Two more photos from the 15th Naval Construction Battalion book. The caption offer no information but I think they were taken in the Yontan (Yomitan) airfield in Okinawa.
The first features a Nakajima Ki-43 "Hayabusa" (Oscar) in pretty bad condition.
No unit marking is visible on the tail but you can see the white band on the fuselage.
The second features a Mitsubishi G3M "Nell", most probably a Model 22, in even worse condition.
The tail is missing so the unit can't be identified at this stage but note the white "C" on the fuselage and the antenna for the anti-submarine "jikitanshiki".
I have always wondered what this white C (which looks more like an unclosed circle) means. It seems to appear on some radar-equipped Bettys but I'm not sure there's a connection.
ReplyDeleteGreat pictures by the way.
It is used for formation spacing while on patrol, and would be on one aircraft in a flight of four. At a distance it looks like a O. When
ReplyDeletea plane gets too close it looks like a backwards C.
ReplyDeleteWind Swords said ...
The backwards "C" (really a circle with a small segment missing) indicates the aircraft is equipped with a Magnetic Anomaly Detector (MAD). The MAD device is able to detect submarines under the surface by their magnetic signature. In order to "sweep" an area for submarines, several of these aircraft had to fly in a precise formation. The backwards "C" was used to properly space the aircraft apart. They would fly in formation and drift apart just far enough so the the "C" became an "O" as the naked eye could no longer detect the small space. Then the planes would be far enough apart to sweep an area but not too far apart for there to be gaps in the detection fields.
Wind Swords
Thanks David and Wind Swords.
ReplyDelete