IJN
705th Kokutai
June 30, 1943
1943 US Navy Official
1943 USMC Official
Aircraft History
Built late April 1943.
Wartime History
Heavily damaged, it crash landed relatively intact on June 30, 1943 near Visu Viso (Visuviso)
Point (Bugmar Beach), New Georgia. After the American occupation of the area, this wreck was heavily photographed.
Osamu Tagaya adds (via J-Aircraft):
'I had assumed this was his aircraft and identified it as such in my Osprey book on the Betty. However, if this was Sakurai's aircraft, it posed an anomaly as far as its markings were concerned, which represented the chutai marking and associated number block assignments before rather than after the December 1, 1942 reorganization. I was still confused by this at the time the Osprey book went to press, and my confusion shows in the captions I provided on pp. 72 and 73, as well as those in connection with Profile No. 13.
The confusion is compounded by an inaccuracy in the profile painting, which shows No. 336 with a cut-off tail gun canopy (page 53). This is an error I let slip by in giving Mark Styling my instructions for the painting. The photos on pp. 72 and 73 clearly show the old-style tail cone to be completely intact.
I now believe that No. 336 was not Sakurai's machine. Furthermore, I now believe it had no connection with the June 30, 1943 action, and that it was, in fact, lost much earlier in time. This would be consistent with the pre-December 1, 1942 marking system which the plane displays. Also, most Type 1 Rikko had cut-off tail cones by the spring of 1943.
Finally, a very valuable piece of evidence from captured and translated Japanese documents provided by Richard Dunn indicates that the five rikko lost by 705 Ku on June 30, 1943 were 310, 312 or 321 (a numeral transposition discrepancy in the sources), 358, 372 and 377. No. 336 does not appear on this list."
Betty
Photos
