Commander Fuchida's Aircraft at Pearl Harbor Markings?

Modeling Subjects Aircraft
1

I have seen at least three different illustrations of the markings of Fuchida’s B5N Kate as it appeared in the attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941.

The first comes from the old Profile publicats which shoes his plane in bare metal on the windgs and fuselage. The horizontal and vertical stablizer are marked in red and yellow stripes which span the full chord of the stablizers. A small aircraft number appears in the top stripe on the tip of the vertical stab.

Illustration number two comes from Donald W Thorpe’s book "Japanese Navel Air Force Camouflage and Markings World War II. It depicts the same striping on the stablizers as the illustration in Profile publications, however the wings and fuselage are now a solid green with the bottom of the plane in light grey. This book was published in 1977 and the author makes the point that this illustration was executed under the direction of Mitsuo Fuchida himself and so I am inclined to mark my plane this way however…

More recent illustrations on boxtop art from various manufacturers indicate a third scheme that shows the horizontal stabilzers as solid red while the vertical stablizer is red with three yellow stripes, the bottom two of which do NOT cover the full chord of the stabilizers while the top yellow stripe does. The aircraft number here is larger, in yellow, and fills in the area between the top and second stripe down.

Is there anybody out there who can tell me which is the most accurate illustration of these three? I would like to get this right… the model I have is an old Nichimo version of the plane. It has been in my stash for years and I am soon ready to begin work on her. Tom Beccone, age 73, Exton PA

2

Here is an Aviation of Japan article with the Hasegawa depictions:

http://www.aviationofjapan.com/search?q=fuchida

Anbd the Hasegawa instructions:

https://www.scalemates.com/products/img/3/6/0/114360-28-instructions.pdf

3

A couple of photos exist of the aircraft at the time of the Indian Ocean raids in early April 1942. As you can see the green was quite well worn and flaking off by then, but the tail markings are well seen.

4

Unfortunately, the best source was the late, David Aiken. But there are probably several documents of his floating around that give the info you are searching for. I will dig thorough my stuff to see what I can find.

5

Thannk you so much. Anything you can find would really help.

6

Wow. Thank you so much. As a former US History teacher I really appreciate this kind of evidence and research on your part. Thank you very much.I did not know these photos existed. This would have been four months after the raid at Pearl. I wonder if the plane looked that distressed in Dec. of 41? Thoughts?

7

Thanks so much for your reply and the articles and items you passed along. I really appreciate your help with this project.

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No problem, and next time you drive through Paoli, say hi for me. I Mis-spent a chunk of my youth in that area. I even wrote a kids book (fiction, ages 8-12) set there.

As for Fuchida’s B5N, most of what I can find indicates the red tail and upper surfaces of the stabilizers, not to include the actual fuselage, with light gray below.

I would have expected the aircraft to appear fairly pristine upon departure from Japanese waters, and only minimal distress from the crossing. It was a ‘lead’ aircraft, after all.