Japanese Hellcat

[Mgawa]

Greetings all,

did any of you know more about this?

If I remember correctly, the old John Wayne movie "Flying Leathernecks" used some F6F's in Japanese markings to portray "the bad guys". It could be a prop from the movie.

[gregv]

Some more info and pics of this aircraft here:

http://www.ww2aircraft.net/forum/aircra ... -3729.html

It was indeed captured by the Japanese.

cheers

greg v.

[Mgawa]

Good info- to regret can not see the images.

[gregv]

no sweat, I "borrowed" them:







cheers

greg v.

[Mgawa]

Very interesting Thank you for action

Color is interesting- overal blue grey.... not sure that I can recogmize precisely Japanese color. Will see in my papers.

[gregv]

Color is interesting- overal blue grey.... not sure that I can recogmize precisely Japanese color. Will see in my papers.

Judging by the color profiles (of unknown provenance, may I point out) that it appears that the only USN insignia has been covered over with Japanese ones, so I would think that the overall color is still glossy sea blue.

cheers

greg v.

[bilwor]

Where did the Japanese capture it? and Where was it found by US.
bill word

[Jack Cook]

The only lost intact F6F that I'm aware of was flown by LT Chuck August of VF-44 off the USS Langley who bellied landed during a strike on Formosa in early 1945.

[Keith Gaff]

The aircraft depicted on this thread is Charles August's aircraft. Chuck August holds a singular distinction: he was the only American captured twice by the Axis having been shot down by the Vichy French and taken prisoner during Operation Torch and later by the Japanese. Apart from the Hellcat, the Japanese held quite a collection of Allied aircraft, including assorted Kittyhawks and Buffaloes, three B-17's and a number of Martin B 10's together with one Hawker Hurricane; a couple of Corsairs and a P-51B Mustang amongst others. Most of these aircraft were flown by the Japanese with the exception of the Corsairs.

[Steve Nelson]

The backwards "E" tail marking (actually the Japanese Kana character "Yo") indicates Yokosuka Naval Air Group..so I would assume that's where our occupation forces found it. That's a P1Y "Francis" in the background, and the same unit operated those as well. The 801 tailcode is unusual, as 800 series numbers were normally used to denote flying boats.

Information from Donald Thorpe's "Japanese Naval Air Force Camouflage and Markings of WWII."

SN

[Mgawa]

Thank you all gentleman- I have full info now about this plane.

Cheers