Aircraft History
Built by Mitsubishi, estimated date of assembly August 1943. Armed two 7.7mm machine guns in the nose and two Mark 2 20mm 'long barrel' cannons in the wings.

Wartime History
Crashed on Bougainville, estimated to have crashed during November 1943.

Wreckage
Investigated by a patrol of twelve Americans on January 4, 1944, roughly west of Piva. At the time, this wreck was in Japanese territory and only a limited inspection was made, noting the manufacture number 3932. No trace of the pilot or personnel effects were found.

At the time of discovery, this wreck was described as a "ZEKE Mark 2", and was the first time that the 'jet exhaust' was noted as "alternate arrangement of exhaust stacks". In fact, this Zero was one of the first A6M5 Model 52 Zeros built.

References
ATIS Report "ZEKE Mk. 2 No. 3932" January 4, 1944
Thanks to Richard Dunn for additional information

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Last Updated
November 9, 2019