World War II Database

1.  Bill says:
13 Feb 2009 04:42:23 PM

this was Petty Officer Koga's zero being tested by the U.S. Navy until Feb. 1945, when this aircraft was lost in a taxi accident with a curtiss helldiver, the helldiver's prop cut the zero from tail to the cockpit, the pilot survived, the zero was beyond salvage. you would think, that such a war prize would have a follow me jeep in front and also following behind, to warn other aircraft.

2.  Bill says:
17 May 2011 05:56:29 PM

Continued from my comment dated feb 2009

What a loss to aviation history it would have been something to see Koga's A6M2 Zero
today at the National Air & Space Museum, Washington, D.C.

By December 7, 1941 the Imperial Japanese Navy had 420 Zero's on strength. Koga's Zero was discovered after Koga tried to make an emergency landing on Akutan Island in the
Aleutians, after taking part in a raid on
Dutch Harbor in 1942.
One bullet hit his oil line Koga attempted to
land, the Zero hit soft ground flipped over Koga died of head injuries.
Discovered by the US Navy, salvaged and test flown during the war much was learned about the Zero, and how to combat it.

SUGGESTED READING:

KOGA'S ZERO
THE FIGHTER THAT CHANGED WWII
By Jim Reardon
Pictorial Histories Publishing Co.
ISBN 10: 0929521560
ISBN 13: 9780929521565

3.  Bill says:
22 Oct 2011 06:49:49 PM

Photo taken at NACA Langley flight-line
March 8, 1943. Wing tip boom on right wing, was for tests at NAS Anacostia.

NACA Stands for National Advisory Committee
for Aeronautics.

4.  Bill says:
3 Nov 2015 12:16:48 PM

WAR PRIZE: KOGA'S A6M ZERO

Fighter took part in the raid against Dutch Harbor, June 1942 flown by Petty Officer 1st Cass Tadayoshi Koga, his zero received battle damage and later crashed landed on Akutan Is. Alaska.
Koga died in the crash. Later the zero was found by accident, recovered and rebuilt and test flown. Information gained gave US pilots an edge in combat against the zero.
During the war, the zero was destroyed in a taxi accident with a Navy SB2C Helldiver and destroyed.

BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE:

During the Pearl Harbor raid, nine zeros were lost
from those wrecks, the US learned the fighter lacked armor for the pilot and fuel tanks, but little else.
One zero crashed Melville Is. Australia, another off Cape Rodney, New Guinea and the last in China the fighter, was rebuilt from other zero wrecks. Reports about the A6M Zero that were sent to Washington were ignored.

During the war, more zeros were salvaged and rebuilt by personnel assigned to (TAIU-SWPA) Technical Air Intelligence Unit-South West Pacific Area. After the war, zeros that were shipped back to the US for testing, were later scrapped or sold as surplus.

SURVIVOR:

Today you can see a Nakajima built A6M5, Model 52 on display at the Planes of Fame Air Museum,
located at Chino Airport, Chino, California USA
and is still powered by its original Nakajima radial air-cooled engine....

5.  Bill says:
21 Nov 2015 06:22:08 AM

FOREIGN TECHNOLOGY: KNOW YOUR ENEMY

File photograph of Petty Officer Koga's A6M Zero
after its capture and rebuild by US Navy mechanics, airframe and other specialists, it was tested and evaluated much was learned about Japan's mystery fighter.

Did you know that reports about the A6M Zero were sent back to Washington, to the Office of Naval Intelligence. Those reports were ignored as just unbelievable. Japan, why that country is a third rate power they just build copies of Western designs.

BELIEVE IT OR NOT:

In 1940 US Naval Attache Lt.Stephen Jurika USN
was invited to an air show at Haneda airport, and later allowed to sit in the cockpit of the A6M Zero fighter.

SAYONARA:

When Lt. Jurika returned to Washington D.C., his reports about the industrial and military capabilities of Japan had been filed away and ignored. When the Pacific war started, the US and its Allies didn't have any information about Japanese airpower and naval strength.
Strange as it may, five months after Pearl Harbor the Zero was still a mystery to US pilots...

HIS PLACE IN HISTORY:

Later Lt. Cdr. Stephen Jurika served aboard the
USS Hornet in 1942, and briefed the Doolittle crews about Japan. If you get to watch the 1944 movie "Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo" available on DVD, Lt. Cdr. Jurika is played by the late actor
Leon Ames...

6.  Bill says:
10 Oct 2016 12:59:35 PM

SWEDISH MEATBALLS:

Believe it or not, the SAAB L-12 was a Swedish design of the Japanese A6M Zero.
Both fighters looked very similar in design.
The fighter would have been all metal construction, with fabric control surfaces, and powered by licensed-built American engines driving a three bladed-propeller.
It would have been armed with 4 x 13.2mm machine guns in the wings and 2 x 8mm in the upper fuselage. Work was started but it was later cancelled during WWII

7.  Bill says:
10 Oct 2016 01:21:23 PM

The Swedish version of the Japanese Zero couldn't buy American built engines the Yanks weren't selling any at the time.
If necessary, Sweden was faced with buying the British Bristol Taurus air-cooled radial engine rated at 1,065hp the fighter was never built, not even a wind tunnel model was designed.
There is very little information on this aircraft.

During WWII SAAB went on to develop the J-9 single-seat fighter powered by 1 x air-cooled radial engine and armed w/4 x 13.2mm machine guns in the wings