Aircraft History
Built by Mitsubishi during middle November 1943. Assigned to ? Kokutai. Aircraft number 154.

Mission History
Took off from Rabaul. Ditched or crashed into the sea off Mongo approximately a mile north is Cape Palliser, roughly 35 miles south of Rabaul.

Wreckage
Upside down on a wall starting depth at nose about 60 feet and tail at 83'. No battle damage is apparent; plane either ran out of fuel, or experienced mechanical trouble and ditched. Canopy is pushed back and pilot is not inside. Aircraft is in excellent condition with little damage.

Rod Pearce adds:
"I found the serial stencil #4213 I will send more info as it comes to hand. The writing on this a/c is perfect like it was painted yesterday it is all there and I don't have a camera. Depth of water 20 meters upside down. the ID plate of the tail plane. also its a/c #154. The fuselage national insignia only has a dark color band not quite black but definitely not white of approx 60-70mm running around the out side of the red ball the entire a/c seems to be painted grey same as the Model 32. National inigina is also on wings. This a/c is also upside down, has long barrel version of the 20mm. Can not find tail markings at this stage but am sure they are there. Cockpit open. Very little damage. The aircraft number is 154 painted in brown or gold numbering on the bottom of engine cowling. It also had the stencil with the number 4213 (stb. side) painted on the underside of tail plane near where there is a data plate but has gone on this one. It has suffered battle damage. On the tail there seems to be two black lines aprox 100mm wide and something in between theses lines. Also on the undercarriage retraction fairing there seems to be a painted number but in black. The engine cowling is painted a blue black color the rest of the a/c is painted sky grey."

Don Fetterly adds:
"This is an early production Model 52 as it has drum fed long barrel 20mm cannons. Plane is orthogonal to wall and less than 40' from shore."

References
Thanks to Rod Pearce and Don Fetterly and for information.

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Last Updated
October 23, 2019