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 […]
One of the lesser known aspects of the air war in the Pacific is the extent to which the Japanese made use of submarine-launched aircraft. Although several navies had experimented with submarine aircraft carriers between […]
Whilst the Aichi E10A was accepted for service, the Japanese Navy knew that the aircraft was still lacking in outright performance and only just met the requirements for acceptance. Accordingly, new specifications were issued in […]
The Japanese plans for war against the United States included using cruisers and other light forces to harry the US Fleet as it sailed across the Pacific. Realising that the sort of attrition envisaged would […]
Japan had followed several other navies in attempting to develop small seaplanes to be carried on and launched by submarines. It was hoped that aircraft of this type could extend the scouting range of submarines, […]
The Japanese had observed with interest attempts in the west to create submarine-launched aircraft. The Japanese Navy had a particular interest in developing this capability in order to extend the reconnaissance capability of their submarines […]
Known as the “W-Planes” in Netherlands East Indies service, the Fokker C.XI was a two-seat reconnaissance aircraft designed to operate from Dutch cruisers in European and Far Eastern service. It was ordered to replace the […]
In 1934 the Japanese Navy issued request for a new observation seaplane, to fly from battleships and cruisers and perform gunfire spotting duties. Existing seaplanes were primarily reconnaissance types, tasked with finding the enemy in […]
The OS2U Kingfisher was designed in the late 1930s as an intended replacement for the biplane Curtiss SOC Seagull, but in the event both aircraft would end up serving together. The OS2U would become one […]
Requested as part of the same 12-Shi requirements, issued in 1937, that produced the A6M Zero, the G4M “Betty” and the E13A, the E14Y was a small seaplane designed to be carried aboard the Imperial […]
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