Combat aircraft. Loser Dragon

2024 Author: Matthew Elmers | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 21:49

Another Japanese aircraft that fought in World War II. The conqueror, we will immediately note, is so-so, but here it is really like a proverb about how we will look at dragons at the lack of fish.

And let's start with the very thirties of the last century, from the very beginning.

At that time, there were two manufacturing firms in Japan. Mitsubishi and Nakajima. And they were the main suppliers of both the army and the navy. "Nakajima" traditionally produced fighters, and "Mitsubishi" - bombers.

Nothing so the fairy tale begins, right?

But here's the problem: nothing happens under the eternal moon. And once in Mitsubishi they decided that there is never a lot of yen, but in our age of changes everything changes. And they made a fighter. Yes, not simple, but very high quality, A5M1 Type 96, which was torn off in the navy. Moreover, they made a land version, Ki.33.

In "Nakajima" they realized that everything, love is over, and a fierce friendship between two competitors begins. For yen. The guys from Nakajima were not allowed to join the Ki.33 army, their Ki.27 plane went instead, but the battle for the bomber for the Naka army also lost outright.

For the fleet the aircraft was adopted from Mitsubishi G3M1 Type 96 "Ricco", and for the army Ki.21 Type 97. In general, the splash turned out to be very soulful.

And what if by that time Mitsubishi had become very close friends with the Junkers, and the Germans, in the breadth of their Aryan soul, generously shared literally everything with their allies?

The Nakajima also began to look across the ocean, but in the other direction. And I spotted a contract with a young, but arrogant and ambitious company "Douglas". And as soon as in 1934 "Douglas" released its new model DC-2, "Naka" immediately entered into a contract for the production of these aircraft in Japan under license.

Then, after the start of the licensed assembly, the plane, of course, completely copied, began to adapt for their needs. The aircraft went into production as the Ki.34 Type 97 for the army and the L1N1 Type 97 for the navy, respectively. Thanks to the new technologies incorporated in the project, Nakajima was really exhaled, because there was clearly room for further development.

But the transport is not a bomber for you. Alas.

Yes, there were attempts to convert the DC-2 into a long-range bomber for the LB-2 fleet, but alas, the Douglas is by no means a Heinkel, so everything ended in failure.

And then, in general, it turned out strange. The two firms clashed in battle over a contract for a bomber for the army, and in 1937 the Nakajima Ki.19 and Mitsubishi Ki.21 were presented to the court. Both aircraft were tested and the results were very peculiar. Army specialists came to the conclusion that the best solution would be to take a glider from Mitsubishi Ki.21 and install more reliable engines from Nakajima on it.

Even though Nakajima got a contract for the engines, this is how it is a sweetened pill. It is clear that the bulk of the profits went to Mitsubishi, which made the entire aircraft. And everyone at Nakajima could only wait for the opportunity to improve their affairs. When a competitor messes up.

The opportunity came when the Mitsubishi bomber did not perform well in early 1938. Then Japan started a war with China. It suddenly became clear that the low speed and rate of climb, as well as weak defensive armament, did not make it possible to consider the Ki.21 a full-fledged combat aircraft.

It is clear that Nakajima was the first in line to introduce the new bomber.

The new specifications suggested that the new bomber would be faster than the Ki.21 and able to defend itself on its own without the use of escort fighters. The bomb load should remain in the region of one ton.

The defensive armament was supposed to be made on the model of European counterparts. For the first time in Japanese practice, the need to protect the crew was indicated - the aircraft had to have crew armor and sealed fuel tanks.

And again in a virtual (then such a word was not known yet) battle, "Nakajima" and "Mitsubishi" came together. The Nakajima project received the designation Ki.49, and the competitors - Ki.50. But this time the advantage was with Nakajima, whose specialists knew the rival's plane inside and out. They could not help knowing that the Ki.21 was powered by Naka engines.

By the end of 1938, "Nakajima" already had a full-scale wooden model of the Ki.49, competitors not only lagged behind, but lagged behind catastrophically. And as a result, Mitsubishi decided to withdraw its offer back.

On the one hand, in "Nakajima" they celebrated the victory, on the other hand, the company was carrying out very intense work on fighters. The firm's design team was very strong, but the leading specialist Koyama was engaged in the project of the new Ki.44 Choki interceptor, and Itokawa was engaged in the Ki.43 Hayabusa fighter. The leading designers were really overwhelmed with work.

However, work on the new bomber began no less actively than on fighters. Of course, there were delays. The new Na.41 engine delayed two aircraft at once, both the Ki-49 and the Ki-44.

On November 20, 1940, the bomber entered production as the "Ki-49 Type 100 heavy bomber." According to a long tradition, he was given his own name: "Soaring Dragon", "Donryu". In general, with all the richness of choice, there was no other alternative to the Ki.21, so the army was happy to replace the unsuccessful aircraft with anything.

In fact, "Donryu" was not much different from the prototypes, the only thing was that the number of crew members was changed to eight people. And the ninth, one more shooter was also considered in the future.

The Chinese Air Force, armed with predominantly Soviet-made fighters (I-15, I-15bis, I-16, I-153) very quickly showed the Japanese crews that they also know how to fight. And the Japanese had to react, and sometimes even in very strange ways.

For example, representatives of the headquarters of the ground air force turned to Nakajima with an urgent request to develop a flying weapon platform based on the Ki-49 to accompany and protect the Ki-21 ruthlessly knocked out by Chinese pilots.

The Ki-49-based escort fighter project was assigned the Ki-58 index. Between December 1940 and March 1941, three such aircraft were produced based on ready-made Ki-49 gliders. The aircraft were equipped with protruding cannon turrets in the bomb bay, adding additional firing points on top of the cockpit. Thus, the Ki-58 carried five 20mm cannons and three 12.7mm machine guns.

The battery was more than impressive, but how much a twin-engine bomber could fight on an equal footing with such nimble machines as the I-15 and I-16 was very difficult to say.

The idea was to provide fire support for a group of Ki-21 bombers, placing escort fighters along the outer edge of the formation. Fortunately for the bomber crews, the long-awaited Ki-43 arrived almost simultaneously with the Ki-58. These new fighters quickly proved to be capable of escorting bombers to their target along the entire route.

In September 1941, the first Ki-49 aircraft began to roll off production lines. In parallel, the Ki-80 project was considered, a kind of command and staff vehicle for guiding bombers in battle, coordinating actions and recording results. Two vehicles were produced based on ready-made Ki-49 gliders.

The idea died when initial flight tests showed that the heavier Ki-80 would be the slowest aircraft in the bomber formation after they dropped their cargo.

Baptism of fire "Donru" received in 61 senai in June 1942 in air raids on Australia. Harassing raids were commonplace, and the command found it useful to use the latest bombers.

The Donryu was faster than the Ki-21, but not so fast that it would not suffer heavy losses from the Spitfires. To maintain a high speed, crews often had to underload bombs. It soon became apparent that 1250 hp. the Ha-41 engines are clearly not enough.

With the engine it turned out, and instead of the Na-41, they began to install the Na-109 with a capacity of 1520 hp on the aircraft. This modernization became a kind of Rubicon: the Ki-49-I model was discontinued and was replaced by the Ki-49-IIa type 100, model 2A.

The aircraft of the first model were used until the end of the war as training, transport and even combat aircraft where there was no particular intensity of the struggle. For example, in Manchuria. But most of the Ki.49-I was converted into transport aircraft and operated between the Japanese islands, Rabaul and New Guinea.

The last combat use of the first model was noted at the end of 1944, when several surviving Ki.49-Is in Malaya were equipped with anti-ship radar to conduct reconnaissance in the interests of protecting Japanese convoys from Japan to the Philippines.

The second model "Donryu" appeared very timely. The army was in dire need of bombers, so much so that even Mitsubishi received an order to modernize its old Ki.21-II.

Donryu was entrusted with a difficult task: to resist the Allied offensive on the Solomon Islands and New Guinea.

It turned out in a very peculiar way: the first mass use actually became the mass destruction of Japanese aircraft. The newly arrived reinforcements were destroyed by American aircraft on the ground before they had time to make at least one combat sortie. The summer of 1943 turned out to be very hot in the Pacific theater of operations. Especially for the Japanese Army Aviation.

Given the success of American fighters in cutting out Japanese bombers, an attempt was made to convert the Donryu into night bombers. It worked partly. Ki.49-IIa operated fairly successfully against American air bases and convoys. This is not to say that they were completely successful when the Allies landed in New Guinea, debris from more than 300 aircraft were found at the airfields.

The New Guinea experience prompted the Ki.49-IIa to re-target. The problem of supplying the huge front line of the Pacific theater of operations required supplies, supplies, and once again supplies. Thus, most of the surviving Donryu turned into transport aircraft. Thus, in New Guinea and adjacent territories, 9 transport groups (sentai) were formed from bomber units for supply.

So many of the Donryu shot down in the New Guinea area were not bombers, but transport aircraft. Which, however, does not detract from the merits of the Allied fighters.

There, at the end of 1943, a very interesting variation on the "Donru" theme was created. They were a pair of night fighters, the Hunter and the Beater. The Beater was equipped with a 40-cm anti-aircraft searchlight in the nose, and the Hunter was armed with a Type 88 75-mm cannon in the front lower part of the fuselage.

As a way of dealing with American night bombers, which single-handedly attacked both troops and ships, the damage they caused was quite tangible.

It was assumed that it was the patrolling fighter, which would hang for a long time in the area of the possible appearance of American aircraft, that would be most useful. A pair of such planes, the Beater and the Hunter, were intended to patrol ports at night. However, in this way, only four aircraft were converted, and the result of their actions is not known, it is obvious that if it was, it was minimal.

In the same year 1943, in September, the third and last model "Donru" appeared, the Ki.49-IIb or Model 2B. The changes were not significant and were mainly related to the strengthening of weapons. The practice of fighting in New Guinea has shown that the armor of American fighters is very difficult to bullets with a rifle caliber. Therefore, the 7.7 mm machine guns were replaced by the heavy 12.7 mm Ho-103 type 1. The side gun mounts were also changed to improve the firing sector.

However, the strengthening of defensive armament did not help the Donryu crews, who were still suffering huge losses. With the loss of many bases, the position of the Japanese troops became critical, and those air units based in Sulawesi, Borneo and the Dutch East Indies were practically cut off. It is clear that their materiel was destroyed.

The experience of using Donryu on the Asian mainland was not much better. The Ki.49-II was sent to the Burma front in early 1944. During the entire campaign, losses were so great that by May the Ki-49's activities in Burma had to be phased out, and the remnants of the pretty battered air groups were sent to the Philippines.

Parts transferred from Manchuria, China and Japan, Singapore, Burma and the Dutch East Indies were sent to the Philippine meat grinder. The total number of aircraft was about 400. Thus, for the first time, the Donryu became truly the main Japanese ground force bomber used in such large numbers.

In general, most of these bombers were destroyed at airfields during November-December 1944. The full advantage of the Allied fighters in the air played its role, which, of course, was followed by the delivery of strikes by bombers. Everything is very logical.

The attempts to use "Donryu" as aircraft for kamikaze look just the same.

"Donryu" with an 800-kg charge of explosives inside and a fuse bar in the nose became the personification of a new concept of use. At the same time, the navigator's cabin was sewn up, the defensive weapons were dismantled, and the crew was reduced to two people.

Attacks by American transport convoys delivering ground forces for the invasion of the island. Mindoro in mid-December greatly reduced the already small remnant of "Donryu". By the new 1945 year, all Ki.49s in flight condition in the Philippines ended.

After the Philippine meat grinder, Donryu ceased to be a first-line bomber, neither in quality nor in quantity. The plane was taken out of production, and … a replacement for a bomber from Mitsubishi arrived in time!

Yes, Mitsubishi Ki-67 Type 4 Hiryu. It turned out strange, "Donryu" reached the greatest activity only after more than two years of combat use and immediately retired.

A few surviving copies were used by kamikaze pilots in April and May 1945 during the defense of Okinawa, but basically they flew only as transport vehicles and remained in training units.

The last attempt to extend the life of the "Dragon" was made by the engineers of Nakajima in early 1943, but it did not lead to tangible results. The calculation was made for the new Na-117 engine with a capacity of 2420 hp, and even with the possibility of overclocking up to 2800 hp. In general, this Na-117 was supposed to become the most powerful Japanese engine of that time.

Alas, "Nakajima" has not mastered the engine. He did not go into the series like that, there was simply not enough time to bring it to mind. And since the army desperately needed a bomber that would not be just a flying victim for American and British fighters, both the Ki.49-III and Ki-82, an even deeper upgrade of the Donru, were rejected. And in place of "Nakajima" again came a plane from "Mitsubishi", that is, Ki-67.

Not a very pretty fate. They built, built, built more than 750 units, sort of like a series. Let me remind you that the Japanese considered the Ki-49 to be a heavy bomber, that is, a series is normal for a heavy bomber. But here he fought somehow … ineptly, I suppose. Now it is categorically difficult to judge whether the command made mistakes, or something else, but the fact is: very few "Dragons" survived the war.

And those that survived ended their journey in the fire. They were simply collected at several airfields and trivially burned. So the only place where you can still see the remains of "Donru" in fragments is the uninhabited islands of New Guinea, where they are still rotting in the jungle.

If you look at the numbers, it seems that the Donryu was a very good aircraft, with good armament, the speed characteristics are quite good, again, booking …

The Japanese pilots were disappointed with the Dragon. It was believed that the Ki-49 was unnecessarily heavy, with insufficient power-to-weight ratio and had no particular advantages over the old Ki-21 Type 97.

Strange, perhaps, but most of the Ki-49 was destroyed not in the air, but on the ground. As a result of American air raids on airfields in New Guinea.

Among its counterparts, the Ki-49 stands out for one of the shortest combat careers. Moreover, the famous plane with a green cross, which carried the act of surrender of Japan in World War II, signed by the emperor.