A short video today, cortessy of our friend Patrice Fresnel, from the "Imperial War Museum" features two Aichi E13A "Jake" seaplanes at Kai Tak Airfield, Kowloon, Hong Kong, after the end of the war.
The one closer to the camera has a tail marking "CS 3-3". The "CS" was used by the lesser-known "China Area Fleet" since 1944. We know that there was a transport unit flying Showa L2Ds with tail marking "CS-number", so the "3-number" part of the "Jake" marking possibly indicated different hikotai.
The other "Jake" has "KEA-207" tail marking which indicates that it belonged to the 901 Kokutai.
The unit was organized on December 15, 1943, at Tateyama for patrol and ship escort missions. In the beginning, it was equipped with 24 "Nell" and 12 "Mavis" flying boats. Later it received a variety of types and in May 1945 the unit had no less than 212 planes.
In the middle of June 1944, the 901Ku moved to Donggang, Pingtung County, Taiwan, and then to Maizuru, Kyoto Prefecture where they sent various dispatch units to different locations. The main mission of the unit was sea patrol and the protection of the southwest ship routes.
On January 1, 1945, it merged with the 254Ku, 953Ku and 954Ku and on March 1, 1945, the unit had 24 carrier fighters, 24 interceptors, 24 carrier attackers, 24 "Nell" and "Betty" bombers, 64 "Jake" floatplanes, 40 Kyushu Q1W "Tokai" and 12 flying boats. On June 1, the unit had a mixed force of 12 carrier fighters, 12 "Nells" and "Bettys", 80 "Jakes" and 42 "Tokai".
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