Treasured footage of legenday Zero is now revived!!

[Take]

Check out this DVD!

In WW2, the United States Navy caught Japanese airplanes. They researched and found the tactics to kill the Japanese fighters. The United States National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) reserves the films of airplanes which were captured by American Navy.

YouTube - CAPTURED ZERO

[evangilder]

Interesting, but there are some glaring things wrong with the footage. The first Zero shot (in color) is the CAF Zero, probably shot near the coast of California recently. I don't know what model of Zero the captured one is, but the wingtips are squared off, not rounded off. Either a late war model, or perhaps modified in some way during test and evaluation.

What REALLY stood out was the 2 zeros flying at the end with American flag kill markers on the side. Never happened. The Japanese were not allowed to put any sort of kill marks on their aircraft. Those markings are pure fabrications.

[Trebor]

Originally Posted by evangilder

What REALLY stood out was the 2 zeros flying at the end with American flag kill markers on the side. Never happened. The Japanese were not allowed to put any sort of kill marks on their aircraft. Those markings are pure fabrications.

really? why is that?

[evangilder]

The Japanese generally frowned upon any marking on an aircraft that would distinguish it from others. They believed that it did not foster unit cohesion. However, later in the war some aircraft were allowed to display markings. The markings that were used were not like the American way of doing it, either displayed on the tail, or at the rear of the fuselage between the cockpit and the tail. American flags were never used as kill marks.

[Haztoys]

I to was thinking what you did Evan...Whats with the wing tips..??

[evangilder]

I believe the model 23 Zero had the squared off wingtips, which was a late ware model, but am not sure.

[Matt308]

Square tipped version with US insignia is a naval version with folding wingtips removed and faired over. Reason unknown.

[Haztoys]

My books say there was a A6M3 Model 32 it was a high altitude Zero...That had the squared wing ...

[evangilder]

I may have meant model 32 and transposed the numbers. There was a clipped wing version, and I wonder is that is the captured one they were testing.

[ccheese]

From what I've read the Japanese did allow "kill" marks on their aircraft. In
some areas the kill mark was a hatchet. Other kill marks were arrows thru
an aircraft, and they were tail mounted. Also, kills were credited to the aircraft, not the pilot.

I have a good VHS tape of testing the original captured Zero. Going to try
to get it converted to DVD.

Charles

[Haztoys]

And redish pink cherry blossoms kill marks also that look like stars ...I'm "think" the reason theres differant markings is the Army used one sort and navy another...

[evangilder]

There are a number of markings that were used, late in the war. But the general rule was that markings for kills was not allowed. The rules appear to have been relaxed later in the war, but they never used American flags for kills markings and didn't put them below the cockpit like the Americans did.

[Haztoys]

Originally Posted by evangilder

There are a number of markings that were used, late in the war. But the general rule was that markings for kills was not allowed. The rules appear to have been relaxed later in the war, but they never used American flags for kills markings and didn't put them below the cockpit like the Americans did.

You are right on this Evan ...The flag markings are BS ...And the markings they did use are more about the plane "I think" then the pilot..

I wonder if the Japanese flow just one plane most of the time ..Or different planes all the time...?

[parsifal]

In addition to all that the Japanese rarely gave medals or other awards to their pilots. I have also read somewhere, that the IJN crediting system was the nmost difficult in the world, though I dont know what that entailed

[Micdrow]

Originally Posted by parsifal

In addition to all that the Japanese rarely gave medals or other awards to their pilots. I have also read somewhere, that the IJN crediting system was the nmost difficult in the world, though I dont know what that entailed

Ive never heard that one. For the most part of what Ive read about japanese kills they tended to be exaggurated on many pilots. The dates and claims made by some japanese pilots dont match losses for other countries. Others like Suburo Saki can be confirmed on both sides with dates, times and locations.

Many japanese airman may have hit there target but the plane made it back to base with damage but thats not considered a kill. Most of it was on the honor of the pilot.

Most japanese zero's radio's where either pulled from there aircraft to reduce weight or did not work due to the poor performance of japanese radios at the time.

Without seeing the video I would have to say that the zero was a A6M3 zero which as it was stated above had the folding wingtips removed and faired over. It was orginially classifed as a new aircraft with the code name Hamp. After it was found to be the same aircraft but modifived version of the zero it was changed back to Zeke.