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Given there was an engine and two main gears and two cannons and assorted other distorted steel and burnt alloy components laid out about where one would expect them I would say it was definitely an aircraft and I do not know of any other aircraft with such guns which is why I thought it was a Ki-44
Given there was an engine and two main gears and two cannons and assorted other distorted steel and burnt alloy components laid out about where one would expect them I would say it was definitely an aircraft and I do not know of any other aircraft with such guns which is why I thought it was a Ki-44.
Although the Allies reported shooting down Ki-44 over New Guinea, the IJA units which were deployed there weren't equipped with the Ki-44 on account of its longer takeoff run, short range, and the poorer-quality air strips operated by the Japanese. However, it's possible that simply no records exist of such a deployment.
The weapon which you found may not have been a Ho-301 but rather something else entirely.
The IJA had air groups stationed on Rabaul as well as nearby islands.The Allies reported shooting down Ki-44s lots of places, including places with only navy fighters like Bougainville and Rabaul, so like you said it's better to look at whatever the Japanese records show.
The IJA had air groups stationed on Rabaul as well as nearby islands.
Interesting you have any photos?Only one engine roughly centred on the main gear and inward retracting main gear rules out the Ki-45.
The IJA's 11th Sentai was first into Rabaul in December 1942.That's true but my understanding is that Army combat aircraft were only there in force periodically during 1943-44. Army fighter sentais in the south seas would have been operating day to day out of New Guinea or western New Britain for the vast majority of the campaign.
Is it possible that they meant the runway was expanded by 240 feet eyond the original length?Gotta love Wikipedia. It mentions that the Japanese expanded the size of the airbase and the length was 240 feet.
Thanks for catching that! I misread it, its dimensions are 3,250 ft × 240 ft. I'm the one who needs editing, not Wikipedia.The IJA's 11th Sentai was first into Rabaul in December 1942.
They eventually had a couple airfields on the island and for a time, their air division was headquartered there.
I should.also mention that the KI-61 was first introduced in force in New Guinea, including the 78th Sentai based on Rabaul.
Is it possible that they meant the runway was expanded by 240 feet eyond the original length?
MiTasol this is fascinating. If you have any photos, you could be the first person with evidence that a Ki-44-II flew out of New Guinea. But are you referring to Madang airfield, which the Japanese captured in 1943? We have info on Madang AF:
Gotta love Wikipedia. It mentions that the Japanese expanded the size of the airbase and the length was 240 feet. I don't know the takeoff requirement of a Ki-44-II but 240 sounds very short. That's not even a football stadium's length.
There were other recoilless weapons and rockets which may have had similar looking holes. But a lot of information has been lost regarding the Ki-44-II so it could be that you've unveiled some piece of history that might change our understanding of the air war in New Guinea.
"Compared to the AN/M2's 12.7×99mm rounds, the 12.7×81mmSR was 20–30% lighter and smaller
Every 60 seconds, a minute passes.Quite true except it leaves out the fact that the 12.7X99 bullets were also about 20% heavier.
But how many rounds did the Hispanos have, per gun? Should be about the same as a late-ish A6M3, that's not great armament and it's far out in the wings.Granted it is a 130gram HE shell and the Hispano has a lower rate of fire. But the Hispano has better Velocity.
The A6M3 was equipped with the Type 99 Mark 2 and had 100 rounds per cannon. The Type 99 was based on the Oerlikon FF, by the way.But how many rounds did the Hispanos have, per gun? Should be about the same as a late-ish A6M3, that's not great armament and it's far out in the wings.
Well, ammo for the Hispano was highly variable. British and French started with 60 round drums. Spitfire VCs got 120 round belts. The late F4U-1Cs had about 231 shells per gun (four guns) and a few F6F-5s had one 20mm and two .50 cal in each wing. These had 225 rounds of 20mm ammo per gun.But how many rounds did the Hispanos have, per gun? Should be about the same as a late-ish A6M3, that's not great armament and it's far out in the wings.
Round = complete unit of ammunition- Case, primer, propellent charge and projectile.
Bullet = Projectile
Japanese type 99-1 cannon fired just about the same projectiles as the Hispano gun or within 2-3 grams.
The cartridge case was shorter and lighter with a smaller propelling charge so...................
The round (complete) for the 20mm Hispano can weight around 257 grams compared to the 200-203 Grams of the short Japanese 20x72mm round despite projectiles being very close.
If we are trying discuss damage done then we need to discuss the weight of the projectiles and speed at impact. Weight of the cartridge case doesn't enter into it.
Well, ammo for the Hispano was highly variable. British and French started with 60 round drums. Spitfire VCs got 120 round belts. The late F4U-1Cs had about 231 shells per gun (four guns) and a few F6F-5s had one 20mm and two .50 cal in each wing. These had 225 rounds of 20mm ammo per gun.
P-38s had 150 rounds for the 20mm.
Early/first A6M3s got a 100 round magazine/drum instead of the 60 round drum of the A6M2s. Late A6M3s used a 100 round magazine/drum on the longer barreled Type 99 Mark 2 which used the longer 20x101RB ammo. It was the A6M5a that got the 125 round belt feed. The first 747 A6M5s still had 100 round magazine/drum.
The Ki-43, while flown by skilled pilots for most of the war, was deficient in armament. Two synchronized 12.7mm machine guns (cannon?) with 250rpg (500 rounds total) that had about 66% of the power of the US .50 cal rounds and about 1/6 the power of a 20mm Hispano figuring in kinetic energy and explosive. Next Problem with the Ki-43 is that the synchronized guns fired much slower than free firing guns and the higher rate of fire of the Ho-103 disappeared. It wasn't firing as fast as the free firing .50s and it wasn't firing faster than the 20mm guns in the Spitfires and Hurricanes. *
For the US fighters after the battle for the Philippines only the P-39 was using synchronized guns. Flying Tiger P-40s used them but that was how many months in early 1942?
SBD dive bombers used them.
*British in Europe for the Spitfire's .303 guns had shift to two guns firing 100% AP and two guns firing incendiary. British .303 incendiary held just about 0.5 grams and since the gun fired at about 20rps it was delivering about 9-10 grams per second.
I don't know what the British were using in the .303s in the Burma area from 1943 on but it may have been the same. most or all of 1942 may have seen ammo shortages with less effective mixes of ammo?
So zero forbidden fruit for you?I wasn't aware of the Ki-43, Ki-44, Ki-61 and others for many years. The IJAF didn't get much air time in the histories that interested me. As such, my all-time favorite "bad guys" airplane was the Zero. It will always be the best looking one of the bunch to me for few logical reasons.
I love the B-17 but the A6M is my forbidden fruit.
You are correct 40mm caseless not fuseless.
I found them in the very few remains of a Ki-44 at Alexishafen PNG. It appeared to be a victim of an incendiary bomb - no crater but very little left of the aircraft and what was left was very burnt. Far more burnt than a standard aircraft fire.
Deficient, yes. But a Bf 109 with just one 20mm MG151/20 and two 7.92mm MGs also doesn't look too good in this comparison; neither do any of the Yak series fighters until the much later upgunned models - they would typically have one 20mm ShVAK firing through the propeller hub and one or two 12.7mm Berezins somewhere in the cowling.The Ki-43, while flown by skilled pilots for most of the war, was deficient in armament.
Ki-44-II Ko would have used the same guns as Ki-44-I, 2x 12.7s + 2x 7.7s. Ki-44-II Otsu was the one with the 40mm guns.AFAIK it was only ever used in Ki44-IIa
In one of the sim developer forums (many years ago), the question was asked: "how can we deliver more realism?"
I suggested that if a combatant was KIA, they would not be able to enter the sim ever again, since RL has no "respawn/reload".
My suggestion was not well recieved...