Close your eyes for a minute and try to imagine … yourself. In a dream, in a fantasy novel, in an eerie fairy tale.
You are a pilot. You go to your plane to take flight. With you, everything is more or less clear, but we are looking at the plane.
Multiple Survival Engines? No. One. Yes, this is "Sakae" from Nakajima, it is a good motor, but it is one. With a capacity of as much as 1000 hp.
Armor? Are you kidding me? Belief in mikado, spirit of bushido and so on will protect you. But there is no armor. At all.
Armament … Well, just like with armor. There is a 7.7mm light machine gun with magazine feed, it usually lies in the second cockpit on the floor. You can try to scare someone, but I would not count too much on success.
Let's add, or rather, subtract speed as an ally. 350 km / h is a beautiful top speed figure. In fact, it is 250 km / h with a full load, and who goes into battle empty?
So who are you? A suicide bomber? Yes, it seems, but … wrong.
You are a pilot of the Japanese naval aviation.
And your plane is not just a flying coffin, but a very peculiar apparatus, with the help of which simply huge territories were conquered and victories were made that are not inferior to other famous planes.
It was you who, huddled in the cramped cabin of this miracle, choked with adrenaline, hearing the signal “Torah! Torah! Torah! , Starting to catch the huge carcasses of battleships in sight …
Everything is correct. 7.49 a.m., December 7, 1941, near Pearl Harbor.
It was? It was.
An obligatory excursion into the past. That's just a very distant past.
Who knows when Japanese naval aviation was born? Yes, like the majority during the First World War. In September 1914, when the "Wakamiya Maru" hydro-transport aircraft arrived in China to fight against the German Navy.
The armament of Japan's first aircraft carrier consisted of as many as four Farman float aircraft, which were engaged in reconnaissance and even tried to bomb something there. This is how it all started.
As in many backward countries in this regard, the first Japanese aircraft were imported. This was until 1918, when naval lieutenant Chikuhei Nakajima, together with Seibei Kawanishi, founded an aviation company.
Kawanishi, however, soon decided to open his own company, as a result, Japan received two ambitious aircraft companies for the price of one. This is for the "Mitsubishi" available at that time and others.
And in 1923 the first real Japanese aircraft carrier, Hosho, entered service. And the Japanese were very lucky that in those days of battleships there was a man who appreciated the abilities of aircraft carriers and provided great assistance in the development of this class of ships.
Everyone already understood that I mean Captain Isoroku Yamamoto, at that time the commander of the Kasumigaur Naval Aviation School.
Aircraft construction in Japan developed in a very original way, simultaneously releasing aircraft under license, and trying to design their own. There were many consultants invited from the West. Foreign advisers like Vogt (from Wright) at Kawasaki and Petty (from Blackburn) at Mitsubishi did their best to improve the aircraft.
As a result of this policy, the bike went around the world that Japanese aircraft are degraded copies of Western machines. This delusion quite satisfied the leaders of the Air Force and the Army and the Navy, and they did nothing to refute it, until December 7, 1941.
And on that black day for the American fleet, the B5N turned out to be one of those aircraft, which was destined to dispel the myth that Japanese aviation was not capable of much.
In general, it is impossible to say that B5N represented something epochal.
Yes, the B5N had new items, including it could compete for the title of one of the first folding-wing aircraft in Japanese naval aviation. The swivel units were placed so that the wing consoles overlapped one another. Drive cylinders were placed in each wing to mechanically fold. Also, the aircraft was equipped with new-fangled Fowler-type flaps, which were released back and down behind the trailing edge of the wing, as well as a three-bladed variable-pitch propeller. This was the case, at least initially.
The prototype made its first flight in January 1937 and reached a speed of 370 km / h. This was a pretty good indicator. But then the simplification of the design began. First, they removed the mechanical folding of the wing, replacing it with a manual one, then removed the Fowler-type flap mechanism. It was decided to replace it with a simplified device in which the entire trailing edge section was rotated downward.
The variable pitch propeller has been replaced by a constant propeller. But at the same time, many hardpoints were designed to provide the aircraft with the ability to carry a bomb or torpedo of choice. Moreover, the replacement of these units could be performed by technical personnel directly on the deck of the aircraft carrier.
The pilot was seated in front of the cockpit with poor forward visibility, which is normal for air-cooled engines. Since a good view is a prerequisite for operations on the deck, an elevator mechanism was made for the pilot's seat, which raised him to a sufficient level in height.
The navigator / bombardier / observer was located in the second cockpit facing forward and had a small window in both sides of the fuselage to monitor fuel consumption by measuring glasses on the wings. For aiming when dropping bombs, the navigator opened small doors in the floor. The radio operator / rear gunner sat with his usually stored inside the cockpit machine gun in the back.
Communication between the crew members was carried out through a negotiating pipe. The crew did not indulge in excesses such as oxygen equipment and all sorts of fancy radio stations.
In this form, the B5N entered service in the Japanese Navy in 1937 as a standard torpedo bomber and bomber, which it remained until 1944. It was known as the Type 97 Model 1 Marine Deck Attack Bomber. During the war, the aircraft was nicknamed "Keith".
In general, I am not of the opinion that the B5N was anything so flawed in terms of performance. If you look at what, for example, the Royal Navy of Great Britain was equipped with, then this is where the sadness and longing are in full swing. Yes, I'm talking about the unfortunate "Skua" and "Swordfish" who had to take on the first years of the war.
Although, of course, the "Swordfish" in Taranto staged a massacre, not inferior to Pearl Harbor in terms of the unit of the participant.
And the American SBD-3 "Dauntless" and TBD-1 "Devastator" cannot be said to be outnumbered by the Japanese aircraft. They also frankly did not shine with characteristics.
But let's go directly not to the performance characteristics and flight characteristics, but to the use of aircraft for their intended purpose.
So, in November 1940, 21 Swordfish sank 3 Italian battleships in Taranto Bay. It was like a signal to Yamamoto. "Everything is possible".
The Japanese studied the raid on Taranto very carefully in detail, and Minoru Genda, the Japanese naval attaché in Great Britain, provided Yamamoto with a huge amount of information.
The preparations for the attack were excellent. Special torpedoes equipped with wooden keels, 406-mm naval armor-piercing shells with welded stabilizers - well, the results of a daring raid are known to everyone.
30% of direct hits from torpedo bombers and 27% from bombers are serious. A high level of training plus a surprise - and now the B5N, which does not shine with its characteristics, is spreading along with its comrades the entire American fleet.
And then the blitzkrieg of Japan began in the Pacific region. And the B5N became about the same instrument of this blitzkrieg as the Ju-87 "Stuka" in Europe.
Dutch East India, Ceylon, Colombo and Trincomalee - our hero was noted everywhere. The aircraft carrier Hermes, the cruisers Hermes, Dorsetshire and Cornwall are on the conscience of the B5N.
Aircraft carrier Hornet. Despite not the best weather that could be used as cover, and the presence of fighters, the Hornet was spotted and within ten minutes received five bomb hits and two torpedo hits in the engine rooms. And in the end he drowned.
Then the B5N was cut into a nut by the heavy cruiser "Northampton", which was going to take the aircraft carrier that had lost its speed in tow.
In general, the bomber / torpedo bomber went through the entire war, from the first to the last day.
Even as an aircraft for the kamikaze was involved. For "special attacks" the most frequently used aircraft was the A6M, but in 1945 some of the B5Ns were used in suicide attacks from Okinawa.
After Midway and other battles, the Japanese naval aviation no longer recovered from the losses of the carrier ships. But the B5N remained the plane that fought the entire war until its end.
LTH B5N2
Wingspan, m: 15, 50
Length, m: 10, 20
Height, m: 3, 70
Wing area, m2: 37, 70
Weight, kg
- empty aircraft: 2 279
- normal takeoff: 3 800
Engine: 1 x Hakajima NK1B "Sakae -11" x 1000 hp
Maximum speed, km / h: 378
Cruising speed, km / h: 255
Practical range, km: 1 990
Maximum rate of climb, m / min: 395
Practical ceiling, m: 8 620
Crew, people: 3
Armament:
- one 7, 7-mm machine gun type 92 on a defensive installation at the end of the cockpit;
- 6 x 60 kg bombs, 3 x 250 kg bombs or one 800 kg torpedo.
Agree, the characteristics are not impressive at all. But the fact is, the plane fought, and did it very effectively. 1200 units is a small series, definitely. And quite a few planes survived, but from their debut in 1938 in China until the summer of 1945 - this suggests that the plane was quite decent, despite the eternal Japanese jokes with armor and "extra" equipment.
It turns out that not always an aircraft that has gone down in history must necessarily have exceptional performance characteristics or a huge number of manufactured copies. You can also do it differently: not by number.
