WWII Planes: The Mistaken Identity of Oscar or Zero

 

Wreckage of a Japanese Zero or Oscar

And now for our final plane. On the back of this photo is written “What’s left of a [Japanese] Zero.” When I blogged about this at the very beginning of this project, Dave left a comment (Hi! And thank you for commenting!) suggesting that what is labeled as a Zero may actually be a Nakajima Ki-43. He says, “Flown by the Japanese Army Air Force and named Hayabusa = peregrine falcon, it is very similar to the Zero. Some were captured and flown by test pilots, hence the star-and-bar.” 

Japan’s A6M, or “Zero” or “Zeke” to the Allied forces, was a long-range carrier-based fighter plane of WWII, and was originally noted for its maneuverability and range. In the early years, it outmatched the Allied forces, including the British Spitfire, which had gone up against German and Italian planes but had trouble against the Zero. It carried two bombs plus two guns of 500 rounds each in its engine cowling and one gun with 60 rounds in each of its wings. After a few years, though, other countries’ fighter planes began outmaneuvering the Zero, thanks to new tactics and engineering. Over 10,000 Zeros were manufactured through 1945, and Zeros – often other planes modified to look like Zeros – were featured in Tora! Tora! Tora! and Black Sheep Squadron. 

Similar to the Zero, the Ki-43, or “Oscar,” was widely used in Pacific combat during WWII. It was also reported to be easily maneuvered by pilots, “but somewhat underpowered and, despite updates, unable to compete effectively with U.S. fighters in the latter stages of the war.” Its small guns also made it “under gunned by Western standards.” 

According to The Flying Heritage & Combat Armor Museum, the engineers of the Ki-43 “decided to go small [and] reasoned that the superior airmanship and marksmanship of Japanese pilots could make up for a plane’s lack of heavier weaponry. Pilots who flew the Ki-43 thought it handled beautifully—a great advantage in a dogfight.” Over 5,000 Ki-43s were produced. 

Other aspects of the Oscar and Zero made them almost indistinguishable when in flight: both only had one crewmember, and could fly around 330 mph max. They were comparable in length (28' for the Oscar vs. 29' of the Zero), wingspan (37' and 39', respectively), and height (both approximately 10' high), but the Oscar’s fuselage and tapered wings made them easier (for someone in the know) to tell apart on the ground. 

Side-by-side comparison with Flying Heritage & Combat Armor Museum Oscar. Left picture from FHCAM website.

Side-by-side comparison with Flying Heritage & Combat Armor Museum Oscar. Left picture from FHCAM website.

Side-by-side comparison with Flying Heritage & Combat Armor Museum Zero. Left picture from FHCAM website.

Side-by-side comparison with Flying Heritage & Combat Armor Museum Zero. Left picture from FHCAM website.

 

With Dave’s comment in mind, I started my research the same way I did for the California Sunshine: with the serial number. This one is trickier, though, because the tail – and therefore the number – in the picture is possibly cut off, the number isn’t very specific (004, compared to something like 42-86776), what country do I search for, and what type of plane? So I used combinations of “Japanese,” “U.S.,” “ki-43,” “Oscar,” “Zero,” “serial number,” “tail number,” and “004.” I got a couple of results for a Ki-43 with tail number XJ004, but as you can see from my picture, the tail is possibly cut off in the frame, so even though all that’s visible is 004, the serial number could have an XJ, or something else, but it’s not obvious. 

The plane renumbered as XJ004 was a Ki-43-II “Oscar” Type 1 Fighter Hayabusa. According to Pacific Wrecks, it was based at Hollandia on the north coast of New Guinea (!), and was abandoned at the Japanese Cyclops Airfield, also in New Guinea, in 1944 (I assume the plane was abandoned when the U.S. overtook this airfield in April, but I didn’t find anything to confirm that). In May and June of ’44, U.S. Army Air Force 5th Air Force, 49th Fighter Group, 8th Fighter Squadron personnel repaired the plane, with additional help later from Air Technical Intelligence Unit personnel. “During the restoration, this aircraft was stripped to a bare aluminum finish. The repairs included rebuilding the engine and using spare parts found in the area. The control surfaces were replaced and a pair of 12.7mm machine guns were installed as armament. … Once completed, The U.S. star and bar markings were painted on the wings and fuselage. The lower side of the wing was painted with "U.S. Army" in black bock [sic] letters. The tail code XJ004 was painted in black on both sides of the tail.” Later, the paint job was redone to match that of the squad that restored it, and it was used for mock flights, testing U.S. planes against the Japanese aircraft, and for technical evaluation.

Dave Pluth also talks about the XJ004 and its recovery from Cyclops Airfield, and has a picture (which can be seen in a better quality here) that he says was taken “at Hollandia just after all the paint was stripped from the aircraft”. The plane in the picture is in good-looking condition: no major portions missing like in mine, yet “just after all the paint [presumably the Japanese paintjob] was stripped from the aircraft.” Mine is in rough shape, but has U.S. markings; could mine have been marked with U.S. paint and serial number while it was still wreckage, then fixed later? I’ve heard of wrecked or captured planes being re-marked by the capturer and studied, just like this Ki-43’s story, but I’ve never heard if they re-paint them while still wrecked, or if they wait. Pluth continues his description of the process by saying, “After reconstruction was complete the aircraft was stripped to bare metal and given pre-war red, white and blue markings on the tail with oversized stars and bars on the fuselage and wings. The finishing touch was put on when the name Racoon Special! (which was actually misspelled) was added to the fuselage.” So, if I’m reading this correctly, the U.S. recovered a plane, painted U.S. markings and gave it a new tail number, restored the plane, then took off the U.S. markings and serial number and painted it again, with a new design? So if Dave’s suggestion is right that this was captured by the U.S., and if a military paints captured wreckage while it is still very, very wrecked, and re-paints it again after restoration, then this could be the case here. … Maybe? I don’t know; that picture that Pluth has is still in way better shape than mine is, so maybe my 004 isn’t the same as everyone else’s XJ004.  

Pacific Wrecks also talks about restored Zero XJ002 and says that this aircraft was reassembled by U.S. Air Technical Intelligence Unit and that “[w]hile being restored, most of the green paint [the Japanese paint scheme] was stripped off to bare metal. After restoration, the aircraft was painted green with U.S. markings and tail code XJ002 in black on both sides of the tail.” So did they restore it first, and only after it was complete paint it with U.S. markings? So then that wouldn’t match the condition of my plane.

Searching for a Japanese Zero, rather than an Oscar, that was recovered and restored by the U.S. and numbered 004 brought no results. 

Another thing of note is the nose, right next to where it breaks off. To me it looks like there’s something written there. Are those scratches on the photo/negative? Is it really there? Is it English writing, or Japanese? To me, it looks like 

G                   x 

[Y or J] [box] t 

Those last two marks reminded me of Japanese writing; they look like they could be “ro” “hi” in Katakana. I found a few Katakana characters that look sort of similar to the first Y/J-looking character, but nothing that definitely matched. 

No other pictures of Zeros or Oscars that I found had anything like that. It looks like there’s also some other paint job under and next to the markings, and again, I haven’t seen anything like that in any of the photos I found online, so possibly those were added by the U.S. I found one picture, of the Ki-43 with tail number XJ002, that had something under the cockpit, but I can’t really tell what it is. Could it be the same paintjob as on mine? 

Side-by-side comparison of markings on XJ002 and my "Zero." (Pic from Pacific Wrecks.)

(I also read about Japanese planes being marked with a green and white cross when surrendered, but neither of these look like the examples I've seen of that cross.)

 

Side-by-side comparison with wrecked Ki-43. Photo from Arawasi

There was this one shot that could be compared well to my picture, and they look alike, right? The body looks more or less alike, the cockpit and canopy look alike, the wings look alike… maybe the tail of the confirmed Oscar looks a little more rounded than mine does, and again, the tail of mine may be cut off at the frame’s edge, but… I can’t be sure.

Flying Heritage & Combat Armor Museum's Stuka restoration, 2019

(And while I’m at it, the picture of the wrecked Zero/Oscar reminded me of Flying Heritage & Combat Armor Museum’s Stuka restoration. I guess planes break apart – intentionally or not – in the same way.) 

 

 

*sigh* I just don’t know about this one. I’m not seeming to come up with anything conclusive, so this one’s going to remain 100% a Mystery. (Label your photos, people!) 

 

Whilst writing all this, I realized there are two pictures in a scrapbook that I’ve always wondered about. I once took pictures of them to ask the aviation mechanics I worked with, but never got the courage. At one time, I did ask a visitor at the museum because somehow we got on the topic, but other than that, these are still two unknown-to-me planes. That might need to be my next project…