BURNED! #2

Stills from the previously uploaded videos.

The aircraft with the yellow "T-53" tail marking is an Aichi H9A1 Training Flying Boat that was flown by the Takuma Kokutai as indicated by the letter "T", a marking that was adopted by the unit from April 1945. The unit was organized on June 1, 1943, at Takuma Base in Kagawa Prefecture, tasked with the training of seaplane and flying boat crews. In the beginning, the unit was to have 12 "Jake" and 48 training flying boats but in reality, as only about two dozen H9A1s were ever built, the unit only had a handful of them and a few "Mavis" and "Emily" flying boats. By 1945 the need for flying boats was eclipsed and the unit disbanded on April 25, 1945, came under the 5th Koku Kantai (Air Fleet), organized seaplane suicide units and, with flying boats from the 802, 851 and other Kokutai, engaged in night patrols in the Okinawa area.

The aircraft with the "951-?" on the tail is a Kawanishi N1K1 "Kyofu" (Rex) belonging to the 951 Kokutai. On December 15, 1944 local anti-submarine patrol units were incorporated in three big kokutai. West Japan became the responsibility of the 951st Kokutai which included SaseboKu, MaizuruKu, OkinawaKu, 453Ku, 256Ku and ChinkaiKu (responsible for the patrol of Korean peninsula and located in today's Jinhae-gu in S. Korea). The headquarters of the 951Ku was in Sasebo and small units were dispatched to various locations. Initially, the unit was equipped with a large variety of aircraft types but from July 1, 1945, it became an exclusively seaplane reconnaissance unit. The tail marking of the unit was the "951" and the aircraft based in Sasebo included a katakana "サ" (Sa). Note that the aircraft undersides are not NMF but IJNAF hairyokushoku (gray green).

The floatplane that looks to be gray with only green around the fuselage hinomaru is a Mitsubishi A6M2-N "Rufe".

The floatplane at the top of the pile missing parts of the canopy is an Aichi E16A "Zuiun" (Paul).

The aircraft in the background with the red tail marking is an Aichi E13A "Jake". The tail marking is not clear but it's either "KEB-22" which means it belonged to the 931 Kokutai or "KEA"-22" which would mean it was flown by the 901 Kokutai. The "K" of the marking came from the Japanese word "kaijo" (coastal), the "E" from the English "Escort" and the third letter denoted the various units. They were assigned to anti-submarine patrol duties.

In this and the previous still, the other aircraft with a visible tail marking in red is also an Aichi E13A "Jake". Tail marking is "951-47" and belonged to the 951 Kokutai.

Note the float in the foreground with the brown and green camouflage belonging to a Kawanishi E7K2 "Alf". Although it has a white band in the front of the float, it has two white bands in the rear. These bands would indicate where the floatplane would land on the beach trolley attachment points, therefore the two in the rear are quite unusual and they might be a special marking within the unit.

Only the skeleton of a Kawanishi E7K2 "Alf" remains.

The wing on the left pointing to the sky belongs to a Mitsubishi F1M2 "Pete".

We first saw the F1Ms and other seaplanes of the SaseboKu here.

The NARA photo below features at least three Aichi E13A "Jake" seaplanes and one Kawanishi E7K2 "Alf".

A closeup reveals that all these seaplanes belonged to the 951 Kokutai. Of particular interest is the "Jake" on the right with tail marking "サ 951-47".

It's the same "Jake" that can be seen in one of the stills above. So we can safely conclude that at least some of the seaplanes seen in the previous photos that were found in the Sasebo base, were later piled up at the Sasebo airfield and were burned by the flamethrower Sherman tank. Isn't it great to get some sort of closure about the fate of various aircraft seen in photos?

Last but not least, here's a color photo from the Ethell collection showing the Sasebo Kokutai seaplanes getting burned, as we saw in the video. Very interestingly, the tail marking of the "Rufe" is visible but I can't discern it from the low-quality copy of the photo. Leave a comment if you know.

Update: Mirek from Rising Decals informed us that the tail marking of the Rufe is "サ 951-10". That would really make for an interesting "Rufe" model, wouldn't you agree?

Thanks Mirek!