Friday 2 February 2018

Mitsubishi F1M

The Mitsubishi F1M (Allied codename 'Pete') was a Japanese reconnaissance floatplane of World War II which has the honour of being the last biplane type to serve with the Imperial Japanese Navy. Almost 1200 of them were built in total, between 1936 and 1944.
The F1M1 was powered by a single Nakajima Hikari Mk.1 radial engine which yielded 820hp of power, a maximum speed of 368km/h (230mph) and an operative range of 1072km (670milles) when overloaded. It was armed with two fixed forward-firing 7.7mm (0.303in) Type 97 machine guns placed on the nose and a defensive 7.7mm Type 92 one placed in the observer's post. It could also carry two 60kg (132lb) bombs under the lower wings. It turned to be a very versatile aircraft which served as a mobile operations platform.
It was originally built as a catapult-launched reconnaissance floatplane specialized in gunnery spotting. The F1M1 took on a number of local roles as convoy escort, bomber, anti-submarine , maritime-patrol, rescue, transport and anti-shipping strike with some respectable success rate. For instance the American Motor Torpedo Boat PT-34 was sunk on 9th April 1942 by a F1M1. It was also used as an area-defence fighter and got involved in aerial combat in the Aleutians, the Solomons and many other theatres. In the New Guinea front it got involved in many aerial battles against both Allied bombers and fighters.
Since its production started in 1938, they were assigned to the 21st Naval Air Arsenal at Sasebo, in Japanese homeland before being transferred to their respective destinations. In due course, the F1M2 equipped all but one of the K-Maru and S-Maru classes of converted merchant seaplane tenders raiders and several Japanese Battleships and Cruisers of the Imperial Japanese Navy.
They were present at the Battle of Midway as two aircraft were launched from the Battleship Kirishima, but they were lost when the ship was scuttled at the end of the Battle of the Solomons. They were also aboard the Superheavy Battleships Musashi and Yamato as each of them carried several F1M1 and M2s to serve as spotters for their 460mm guns at the Battle of the Marianas.
Apparently, late in the war they were used for kamikaze attacks as they were blatantly outdated and its production ceased the year before, in 1944. After the war as the Japanese retreated from many territories like Indonesia or Thailand, they left behind many equipment, among them some F1M1 which were put into service by the newly created government of Indonesia and used them in their war of independence. Something similar happened with the Thai government which also used some leftover F1M1s  and used them in their navy during the inmediate postwar years. However, as we couldn't find graphical evidence of the F1M1 in service with Thailand, the drawing should be considered as speculative.










Sources:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitsubishi_F1M
2. http://www.aviastar.org/air/japan/mitsubishi_f1m.php
3. http://www.historyofwar.org/articles/weapons_mitsubishi_F1M.html

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