Remarks: Close cropped view of the preserved wreckage of WWII vintage Japanese Reisen (Zero) BII-124 Cn 5349 on display in Sep1998, at the Darwin Aviation Heritage Museum, located at Darwin Airport, Winellie NT. A machine gun, the engine and propeller are displayed in front of the aircraft. This Zero was flown by Sgt Pilot Hajime Toyoshima during the first Japanese bombing raid on Darwin on 19Feb1942. (Toyoshima later died in the Japanese POW breakout at Cowra NSW on 05Aug1944.) The engine siezed due to a 303 rifle bullet entering the oil tank, and she crash-landed on Melville Island. The bullet was fired by RANVR Lieutenant F. Sydney Sharp from his Navy quarters in Darwin. (I also photographed pieces of Reisen V-173 at Port Moresby, TPNG, in 1975.) Low res photo. Apologies for quality.
Remarks: Aircraft a A6M2 mdl. 21, a carrier borne fighter built under license to Nakajima Aircraft Co. in 1943. Displaying ficticious markings AI-3-I02 of the 6th Kokutai (squadron). It was recovered in Papua, New Guinea and subsequently restored and placed on display at the National Museum of the USAF, Wright-Patterson AFB, Dayton, Ohio. (Museum poorly illuminated, difficult to photograph exhibits)
