11-Go Air Search Radar
A Japanese scientific delegation under Cdr Yoji Ito was sent to Germany in February 1941. Although the professional relationship between the Japanese and the Germans was far less cordial than that of the Americans and […]
Articles by PE Matt
Consolidated PB2Y Coronado
With the first versions of the PBY Catalina beginning to be supplied to the Navy in 1935, attention turned to potential successor machines with better performance. Both Sikorsky and Consolidated were solicited for proposals, and […]
Sikorsky XPBS
As the US Navy was beginning to receive the first prototypes of the aircraft that would become the PBY Catalina, it simultaneously began to solicit proposals for the eventual replacement of this flying boat. The […]
The Career of the I-25 – Part Two
When I-25 arrived at her berth in Yokosuka harbour, her pilot, Nobuo Fujita, was surprised to receive orders to report to Naval General Headquarters in Tokyo. At first he feared that he was to be […]
The Career of the I-25 – Part One
Several navies experimented with submarine-launched aircraft, but few embraced the practice as whole-heartedly as the Japanese. Throughout the 1920s several experimental aircraft were developed, and submarines modified with water-tight compartments to carry them, before the […]
Nakajima A6M2-N Type 2 “Rufe”
During the China Incident the Japanese Navy had made extensive use of floatplanes to augment their land-based units. The Japanese faced a lack of suitable airfields around the coastal cities that were conquered between 1937 […]
The Kiska Blitz
For the Japanese, the only bright spot in the disastrous MI-AL Operation was the capture of the tiny Aleutian Islands of Kiska and Attu – the only pieces of American territory to fall into enemy […]
Darwin, Summer 1942
As war waged across the Pacific, one relative backwater saw renewed battle as a veteran Japanese air group duelled with a rookie American unit in the skies of northern Australia. Following the devastating raid on […]
The German Raiders Thor and Michel
After the loss of the Kormoran on November 19th, 1941, there were no German auxiliary cruisers still afloat anywhere in the Pacific or Indian oceans. Keen to put pressure on the Royal Navy and force it to defend […]
The Battle of Midway: Mikuma’s Nightmare
When word of the American attack in the Kido Butai, and the subsequent destruction of the Kaga, Akagi and Soryu, made its way back to Admiral Yamamoto aboard his flagship Yamato, he was stunned. Information […]