Sunday 10 March 2019

Mitsubishi G3M "Nell" - video

Another video from the NHK collection dated April 23, 1941. Admiral Shimada Shigetaro, Commander-in-Chief of the China Area Fleet is visiting the base of "Umi no Arawasi" (Sea Wild Eagles) during operations against the cities of Kaihua and Jiangshan.
The interesting "Nell" bombers in the video and the stills below belong to the GenzanKu which together with MihoroKu constituted the 22 Koku Sentai. On April 10 they came under the China Area Fleet and participated in the "Operation F1", attack against the railway line that passed through the above mentioned cities and was transporting supplies to the coastal cities of Zhejiang Province which were under attack at the time. 

The tail marking of the Model 21 "Nell" above with the two retractable turrets, is most probably "G-141" or "G-341". Note the two- or three-tone camouflage, in contrast to the NMF bomber in the still above this one, and how "white" the wing hinomaru look. Finally note the difference in the pattern of the white lines on the tail compared to the plane in the third still from the top. These variations indicated the chutai and shotai in the unit.

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