Nakajima B5N (Kate)
Type 97 Carrier Attack Bomber
Technical Information
Background
Japanese Navy torpedo-bomber
designed
to meet 1935 Navy specifications. Judged to be obsolescent at the start of the war, it was still superior to the TBD Devastator the shipboard
torpedo-plane of the US Fleet at the battles of Coral
Sea and Midway.
B5Ns played the main role at Pearl Harbor, in which
40 B5N2s armed with torpedoes and 103 B5N1s armed with bombs, crippled the
US Battle Fleet. Also, sinking the carrier
Lexington at Coral Sea, Yorktown
at Midway, and Hornet at the Battle
of Santa Cruz.
Production
A total of 1,149 were built.
