B5N2 "Kate" Artifacts
Photos by Greg Springer

All artifacts are held in storage by the Admiral Nimitz National Museum of the Pacific War in Fredricksburg Texas.  

An artifact from the upper surface of a B5N2 that the donor states is from the Kaga torpedo unit plane which crashed at the Navy hospital.  The base coat is a color close to, but lighter than and more green than FS 16350 over sprayed with dark green in varying thickness.  Darkest areas are close to FS 34064/34084.  The base coat is very glossy, the overspray is very flat.  Possibly from the right outer wing.

 

The inner surface of the artifact showing numerous SDCH stamps and some kind of corrosion, dirt or mold growth.

A small artifact also said to be from the Hospital Kate.  The red area was painted on bare metal and camouflage coats painted around it.  This was donated by a man who was a crewmember of the USS Rigel.  The Rigel was undergoing a major refit at the time of the attack and had no boilers installed.  As she suffered only minor damage, her crew was released to help where needed.  The donor became a stretcher-bearer at the hospital.  He collected several bits from the wreck.  In addition to the skin section, he picked up a fire damaged 7.7 mm shell case and a bullet, a t-handle bomb release from the observer's cockpit marked "Right rear 60 kg. bomb release, a section of fuel line, a connector plug for a Type 96 aviation #3 radio and a piece of silk parachute cloth.  

The inner surface of the small artifact.

An artifact of unknown provenance which has the same camouflage as the first two.  Some paint fell off when the artifact was folded, presumably for easier storage by the souvenir hunter.  Dark green aotake on the inner surface.

Definitely an artifact from the 'Hospital Kate' donated by a surgeon.  The aircraft skidded across the grounds of the hospital prior to disintegrating and burning.  This is thought to be from the underside of the left outer wing since the right outer wing survived the crash intact.  The hinomaru was painted on the aluminum and the gray-green was painted around it.  There is no red primer coat.

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