. The plane crashed in flames in dense jungle near the Bonegi River. The fuselage stencil was noted and the data on it was preserved. The stencil had three lines, as follows:

Another document lists No. 1570 with an estimated date of assembly of early January 1943 and a crash date of 14 June 1943 (an estimated date, I believe) at the Bonegi River."

Rediscovery of Wreckage
In 1995, John Innes visited the crash site, and found bones and recovered a 7.7mm machine gun and 20mm tail gun from the site. These were later donated to the Solomon Islands National Museum collection in 2003. The tail fin, with the number 377 was still visible.

Michael Claringbould , next visited the site in 1996:
"The marking "H 359" hand-painted on one engine exhaust. Air Group 705 (formerly the Misawa Air Group) and used the letter "H" as an air group identification letter during 1942 and early 1943. But for a time during 1943, perhaps from April to June, Air Group 705 displayed no air group symbols on its aircraft and instead used just individual aircraft numbers for identification. I notified the Japanese of the bones present. The relatives visited the site by helicopter and held a memorial service there and recovered them."

Display
The nose section and piece of outer wing, with the hinomaru were recovered in the 1970's and brought to the Vilu War Museum.

Justin Taylan visited the site in September 2003:
"I visited this site and was impressed with the complexity of the site. Having crashed over a jungle covered ravine area, the wreckage is widely dispersed."

References
Thanks to Michael Claringbould, William Bartsch and Jim Long for additional information.

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