Aircraft History
Built by Mitsubishi at Nagoya No. 3 Works, sometime after June, 1943. This bomber has the later model re-designed tail turret, meaning it was built after manufacture number 855. Likely, assigned to the 751 Kokutai. Tail number 359.
Wartime History
Force landeded intact into kunai grass behind Kavieng near
Balgai Bay.
Wreckage
The cockpit section burned, but the tail and engines remained
intact.
The machine guns and cannon were recovered from the wreckage sometime after the war.
Dorian / Scuba Kavieng visited the site in 2008:
"The wreck looks like the plane was quite severly straffed whilst on the ground. The guys from the village say they did a survey they say 15 years. The guns were taken before. One of the other chaps in the village had a 7.7mm projectile on a necklace, he said there used to be lots around the wreck. They picked these up next to the plane. A few years back some surfers went to the wreck, one of the guys worked for someone in Australia that rebuilds planes and he was talking about taking out the engines! These guys went by road and then got lost coming out, spent a night and day in the kunai grass! The village won't let that happen easily, as they are very proud of their plane."
References
Thanks to Brian Benntt and scubakavieng for additional information.
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Last Updated
January 31, 2018
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