The Akutan Zero-- Part 8: What Happened to the Akutan Zero and Koga's Body

Nine wrecked Japanese Mitsubishi Zeros were recovered after Pearl Harbor and were studied as well.

Sadly, the Akutan Zero was destroyed in a  training accident in February 1945.  While it was taxiing for a takeoff, a Curtis Helldiver lost control and rammed into it.   The Helldiver's propeller sliced the Zero into pieces.

From the wreckage, several gauges were salvaged and donated to the National Museum of the United States Navy.  The Alaska Heritage Museum and Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum also have some pieces of it.

A search was led to Akutan Island in 1988 in an attempt to find Ensign Koga's remains.  It was found that the remains  had been exhumed by an American Graves Registration Service team in 1947 and reburied at  Adak Island, further down the Aleutian Chain.

The team, unaware of Koga's significance or identity, marked him as unknown.  The Adak cemetery was excavated in 19553 and the 236 bodies returned to Japan.  The unidentified remains were cremated and it is likely that is what happened to Koga.

--GreGen

The Akutan Zero-- Part 7: Testing Its Capabilities

Data from the captured Zero showed that the United could match or surpass Zeros in most respects except  range without sacrificing pilot armor, self-sealing tanks and fuselage  structure.  The new  F6F  Hellcat would compensatefor the extraweight with additional power.

On September 20, 1942, two months after the Zero's capture, Lt. Commander  Edie R. Sanders took the Akutan Zero  up for its first test flight.  He made 24 test flights between September 29 and October 15

The important thing was that knowledge was gained in how to fight the Japanese plane.

In early 1943, it was transferred to Anacostia Naval Air Station for more tests, including a wind tunnel.

--GreGen

The Akutan Zero-- Part 6: Recovery and Reconstruction

The crash site remained undiscovered for over a month.  On July 10, 1942, an American PBY piloted by  Lt. William Thies spotted the wreckage accidentally.  They returned the next day and recovered Ensign Koga's body from the plane and buried him in a shallow grave.

It took several attempts to get the Zero uprighted and to get it off the muddy land before they were able to get it to a barge and transported to Dutch Harbor where it was loaded onto the USS  St. Mihiel and transported to Seattle.

From there it went to the Naval Air Station near San Diego where repairs were carefully carried out.  The Zero's red Hinomaru roundel was was repainted with American insignia.  The Zero was fit to fly again on September 20. (Imagine had they left the red ball on the plane and a civilian saw it being flown over the U.S. mainland.)

The whole time the plane was under heavy guard.

The United States now had a flyable Zero to test.

--GreGen

Akutan Zero-- Part 5: The End of Koga

Continued from February 14, 2023.

The Japanese claim the shot that caused Ensign Tadayoshi Koga's plane to crash came during the attack on Dutch Harbor.

The fatal shot severed the return oil line and Koga's plane  immediately began trailing oil.  He  reduced speed to keep the engine from seizing for as long as possible.

The three Zeros flew to Akutan Island, 25 miles east of Dutch Harbor which had been designated for emergency landings.  Waiting near the island was a Japanese submarine assigned to pick up downed pilots.  

At the island, they circled until they found a fairly flat piece of ground, but as Koga began his descent they saw there was water on the ground and it was too late for him to pull up.  The landing gear mired in the mud and the plane flipped over and skid to a stop.  

Although the arcraft survived nearly intact, Koga was killed instantly, either due to a broken neck or blunt force to his head.  Koga's wingmen circling above had orders to destroy the plane to prevent its capture, but did not know if Koga was alive or not so did not strafe it.

They left and later the Japanese submarine was driven off by the USS Williamson.

--GreGen

The Akutan Zero-- Part 4: Attack on the Aleutians and Shooting Down of Koga's Zero

Nine Zeros were shot down during the attack on Pearl Harbor and from those wrecks, the U.S. learned that the Zeros lacked armor and self-sealing fuel tanks, but little about their combat abilities.

Prior to the recovery of the Akutan Zero, information had been obtained  from three other Zeros.  But none of them were flyable.

In June 1942, as part of Japan's Midway operation, the Aleutian Islands were attacked.  A Japanese task force bombed Dutch Harbor twice, once on June 3 and again the following day.

Tadayoshi Koga (September 10, 1922-June 4, 1942) was a 19-year-old Japanese Navy flight petty officer  first class, was launched from the aircraft carrier Ryujo as part of the June 4 raid.  He was part of a three plane section.

They attacked Dutch Harbor and are believed to have been the three Japanese planes who shot down an American PBY-5A Flying and then strafed the survivors in the water, killing all six of them.

In the process, Koga's plane was damaged by small arms fire.

--GreGen

The Akutan Zero-- Part 2: 'A Prize Almost Beyond Value'

The Akutan Zero has been described as "a prize almost beyond value to the United States", and "probably one of the greatest prizes of the Pacific  War."

Japanese historian and lieutenant general Masatake Okumiya stated that the acquisition  of the Akutan Zero "was no less serious" than the Japanese defeat at the Battle of Midway and that it did much to hasten Japan's final defeat.

The Akutan Zero was destroyed in a  training accident in 1945.  Parts of it are preserved in several museums across the United States.

And, here I am not knowing much about it before now.

-GreGen

The Akutan Zero-- Part 1

From Wikipedia.

Also known as Koga's Zero and the Aleutian Zero.  It was a Type 0 Model 21 Mitsubishi A6M Zero Japanese fighter aircraft that crash-landed on Akutan Island in the Aleutions which was in he Alaska Territory at the time during World War II.  The crash took place on June 4, 1942.

It was found intact by the Americans in July of that year.  It was the first such plane captured and even better, could be restored to flyable condition.  It was repaired and flown by American  test pilots.  As a result of the infirmation obtained  Americans were able to devise ways to combat these very good warplanes.

It was the  the Japanese Navy's primary fighter plane throughout the war.

--GreGen

The Last Time the U.S. Has Shot Down a Foreign Aircraft Over American Air Space Was ....

From the February 4, 2023, London Daily Mail "Downing of Chinese spy balloon is first time military hasshot down foreign aircraft over US soil since World War II" by Paul Farrell.

That balloon was pretty much all you heard about this past week. Was it a weather balloon that got away of spy balloon?  Don't know.

A military fighter plane shot it down about 8 miles over the Atlantic Ocean on Saturday.

Not since a Japanese aerial attack on U.S. ships in Dutch Harbor in Alaska on June 4, 1942, when a Japanese fighter was shot down, has the military done this.

The incident has come to be known as Akutan Zero.  

--GreGen

The Japanese Akutan Zero-- Part 2

U.S. forces then got valuable information, unknown before this, on the mainstay of the Japanese fighters.  It was an extremely good fighter plane, but it did have two huge problems.

Starting on September 20, 1942, Lt.Cmdr. Eddie Sanders flew 24 flights in it over a period of 25 days.  It performed tremendously but did have a glaring Achilles heel.  It could not perform rolls at moderate speed.  If it could be forced  into a roll, the advantage would be to the Allied pilot.

The second problem with the Zero was that it had a poorly-designed carburetor which caused the engine to sputter badly when in a dive at a high rate of speed.  Force one to do that and it was an easy target.

Koga's Zero was later hit by a Curtis SB2C Helldiver while taxiing out for a training run.  Not much was left of these very important plane.

Stuff You Didn't Know.  --GreGen

The Japanese Akutan Zero-- Part 1

From the June 4, 2012 History Channel "The Akutan Zero: How a Captured Japanese Fighter Plane Helped Win World War II" by Elizabeth Hanes.

On June 4, 1942, Japan attacked an Allied position at Dutch Harbor on Unalaska Island in the Aleutian Island chain.

Japanese pilot Tadayoshi Koga was hit by ground fire and crashed.  After he was hit, Koga headed to Akutan Island which had been designated as an emergency landing field.  The boggy soil snared his landing gear and flipped the Zero over end-to-end and it landed upside down.

Japanese pilots were under strict orders to destroy their Zeros if they were disabled so they wouldn't fall into enemy hands and be examined.  Koga died instantly from a broken neck.

A U.S. Navy pilot on routine patrol spotted it and and after three attempts to recover the wreckage, Americans succeeded and sent it to San Diego to be restored.

--GreGen