Captured Aircraft

[okla]

Hey Chad....The Image of a ME109 with the "meatball" insignia is kinda mind boggling to me. Several years ago I had the experience of sitting in the cockpit of a 109 here in Tulsa. A very wealthy Doctor owned and flew one of the aircraft, keeping it at a small private airport here in Oklahoma. This plane was never one that had flown in the Luftwaffe, but had been one of Francisco Franco's Spanish AF aircraft. As I understand it Franco's whole Air Force was of Nazi Germany origin. My brother in law and this Doctor were sky diving buddies, thus I had a chance to look this airplane over "close up". The good Doctor flew the 109 to the Oshkosh, Wisconsin Air Show one time and he said "never again". Claimed it was a tough plane to fly. Couldn't "feather touch" the controls ala a Spitfire or Mustang. He said the ME-109 almost "beat him to death" by the time he landed at Oskosh. This was back in the 1960s. Cheers.

[chadhill]

Okla, I kind of wondered how this rather plump looking Japanese aviator could have squeezed into that 109's tight cockpit wearing all his gear. If I'm not mistaken, those Spanish 109s had Rolls-Royce Merlin engines rather than the Daimler-Benz. I've heard 109s were tricky to land with that narrow-spaced landing gear. The plane was also difficult to trim and fly hands off, as you said. But somewhere I read that because it was so touchy, highly experienced aces like Marseille and Hartmann preferred it over the FW190. OOps, I'm drifting off target here...

I don't know the history about the 109 in this photo, but it looks like an "E" model to me, so probably a late 1930s-1940 photo. The Germans must have let the Japanese have one for testing. If I recall correctly the Ki-61 Tony was inspired by the BF109 and used a similar motor.

[batteryboy]

The Japanese also had for evaluation purposes the following:


Focke-Wulf 190A-5






A Messeschmitt Me-210


And a Junkers Ju-87A

Here is one more Japanese Me-109E-7 pics:



Back to captured aircraft...


An F2A Buffalo (B-339s) captured in either Singapore or NEI


A Russian I-16 "Rata" captured sometime during the Nomonhan incident

...and a couple of more P-40s



Here are two that were recovered by US forces in Japan in 1945



Here is one that served with the Japanese 50th Sentai in Burma (artist impression)


One that is captured in the Philippines:


Some more captured B-17 photos:





They also captured late in the war an F6F Hellcat, a Curtiss SB2C Helldiver, a P-51B Mustang...

Regards,

[okla]

Hey Chad....I am 6 ft 1 inch, 185 lbs and that 109 cockpit was rather uncomfortable for me. I can imagine how much more cramped it would have been had I been wearing a 'chute. This aircraft did have the Brit engine instead of the German Daimler-Benz. The nose/propeller,etc looked more like that of an American P-40 than the German plane. Otherwise, it definitely was a ME-109 (Spanish edition) in appearance. I remember a rather cold chill running up and down my spine when brother in law and I strolled into the hanger space and all that we could initially see was the kraut plane's tail assembly sticking out from behind a partition with the dreaded Swastika glaring at us. The 109 was a beautiful aircraft though. In the same league as far as looks/style,etc as the Mustang, Spit, and P-40 in my humble.

[chadhill]

Wow batteryboy, what a photo collection you assembled for us! Thanks, I had no idea the Germans had given the Japanese so many different types for testing.

Do you have any other info on this P-40E that you showed us which was captured in the Philippines?



I'm trying to find out what happened to Ed Dyess's "Kibosh" (#40-517, I believe). As related on the P-40 I.D. thread, according to Bartsch on page 369 of "Doomed at the Start", Lt. Jack Donaldson flew it off Bataan on April 8th and belly landed it at Manduriao Field, near Iloilo on Panay.

There is some question what shape Kibosh was in after the belly landing (see also page 464, notes 9 and 10), and what happened to it. I'm sure in recent years that I saw a Japanese photo which was supposed to be the captured Kibosh. Bartsch mentions that two other P-40s were captured (page 421-422) but that they had the Tiger-Shark faces painted on them, as shown in Victor's photo near the top of this thread.

Your photo shows no such Tiger Shark face. Could it be Kibosh?

[chadhill]

[okla]

Hey Battery...As Chad said, I had no idea that the Germans were so "big hearted" with the Japanese as concerns sharing their technology,etc with their Far Eastern allies.

[batteryboy]

Chad, am out of my home office but let me check the P-40E when I get back. Okla, you will be surprised that the Japanese even orderd a Pzkpfw V (Panther D) for evaluation but the unit never made it to Japan. The Germans asked permission from the Japanese if they can use the demo unit tank to be issued to a regular Panzer division in the eastern front.

[okla]

Hey Batts....You continue to amaze me. I had no idea that there was this much "cooperation" between these two distant allies. The distances involved, of course, made exchange of physical materiel a tremendous problem. Seems as if I have read that Doenitz's U-Boats operated out of Singapore or some other Dutch Indies bases at times. You, I am sure, can set me straight on this point. I truly appreciate your expertise. You are a fountain of information. I must admit that I just hit the high spots where you, and some of the other regulars, have beaucoup depth of knowledge of military history. Cheers.

[rickthelibrarian]

I remember reading that American forces felt there was a good possibility that German aircraft were going to be operated/produced by the Japanese. The ME/Bf109 was given the code name "Mike" as a result.