Thursday 27 September 2012

Nakajima B6N "Tenzan" (Jill)

A NARA photo featuring in the foreground a Nakajima B6N "Tenzan" (Jill) found in Atsugi base, Kanagawa Prefecure, at the end of the war. It is equipped with H-6 ASV Radar as can be testified by the "Yagi-type" antennae. The unit marking has been overpainted and therefore is unknown. Probably a visiting airplane. In the background there are Zero-sen, Raiden and other aircraft belonging to the 302 Kokutai.


During our 2008 holiday trip to the paradise called Ogasawara or Bonin islands (HERE) we discovered that right in front of the pension we were staying there was the wheel-cover of a "Tenzan". It turned out to belong to one of the two aircraft of its type that were operated by the 903rd Kokutai.

It was in the sea surrounding the islands that former US President George H. W. Bush crash-landed and was subsequently rescued by a US submarine.

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