Air War #9

Sent from Truk, a B6N torpedo plane eludes the screen and speeds for the Yorktown.

B6N2 "Jill". The Nakajima B6N Tenzan (“Heavenly Mountain,” Allied reporting name: “Jill”) was the Imperial Japanese Navy’s standard carrier-borne torpedo bomber during the final years of World War II and the successor to the B5N “Kate.” Due to its protracted development, a shortage of experienced pilots and the United States Navy’s achievement of air superiority by the time of its introduction, the B6N was never able to fully demonstrate its combat potential.

B6N "Jill".

B6N "Jill".

Nakajima B6N. 

Ju 188 vertical stabilizer assembly. [Ju 188E-1(Stand Juni 1943)]

Royal Enfield "Flying Flea" with a airborne jeep and Horsa glider during training exercises.

Original caption when this image was posted on my World War II in View Flickr account on 8 July 2025. Below is a lengthy comment from MattPoole29. Thank you Matt for the correction and additional information.

This photo was NOT taken by Saunders. It is NOT Insein Jail. It was NOT a Mosquito Mark VI aircraft. Instead, the photo was taken by either pilot F/Officer Anthony Montague Browne or his navigator, F/Sgt George Price. The date is absolutely correct (and is verified by some trustworthy first-hand evidence). They were flying in a Bristol Beaufighter, coded "L". This is definitely Rangoon Jail, where the now ex-PoWs who had been left behind when the Japanese force-marched roughly 400 more able-bodied (supposedly) prisoners out of Rangoon (before eventually releasing them, except for a few who had been executed as stragglers and a few escapees).

The photo's marginalia, not seen in this version of the image, revealed that the Beaufighter was flying at an altitude of 200 feet at the time. This flyover – identified in a number of reliable sources as a Beaufighter – was well documented in the 211 Squadron Operations Record Book and also in Montague Browne's book, LONG SUNSET; MEMOIRS OF WINSTON CHURCHILL'S LAST PRIVATE SECRETARY. Montague Brown’s book included the same photo. W/Cdr Lionel Hudson, leader of the ex-PoWs, reported in his prison diary that the flyover happened at 0930, about 30 minutes before a second message, BRITISH HERE (hidden in the photo), had been painted on the opposite roof pitch of Block 1, where the painting of JAPS GONE had been finished only that morning.

Very likely the mistaken information came from the errors printed in the caption to the same photo in the book CODEBREAKER IN THE FAR EAST, by wartime British codebreaker Alan Stripp. His caption read:

Aerial photograph of Insein Jail, near Rangoon, taken on 1 May 1945 by Wing-Commander A.E. Saunders, CO of 110 Squadron, flying a Mosquito VI.

Insein prison was located 8.2 miles to the north-northwest of Rangoon Jail. Like Rangoon Jail, it was laid out in a spokes-in-a-wheel configuration of prison buildings.

W/Cdr A.E. Saunders – indeed the Commanding Officer of RAF 110 Squadron – was a fascinating player in the story of Rangoon Jail’s liberation. It is likely that Alan Stripp assumed (wrongly, of course) that the photo had been taken from the Saunders-piloted Mosquito. On the next day, 2 May 1945, W/Cdr Arthur Ernest Saunders OBE, and his navigator, F/Lt J.B. Stephens, risked their lives to investigate their hunch: that Rangoon was abandoned by the Japanese. Damaged during landing on the cratered
runway of Mingaladon airfield (now the site of Rangoon’s municipal airport), their Mosquito was unable to take off again. By pure luck, they had chosen a segment of runway that had not been mined by retreating Japanese forces. Furthermore, their radio was malfunctioning.

W/Cdr Saunders and F/Lt Stephens were transported into Rangoon city, where they made contact at Rangoon Jail with W/Cdr Lionel Hudson, the acting prison CO. Knowing that the
amphibious invasion of Rangoon was imminent, and with no functioning radios to be found, W/Cdr Saunders and F/Lt Stephens commandeered a small boat, rode down the Rangoon River, and intercepted the Allied invasion fleet steaming northward.

Ultimately, the ex-PoWs left behind in Rangoon Jail were spared potential injury and/or death resulting from a full-scale assault upon Rangoon. Because evidence of Rangoon’s abandonment by the Japanese had already been recognized by the invaders, the exploits of W/Cdr Saunders and F/Lt Stephens likely did not influence invasion plans much, but their first-hand report, after intercepting the incoming invasion fleet, certainly was reassuring.

Japanese naval airmen from film captured at Attu.

Japanese Army pilots in flying gear.

Japanese Army pilot in flying gear.

IJN seaplane tender Kamikawa Maru, c. 1942, likely taken from the Kimikawa Maru. Note the 'X' tail code on the "Jake".

Mitsubishi J2M3. The Mitsubishi J2M Raiden (“Thunderbolt”) was a single-engined land-based fighter aircraft used by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service in World War II. The Allied reporting name was “Jack.”

The Mitsubishi J8M1 “Swinging Sword” prototype. At an early stage the Japanese showed great interest in the “Komet.” Negotiations for its production in Japan resulted in the dispatch of a pattern airframe to that country, but this was lost when the submarine carrying it was sunk. Nothing daunted, and armed with nothing more than a engineering manual and a sample Walter motor, the Japanese set to work with a design loosely based on the Me 163. The J8M1 made its first flight in July 1945, only to suffer an engine failure and crash.

The training glider version of the Mitsubishi J8M1 “Swinging Sword.”

The first prototype J7W1 Shinden which logged only 45 minutes in the air and was, in fact, ordered into production.

Kyushu J7W.

Mitsubishi J2M Raidens, codenamed Jack, originally from 381st Kokutai.  Captured at Malaya, BI-0I and BI-02 were tested at Tebrau Air Base in British Malaya in 1946.  These aircraft were flown and evaluated by Japanese naval aviators under close supervision of RAF officers from Seletar Airfield in December 1945.  RAF, Allied Technical Air Intelligence Unit, South East Asia (ATAIU - SEA).

J1N1-S "Irving" night fighter.

J1N1 "Irving".

A survivor of the first atomic bomb ever used in warfare, Jinpe Teravama retains scars after the healing of burns from the bomb explosion, in Hiroshima, in June of 1947.

Henderson Field, Guadalcanal, seen from the air.

The Nakajima Ki-49 Donryu “Dragon Eater” Army Type 100 Heavy Bomber Model 1 was a Japanese heavy bomber of World War II, although regarded as a medium bomber by the US. It was a twin-engine, mid-wing, cantilever monoplane of all-metal construction fitted with a retractable tailwheel undercarriage. During World War II, it was known to the Allies by the reporting name “Helen.”

Ki-49.

Ki-49 during a low-level strafing run by an American warplane.

Ki-49.

Ki-49 bomber of the Hamamatsu Army Heavy Bomber School.

Natural metal Ki-49s in formation over Japan.

Ki-49 in surrender markings of overall white with green crosses.

Ki-49-IIb abandoned in the Philippines, 1945.

Ki-49-IIb warming up.

Ki-49 wartime recognition three-view drawing.

Ki-58 escort fighter version of the Ki-49 bomber. The tail of a captured Douglas A-20 bomber is visible in the background.

Midway Island.

Damage and fires burning on Midway after a Japanese attack.

Planes of VP 13 and VP 102 in submarine basin at Sand Island, Midway Atoll, 29 January 1944.

Bakers in 40th Photographic Reconnaissance Squadron (PRS) mess built this operational oven on Akyab Island, Burma, 1945.

Grumman XF2F-1, BuNo 9342.

Wooden mock-up of Grumman XF2F.

Grumman XF2F-1 (BuNo 9342).

Grumman XF2F-1 (BuNo 9342).

Grumman XF2F-1 (BuNo 9342).

Grumman F2F-1.

Grumman F2F-1 under construction at production facility.

Grumman F2F-1 under construction at production facility.

Painting of Sgt. R.H. Hulse, crew chief by combat artist Tom Lea.

Painting of Aviation Cadet Bill Kelly shown here in the cockpit of his basic trainer. Tom Lea noted that Kelly “wouldn’t even smoke or drink coffee, much less take a snort for fear it would disturb his flying.”

Tom Lea mainly relied on quick sketches made in the field when making his paintings. But he occasionally used photographs, as in this shot of pilot Bill Kelly, with Lea’s notes written around the margins. “I went out to the war as a reporter,” said Lea. “I absolutely was not going to do anything that I didn’t see and know—because I was there to record it, not as I thought it should be or not as an object of art.”

Combat artist Tom Lea’s “Portrait of Maj. Gen. Claire L. Chennault,” 1943.

Combat artist Tom Lea's "Fighter Pilot at Work."

Thanks to ingenious devices conceived and developed at the Navy Bureau of Aeronautics Special Devices Division in Washington, D.C., under the command of Rear Admiral Luis de Florez, Navy pilots went into combat with a confidence engendered by the thought that they had done this before. These devices enabled fledgling fliers to shoot down enemy planes, bomb objectives, engage in blind flying and many other activities, all without leaving the ground. Shown here is a star recognition trainer. This device enabled the instructor to demonstrate the relationship of the heavenly bodies to one another.

Fourteenth Air Force bombing a railroad bridge used by the Japanese in French Indo-China, 1944.

Flames spread through the city of Tarumiza, Kyushu, Japan, after incendiary bombing by the 499th Bomb Squadron, 345th Bomb Group.

Built for Sweden but diverted to U.S. forces after a 1940 embargo on overseas sales, P-35s of the 20th Pursuit Squadron fly over Clark Field in the summer of 1941.

B-24 "Missouri Miss".

B-24 cockpit hit by anti-aircraft shell.

B-24 "This Above All".

B-24 "Solid Comfort" at Kingman Army Airfield.

B-24 "Reluctant Dragon" 42-73---.

B-24 Liberators.

Waist gunners on a B-24 operating in the Aleutian Islands in 1943. This illustrates the issue of the waist gunners getting in each other’s way.

B-24 "Eager Beaver" being loaded with bombs. Bombs are delivered on the bomb trailer and then placed on the bomb trolley where the tail fins and fuse are installed before the bomb is loaded into the bomb bay.

B-24 "Lil'Audrey", flew 100 missions and the score board in this photo indicates they claimed four Japanese planes.

B-24 top turret with aerial gunner.

Captured Focke-Wulf Fw 190 during test flight in the U.S.

North American A-36 of the Twelfth Air Force flies over Mt. Vesuvius, Italy. The Invaders flew much of the air cover over Anzio beachhead.

North American A-36 dive bomber version based on the P-51A Mustang (42-83707, 42-83716, 42-83715).

North American A-36 Invader.

North American A-36A Invader, in natural finish, during pre-flight.

A North American A-36A Invader in olive-drab war paint. The Invader proved to be an excellent dive bomber and strafing aircraft.

Lt. Michael T. Russo of the 522nd Fighter-Bomber Squadron was the first Mustang ace and the only pilot with five kills in the A-36.

Led by its Commanding Officer, Colonel Chester A. Coltharp, North American B-25s from the 345th Bomb Group head out for the China Sea in search of reported northbound Japanese convoy. Squadrons fly formation to and from target for mutual protection.

North American B-25s of the 12th Bomb Group, Eastern Air Command, head into the clouds over the China hills on a mission that paved the way for ground forces in the drive on Mandalay. Height of the clouds makes it necessary to go “on instruments” as long as two hours on many occasions. Coming monsoon weather in the India Burma Theater will increase this kind of flying.

North American B-25 wooden wind tunnel model.

North American B-25 Mitchells on the assembly line.

Cockpit of the North American B-25C Mitchell.

North American B-25 Mitchells.

North American Aviation B-25A Mitchell medium bomber of the 34th Bombardment Squadron (Medium), 17th Bombardment Group (Medium), circa 1941.

An Eleventh Air Force B-25 takes off from Alexai Point Air Base on Attu, 1943.

PBJs (Marine B-25s) approach Rabaul, New Britain.

Rabaul Harbor, showing Japanese ships hit by 1,000-pound bombs dropped by B-25s.

"Onto the Ramp". Consolidated PBY Catalina flying boat. Painting by Joseph Hirsch.

Mess hall and galley at Agadir, French Morocco, used by U.S. Navy aviation unit.

Water supply for showers at Agadir, French Morocco, used by U.S. Navy aviation unit. Chlorinated water filled the fifty-gallon drums; heat from the sun warmed the water.

The airfield at Lunga Point on Guadalcanal, later called Henderson Field by the Allies, seen under construction by the Japanese in July 1942. Mount Austen is in the center distance.

Photographed immediately after a pre-landing strike by USS Enterprise aircraft flown by Navy pilots, Tanambogo and Gavutu Islands lie smoking and in ruins in the morning sun. Gavutu is at the left across the causeway from Tanambogo.

This is an oblique view of Henderson Field looking north with Ironbottom Sound (Sealark Channel) in the background. At the left center is the "Pagoda" operations center of Cactus Air Force flyers through their first months of operations ashore.

Curtiss Hawk IV.

“Pappy” Boyington briefs his pilots.

Major Gregory “Pappy” Boyington, the leading Marine Corps ace of World War II with twenty-eight kills, briefs the fliers of his “Black Sheep Squadron” for an attack against Rabaul. Shortly after this photo was taken, Boyington was shot down over Rabaul and imprisoned by the Japanese for the rest of the war.

Marine Corps ace Gregory “Pappy” Boyington, 28 victories, with President Harry Truman, after being presented with the Medal of Honor.

20th Pursuit Squadron pilots in front of the squadron operations shack at Clark Field, summer 1941. Left to right: Bob Duncan, Milt Woodside, Edwin Gilmore.

Pilots of the 17th and 20th Pursuit Squadrons in the jungle near Clark Field, 11 December 1941. Left to right, seated: Buzz Wagner, Russel Church, Bill Hennon, Dan Blass, Percy Ramsey, and Fred Browne (on ground); standing, front row: unknown, John Posten, Jack Dale, John Vogel, Carl Gies, unknown, unknown, unknown, Bud Powell (with back to tree), and unknown; back row: unknown, Willis Culp, unknown, unknown, Silas Wolf, Jack Gates, and Tom Patrick.

Reunion of 17th Pursuit Squadron pilots after their release from POW camp in September 1945. Left to right: Steve Crosby, George Armstrong, James Ross, John Brownewell, La Mar Gillett, and Willis Culp.

Allied LRA-1 (BuNo 11648) glider on its beaching gear.

Allied LRA-1 (BuNo 11648) on its beaching gear.

Allied Aviation XLRA-1 transport flying boat glider prototype.

North American A-36 Invader was called ‘The Whispering Death’ by the Germans because of its quiet Allison engine.

North American A-36 Invader.

North American A-36A Invader attack bomber in the Mediterranean theater. Note unusual “A-V” code letters on fuselage sides, yellow surround to the national insignia, which is considerably thicker on the wing insignia, and wing stripe in either yellow or w

North American B-25 Mitchells.

North American B-25 Mitchell.

North American B-25 Mitchell.

B-25 patrolling coast of Alaska with a U.S. destroyer, June 14, 1943.

Navy PBJ-1s.

A North American PBJ-1 Mitchell, USMC, flies over a Pacific island in 1944.

B-25 “Paper Doll” with nose art based on the December 1943 Esquire Vargas gatefold.

Cockpit of B-25 showing control knobs and instrument panels with dual interchangeable flight instruments for pilot and co-pilot.

B-25 and P-39 with pre-war insignia, circa 1941.

Retired RAAF Ansons at RAAF Station Ballarat, Victoria in 1947 waiting for Commonwealth Disposals Commission sales.

RAF personnel inspect six Australian-built Bristol Beaufort Mark Vs, shortly after their arrival at Kallang, Singapore. The aircraft were intended for the re-equipment of No. 100 Squadron RAF but, as they were unarmed and their crews possessed no operational training, five were returned to Australia, while the sixth was employed on photographic reconnaissance duties.

Open air cookery at the airmen's mess of No. 454 (Baltimore) Squadron RAAF at its desert station, near Alexandria. Near Alexandria, Egypt, circa September 1943

Cooks on No. 454 (Baltimore) Squadron RAAF in a field desert kitchen cutting up the ingredients for the Christmas pudding. Note the kerosene tin on the wooden table behind them and the stoneware flagon at right bearing the words "SRD best rum". Gambut, Cyrenaica, Libya, circa December 1943.

Fairey Fulmar N1957.

Fairey Fulmar.

De Havilland DH.83 Fox Moth, operating in the air ambulance role, prepares to evacuate a wounded Askari of the 11th East African Division, from a forward airstrip in Central Burma.

Folland Fo.108 testbed aircraft. The Fo.108 was designed to serve as a testbed for a variety of aircraft engines. The first airframe entered service in 1940—a total of 12 were built. Bristol, Napier, and Rolls-Royce all tested their engines with the Fo.108. This particular aircraft, shown below, is testing the Bristol Hercules VIII radial engine.

Grumman Martlet IV (F4F-4B) (FN100). Note cowl detail, black oleo legs and downward view window.

Martlet III (F4F-3A) (AX828), Royal Navy.

Grumman Martlet launching from a carrier.

Grumman Martlet flying off HMS Formidable in September 1942.

Grumman Martlets of the Fleet Air Arm, Royal Navy.

Grumman Martlet of 881 Naval Air Squadron on HMS Persuer during Operation Dragoon.

Grumman Martlet VI of 882 Squadron of the Fleet Air Arm on HMS Searcher in 1945.

This armorer of the RAF’s Middle East command prepares a bomb for its mission against the Italian forces campaigning in Africa. This big bomb is not yet fused, but when it is it will be ready for its deadly work. Photo taken on October 24, 1940.

Hawker Hurricanes, Vultee Vengeances and North American Harvards lined up for flight testing after assembly at No. 1 (India) Maintenance Unit, Drigh Road, India.

Airmen fitting the fuselage of an Avro Anson Mark I to its wings at No. 1 (India) Maintenance Unit, Drigh Road, India.

Completed Vultee Vengeance Mark Is await the fitting of airscrews after assembly at No. 1 (India) Maintenance Unit, Drigh Road, India.  The nearest aircraft, AN796, eventually served with No. 110 Squadron RAF.

Vultee Vengeance fuselages, newly arrived from the United States, under inspection at No. 1 (India) Maintenance Unit, Drigh Road, India.

The de Havilland Don communications aircraft L2390. The Don was designed to be a multi-role training aircraft, capable of training a number of different crew types (from pilots to gunners to radio operators). The Don first flew on June 18th, 1937. As the aircraft was entering production, many of its training roles were cancelled and so only 50 airframes were built. Most were converted into liaison/communications aircraft, like the one seen below. By March 1939, the Don was no longer in service.

Fairey Battles of No. 88 Squadron RAF based at Mourmelon-le-Grand, fly in formation with Curtiss Hawk 75s of 1e escadrille GC 1/2 of the French Air Force, February 1940.

Aircraft of No. 1426 (Enemy Aircraft Circus) Flight at Collyweston, Northamptonshire. Focke Wulf Fw 190A-3, PN999, undergoes an engine service while airmen re-paint the wings of Junkers JU 88S-1, TS472. PN999 was formerly 'Red 9' of I/SKG10, the pilot of which became lost while flying a night fighter-bomber operation to London and landed by mistake at Manston, Kent, on 20 May 1943. No. 1426 Flight collected PN999 from the Royal Aircraft Establishment at Farnborough, on 29 June 1943, after it had undergone tests at the Aeroplane and Armament Experimental Establishment, Boscombe Down, Wiltshire. TS472 was captured intact at Villacoublay near Paris in September 1944 and was delivered directly to No. 1426 Flight, with whom it undertook some local flying in January 1945. Both aircraft were eventually passed to No. 47 Maintenance Unit at Sealand for storage in November 1945. (Imperial War Museum CH 15610)

Martlet II, Royal Navy.

RAF Vultee Vengeance, possibly at No. 1 (India) Maintenance Unit, Drigh Road, India.

RAF Consolidated B-24 Liberator and a Vultee Vengeance, No. 1 (India) Maintenance Unit, Drigh Road, India.

Brewster Buffalo Mk I (A6426).

Hitler’s personal Focke-Wulf Fw 200.

Focke-Wulf Fw 191.

Close up view of a rotatable, Ikaria-designed twin barrel machine gun mounting in the crew nacelle's tail cone. France, June 1942. (Bundesarchive Bild 101I-605-1705-18A)

Focke-Wulf Fw 189A-1.

Focke-Wulf Fw 186 V1 (D-ISTQ). The Focke-Wulf Fw 186 was a one-man autogyro, built by Focke-Wulf in 1937 with backing from the RLM (ReichsLuftfahrt Ministerium - Reich Aviation Ministry), for use as a liaison and reconnaissance aircraft. It featured short takeoff and landing (STOL) characteristics. However, only one prototype of the aircraft was constructed, and the project was abandoned when the RLM preferred the Fieseler Fi 156 Storch over the Fw 186.

Focke-Wulf Fw 61. The Focke-Wulf Fw 61 is often considered the first practical, functional helicopter, first flown in 1936. It was also known as the Fa 61, as Focke began a new company—Focke-Achgelis—after development had begun.

Hanna Reitsch piloting the Fw 61 V2.

Focke-Wulf Fw 55W (D-2711). A small production batch of both the Fw 55L landplane and the Fw 55W floatplane were completed, being delivered mainly to the DVS.

Hauptmann Franz von Werra and his pet lion cub Simba. Von Werra was the only Axis POW to escape Canadian custody in 1940. He hopped a train and somehow got across the St. Lawrence Seaway in the middle of winter. Then, he hung around New York City openly before heading south and crossing over to Africa. von Werra was portrayed in the film 'The One that Got Away' by Hardy Kruger.

Flettner Fl 265 (GI+SB). The Fl 265 was the first helicopter with inter-meshing contra-rotating synchronized rotors, the patent of Anton Flettner. In June 1941 the Fl 265 was also made the world's first transition from powered flight to autorotative flight and back to powered flight. The RLM (Reichsluftfahrtministerium, State Air Ministry) ordered two prototypes (later increased to six) and construction started in 1938. The Fl 265s were tested all over Europe, in a wind tunnel at Chalais-Meudon, France, in sea-trials by the Kriegsmarine (Navy) from ships in the Baltic Sea and Mediterranean, and over the Alps by the Wehrmacht (Army). Despite good results the program was ended in March 1942 in favor of the Fl 282.

Luftwaffe airmen with mess kits ("Henkelmann") in front of camouflaged accommodation during food distribution, Soviet Union, 1942.

Fieseler Fi 156C-2 Storch, WL-IWFT, Luftwaffe, Poland, circa September 1939 to October 1939. Fieseler Storch wearing a paramilitary WL registration, photographed in Poland during or shortly after the German invasion - the stricken aircraft is a Polish Karaś light bomber, perhaps aircraft 8 of 41 Eskadra Rozpoznawcza.

Servicing a Fieseler Fi 156 Storch while standing on a captured British BSA M20 motorcycle.

Servicing a Fieseler Fi 156 Storch while standing on a captured British BSA M20 motorcycle.

Fieseler Storch landing on an improvised runway in Ukraine.

An Fh 104 with Albert Kesselring at the controls.

Focke-Achgelis Fa 223 V12 Drache (DM+SP). The Drache (Dragon) type flew for the first time on March 8, 1940. DM+SP flew for the first on April 2, 1943 and crashed at Chamonix, France on December 12, 1943.

Erich "Bubi" Hartmann. The Soviets called him "The Black Devil." Quite simply, Hartmann is the best whoever was as far as fighter pilots go. He downed over 350 enemy aircraft.