IJAAF & IJNAF wrecked aircraft #11 - Sasebo, Mitsubishi F1M Reikan (Pete) & more

Three videos (!) today, one in color, taken at the Sasebo Naval Arsenal at the end of the war. The aircraft featured in the videos are a number of Mitsubishi F1M "Reikan" (Pete) belonging to the Sasebo Kokutai.

Source for the above video, here

Source for the above video, here

And the least famous of all three:

Source for the above video, here

There are two very good NARA photos showing in very good detail these "Reikan" and we have presented a detail of one of them with information about the unit in a previous post, HERE.

Check also the beautiful model by Pat Donahue, HERE.

 

I also recently discovered the quite interesting photo below from here, with a very interesting account of the occupation of the area.

There was also a variety of different types of floatplanes, some in better, some in quite wrecked condition. The Kyushu K11W "Shiragiku" in the photo below, from here, with the surrender white overall and the green crosses, comes as a surprise, but notice the Kawanishi N1K "Kyofu" tail with the marking "SA 951-12" behind it.

There are two quite nice NARA photos taken in Sasebo showing a variety of wrecked aircraft, mostly Aichi E13A "Jake" and "Reikan". 

Note that the "Jake" has a tail marking of "サへ" (SAHE) which indicates that it belonged to SaekiKu which was organized on February 15, 1934, based in Saiki, Oita Prefecture, the ninth kokutai that was organized by the IJNAF, originally to patrol the Bungo Channel between Kyushu and Shikoku. In the beginning it was a flying boat unit but from October of the same year started operating seaplanes and from April of the next year, carrier fighters were also added to its strength. Later carrier bombers, carrier attackers and patrol aircraft were also operated but in the beginning of the war the unit had only carrier bombers. At the end of the war the unit had only reconnaissance seaplanes. 

I recently discovered these two more photos taken in Sasebo, from here.

 

 

Note the U.S. aircraft wing part and there is a discussion in the source link, whether this particular aircraft was one of those during the Doolittle Raid. Keep in mind that the Japanese had captured a variety of U.S. aircraft in the Philippines and in China, so I'm not sure we can conclude with any variety of certainty that this particular aircraft (whatever the type could be) was a Doolittle one.