Japanese F4U Corsair

[shiro_amada_jp]

An article in wikipedia claims that the IJN captured some F4U Corsair units during the war. Is there any proof of this claim?

F4U Corsair - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[Capt. Vick]

Well I once saw an episode of "Ba Ba Blacksheep" where...

Doubtful

 

[beaupower32]

This one was supposidly captured by Japan. Found in this thread....

http://www.ww2aircraft.net/forum/old-threads/germany-capture-f4u-1a-145.html

...the Japanese learned form analysis of aircraft shot down or captured. American intelligence received a shock in the summer of 1945 when an aerial photo taken late that May over the Japanese base Tachikawa revealed a large four-engine bomber, dubbed the "Tachikawa Field 104." After the war investigators discovered the plane had actually been an American B-17 Flying Fortress. The plane was a product of Japanese air technical intelligence. Tachikawa happened to be the location of the Army's Aviation Technical Research Institute. Yokosuka, of course, housed the Navy's 1st Air Technical Research Arsenal. Both units sent specialized teams right in behind the Japanese assault troops. From Clark Field the Japanese recovered the turbo-supercharger of a B-17 plus other kinds of spare parts. Eventually an entire B-17E was put together from the collection. Another would be recovered in the Netherlands East Indies, put together from the remains of fifteen B-17s wrecked on airfields there, and a third was found in pretty good shape in the same area. Designer Kikuhara Shizuo, who had originated the [Kawanishi H8K] Emily flying boat, noted how impressed he was that the United States had perfected the B-17's subsystems to such a degree that a minimum of controls were needed in the cockpit.

What the Japanese did with the B-17 they tried with many other planes, studying crashed aircraft, making photos and drawings, salvaging parts, and so on. This effort, like so many others, began as early as the China Incident, where the Japanese recovered a P-40E fighter and an A-20A twin-engine bomber. Within the JNAF these studies were conducted by the same people who did the design work for Navy planes. Thus, of 327 personnel at the Yokosuka main office of the Research Technical Arsenal and 186 at the branch office in Isogo, it has been estimated that roughly 10 officers, 10 civilian designers, and 150 enlisted men worked on studies of foreign aircraft.

Navy Lieutenant Toyoda Takago was one designer who worked in the foreign-technology program. He reports that the Japanese Army sent out most of the field teams, subsequently supplying the JNAF with copies of their reports and lending them aircraft as desired. The single team Takogo remembers the JNAF dispatching went to Burma to study a crashed Mosquito light bomber. But the Navy center would be sent aircraft recovered in the Southern Areas and would send teams to crash sites in the Empire area, including Okinawa, where an F6F Hellcat was recovered after raids in October 1944. British carrier raids in the Netherlands East Indies earlier that year yielded a TBM-1C Avenger. Yokosuka's specialists were surprised at the "extremely strong construction." When an F4U Corsair was captured near the Kasumigaura flight school, "we were surprised there were places on the wing covered with fabric." The JNAF recovered the flight manual for the B-24 Liberator in the summer of 1944, and flew a captured F6F Hellcat. The comparable Army unit also flew the Brewster Buffalo, the Hawker Hurricane, the B-17D and E, and the PBM Mariner.

Flying experience and ground studies were used to compile reports on the foreign aircraft, but because the specialists were preoccupied by their own design work, the studies of foreign planes were fairly basic. Only very late in the war was a special section of three officers and twelve to fourteen men formed just to track foreign technology, first under Commander Nomura Suetsu, then under Iwaya Eichi...

Axis History Forum • View topic - Captured Hellcat


From what I have found the Japanese captured 2 Corsairs. Now I dont know if they did any flgiht testing, as I havent found anything saying they did. But that goes to say they didnt, and with 2 corsiars, im sure they tried to at least make at least one serviceable plane to test fly.

Found a Fictional picture of what the corsair might look like....

 

[Shinpachi]

Feb 16, 1945
1 F4U(#82631) from USS Bankerhill ditched on Sagami Bay, Kanagawa Pref.

Feb 17
1 F4U(#82470) from USS Wasp crashed in the offshore Yokosuka.

Feb 25
1 F4U(#82410) from USS Benington crashed offshore Yokosuka.
1 F4U(#57251) from USS Essex emergency landed on the field of Tsuchiura City, Ibaragi Pref.

Feb 26
1 F4U(#57950) crashed between Cape Inubozaki and USS Bankerhill.

July 17
2 F4U-1Ds(of 1834sq.) from British aircraft-carrier Victorius crashed in a pond and a village Nakahamano, respectively, in Chiba Pref.

July 18
1 F4U(#81535) crashed between Yokosuka and USS Lexington.

Date unknown
1 F4U(#82505) crashed in Tokyo Bay. Pilot Lt. Edward H. Rohriot: KIA.


Data quoted from the following site:
POW??? POW Research Network Japan | ???? | ???????????????? | ?????

 

[Capt. Vick]

I should have been more specific. It was the "units" part of the original post that I saying doubtful to. Units in the sense of a group of aircraft, not units in the one item sense. Does that make sense?

 

[ccheese]

Very interesting......

Charles

 

[timshatz]

That is pretty interesting. Looks like they got at least two crashed/force landed Corsairs. Condition unknown. The pictured one shows signs of having been belly landed (prop) but not with the engine running (windmilling prop).

Guess they may've duck tapped a couple of them together and gotten one flyable (barely) aircraft.

 

[Colin1]

I should have been more specific. It was the "units" part of the original post that I saying doubtful to. Units in the sense of a group of aircraft, not units in the one item sense

Yes
I was having trouble with that, it implied that Japanese forces occasionally overran US forces, engulfing entire air units; I don't recall reading of that ever happening. During the island-hop to Japan they were on the defensive at all stages.

 

[Capt. Vick]

That's exactly what I meant. (My thoughts exactly!) Now I don't feel like a jacka**!

 

[shiro_amada_jp]

Capt. Vick, my apologies for confusing you. The "unit" that I was referring to in my initial post refers to individual aircraft, not groups of aircraft.

 

[Thorlifter]

Can you imagine a Corsair going up against the B-29's? Heck, if someone saw an F4U with Japanese markings, I think every US plane in the air would go after it.

 

[Capt. Vick]

It's all good my friend, it's all good.

 

[thomasgurney]

Yes,,,I found better thread started here. Quite interesting. I spent on Japanese spares and realized that it is still better option for utilized used spares parts. General Japanese spares support for Nissan, Toyota, Honda spare parts…..etc..

 

[Civettone]

I suppose the Japanese always had problems flying these aircraft because they lacked the right fuel
for them.

A bit off topic but what is true about American captured pilots being executed/decapitated?

Kris

 

[vikingBerserker]

I suppose the Japanese always had problems flying these aircraft because they lacked the right fuel
for them.

A bit off topic but what is true about American captured pilots being executed/decapitated?

Kris

Yup, the book Flyboys talks about it.

 

[A4K]

I suppose the Japanese always had problems flying these aircraft because they lacked the right fuel
for them.

A bit off topic but what is true about American captured pilots being executed/decapitated?

Kris

Commonwealth troops captured in the Pacific were decapitated, so it wouldn't surprise me. Once read of a British airman being served up as an 'honorary feast' for a visiting Japanese general on one occassion too.

 

[Gixxerman]

'Honorary feast".
OMG.
Never heard of that one.
Some people, huh?

I have read that decapitation by sword was considered by the Japanese to be a swift and honorable death fitting of heroic soldiers and that they could not understand the disgust of the commonwealth troops who looked at them with horror at the thought.

 

[Civettone]

- I have good news for you, prisoner!
- What? The war is over??
- No, you will get an honorary death by decapitation
- ...


Kris

 

[zoomar]

I suppose the Japanese always had problems flying these aircraft because they lacked the right fuel
for them.
Kris

I'm sure no offense was meant, but can we now call Germans "Krauts" and Italians "Wops"? People from Japan are Japanese.

 

[Civettone]

Of course not. I will try to remember.

But let me also say that the term Jap is not generally accepted as offensive or derogatory. It seems to me the term was commonly used until WW2 when it became politically incorrect. This is quite different from Kraut or Wop as these were meant to be offensive from the start.
For me it is just a few less keys to tap.

Kris