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| IJN 582 Kōkūtai or 552 Kōkūtai |
Aircraft History Built by Aichi completed during early November 1943. Uncoded serial number 487. Delivered to the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) as Aichi Type 99 Carrier Bomber (Kanbaku) / D3A2 Model 22 Val manufacture number 3487. Wartime History Assigned to either 582 Kōkūtai (582 Air Group) or 552 Kōkūtai (552 Air Group). No known tail code. Mission History Between December 15-31, 1943 took off from Rabaul on a dive bombing mission against the U.S. landing at Arawe (Cape Merkus). Likely shot down by anti-aircraft fire or American fighters and crashed. Wreckage The crash site includes the engine and pieces of wreckage. Stenciled on the wreckage is manufacture number 3487 in three locations. Mark Reichman adds: "To find any remains would be quiet a task as the plane is scattered all over an area of 75 feet radius. I told Rod about it hoping with that and the Val in the water the Japanese would want to come get the remains. The site is just a tourist attraction now but no tourist come here and when they do the locals are suspicious like I've said before. The locals do try to sell the aluminum but don't get near as much what they are hoping so that practice has stopped for now particularly when timber companies are paying out royalties. Propellers are popular though cause they are heavy. Fortunately, they are pretty hard to cut off but any that are broken off in the crash are carried away." References "Serial Number & Production Sequence D3A2 Carrier Bombers" by Jim Long, page B Thanks to Mark Reichman for additional information Contribute
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