It was the most numerous seaplane of the IJN and had a crew of three plus a bombload of 250kg (550lb). It was designated by the IJN as "Navy Type Zero Reconnaissance Seaplane".
It started its career in China, operating from seaplane tenders and cruisers (Kinugasa, Atago, Takao, Chokai, Maya, Kumano, Chikuma, Tone and Suzuya, among others) and, later, in early December 1941, it was used to scout the Hawaian isle of Oahu, in order to prepare the attack on Pearl Harbour. It was also employed in the decisive battles of Coral Sea and Midway, where it clashed against the United States Navy, but it was also used in the campaign of Guadalcanal, where it was used as a night harassment and it was nicknamed as Boiler-Charlie by the Marines, due to its noisy engine.
A total of 1418 airplanes were built and, toward the last days of war, they were employed in kamikaze missions.
It was powered by a 1080hp Mitsubishi Mk8 Kinsei and it came in many variants:
- E13A1: Two prototypes, which later were reconverted to the first production model denominated as Model 11
- E13A1-K: Trainer version fitted with dual controls.
- E13A1a: A slighlty improved version with redesigned floats and improved radio equipment.
- E13A1a-S: Night harassment version, fitted with flash suppressors.
- E13A1b: Version equipped with an air-to-surface radar, it had a night flying sub-variant called E13A1b-S.
- E13A1c: Anti-ship version fitted with two downward firing 20mm type 99 Mark II cannons, bombs and depth charges.
Sources:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aichi_E13A
2. https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aichi_E13A (translated)
3. http://www.militaryfactory.com/aircraft/detail.asp?aircraft_id=443
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