Hikoki:1946 (The "Luft 46" of the Japanese Aviation)

Discussion in 'The War In The Air' started by Deadly Birds, Nov 27, 2008.

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  1. Kiwiguy

    Kiwiguy Member

    It was asked previously how Hitler's plane managed to fly undetected from Prague on 27 April 1945?

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    The same way it did on 5/6 April 1945 when rather embarassingly it crashed on landing at Barcelona. A Fw200 flew in spare parts to repair the undercarriage so the aircraft could repeat the trip on 27 April. Not quite undetected since the crash on 6 April did not go unnoticed.

    Someone remarked this is all very boy's own stuff, but in fact WW2 was full of Boy's own stuff and all who participate in this and other WW2 forums are grown men with a boyish fascination for WW2... There is no secret in that.

    Also WW2 itself is full of examples of boyish escapades like for example HMS Cambletown ramming the gates at St Nazaire, Skorzeny rescuing Mussolini by glider landing, capture of the Pegasus Bridge at Normandy are all examples that in War forces on either side do improbable acts to gain the advantage.

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    At Matsuwa Island in the Kuril Islands is a volcanic cone with a flat area on one side of the island. Here the Japanese built an air base with one 2000m runway and another 1500m runway, both of which they plumbed underground with geothermal steam to keep it snow free year round and on that airfield even today you can still find German WW2 era 44 gallon drums among the debris of Japanese infantry helmets.

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    This particular island just a pimple in the Pacific yet none the less had an impressive system of bunkers and fortifications with an 8,000 strong garrison, radar and it's own fighter squadron plus 60 tanks...why so much effort?

    What were the Germans doing at Matsuwa?

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    Also regards a German General sent to Cordoba in Argentina to supervise former Graf Spee crew to build an airstrip, there is nothing unbelievable in that either. Germany used the airstrip at Vila Cisneros, on the Spanish Sahara coast, as a refueling stop both before the war and during the war for flights to South America.

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  2. Kiwiguy

    Kiwiguy Member

    U-234 carried examples of engines and a host of aviation related materials bound for Japan.
    I have seen a photo of a FW-190 in IJA markings which looks really strange- I wonder what the pilot thought of her.

    The German used the Ar.-196 in IIJN markings to patrol the approaches to bases used by their boats in the far east.

    Has anyone any evidence that long range flights actually took place from Southern Russia to Japanese occupied China ?
    Occasionally you hear reports of these flights but concrete facts seem to be few and far between , if anyone can shed any light on them I would be delighted.

    PS Sorry for going a tad off track on this one.

    British Intelligence summaries note that in April 1944 a German POW related that the Me-264 operating as part of Kommando Nebel was making regular communications flights from a frozen lake at Petsamo northern Finland to Japan. The Me-264 fully laden required a 2,400 metre runway.

    Russian intelligence summaries in WW2 refer to a corresponding 4,000 metre airstrip at Usiro in Sakhalin for long range communication flights. Even today a 4,000 metre strip anywhere is quite impressive. Below is a link to the website www. sakhalin.info/franctireur/50864/

    Ворота в небо. Александр Челноков. 11.08.2008. Франтирер. Южно-Сахалинск, Александровск-Сахалинский, Оха, Ноглики, Тымовское. Сахалин.Инфо

    A Japanese gentleman, Hiashi Namikawa says that his sources tell him in 1942 flights followed a route from German held Crimea to a secret refueling stop established by the Germans at Kabul and then continued on to Manchuria. The second ill fated flight to Japan by the Italian SM.75 RT trimotor was intended to have refueled at Kabul. There was a reference on History TV some years ago to Brandenbergers landing 80 ethnically "indian" recruits by parachute drop at Kabul to extract Subhas Bose Chandra from India.

    in July 1943 a Japanese Ki-74 flight from Singapore via Kabul shot down over the Indian Ocean thanks to a tip off. The flight was compromised by ULTRA intercept however an officer named Nebel headed a reception committee in Sarabus, Crimea waiting for that flight to arrive.

    Then in August 1944 captured in the fall of France, Luftwaffe serviceman Unteroffizer Wolf Baumgart, disclosed Manchuria flights under interrogation by US Ninth Air Force A.P.W.I.U. Report 44/1945.

    Albert Speer in his memoirs refers to a Polar Flight by a Ju-390 to Japan flown by civil test pilots. Two civil test pilots who flew the Ju-390, Hans Joachim Pancherz (Ju-390 Chief Test Pilot) and Hans Werner Lerche both referred to such a flight after the war. The Russian historian Sergey Platov refers to the flight taking place on 28 March 1945.
     
  3. Kiwiguy

    Kiwiguy Member

    Wiki also states under the entry for the JU290 that the Japanese flights were never utilised because they couldnt agree on a flightpath, the Japanese not wanting the Germans to fly over Soviet Airspace for fear of provoking the Soviets.


    There was definite haggling about routes, but flights did take place. There were various routes from Finland, Bulgaria, Rhodes via Kabul etc.

    There were also Ju-290 operations from Norway to Nordenskjorlds Bugt [FONT=&quot] [/FONT]in NE Greenland in 1944, which was only a 3,100 nautical mile hop to Sakhalin Island.
     

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