| Scale | 1/72 |
|---|---|
| Type | Fighter |
| Period | The Second World War (1939-1945) |
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Plastic model for gluing Nakajima B5N2 (Kate)
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Nakajima B5N2 - nickname of allies "Kate" - was the only ship-based torpedo bomber of the Japanese fleet at the beginning of the war in the Pacific Ocean. It was quite old at the time as it was designed to a 1935 specification and was already considered obsolete. However, when it first went into production it was a very advanced aircraft, and in the war it outclassed any Allied torpedo boat until the arrival of the Grumman Avenger in mid-1942. In particular, it was significantly superior to the Douglas TBD Devastator, a deck-based torpedo boat of the US Navy, in the Battle of the Coral Sea and the decisive Battle of Midway.
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B5N2 played a major role in the sinking of the aircraft carrier Lexington in the Coral Sea, the Yorktown at Midway, and the Hornet at the Battle of Santa Cruz in October 1942. strikes on American aircraft carriers at the beginning of the war in the Pacific Ocean. These exploits complemented Kate's success in the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, in which 40 B5N2s armed with torpedoes and 103 B5N2s armed with bombs inflicted massive losses on the US Pacific Fleet.
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Total 1,149 B5N units were produced. By the time of the Marianas campaign she had been largely superseded by her successor, the Nakajima B6N Tenzan, and was mainly used for submarine training and patrolling. Nevertheless, in a huge air-to-sea battle in the Philippine Sea, Admiral Ozawa's Mobile Fleet carried 17 Kates aboard the ships of the Third Carrier Division.
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Real Kate still does not exist, except for a few that can be found at the bottom of Truk Lagoon in the Pacific Ocean. This Kate is actually a replica built in 1969 for the movie Thor! Toro! Toro! by combining the North American SNJ-4 airframe with the Vultee BT-13 tail. With a Pratt and Whitney R1340-AN engine with a capacity of 600 hp. its performance is effectively equivalent to that of the original Kate. In addition to his role in Thor! Toro! Thora!, this Kate appeared in the films "Battle of Midway", "Flying Losers", "War and Remembrance" and the TV series "Squadron of Bad Sheep".
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Kate BII-310 carries the markings of the group leader of the second aircraft carrier division of the aircraft carrier Hiryu. It was piloted on 7 December 1941 by Zesuke Vesugi, piloted by his lieutenant Toshio Hashimoto as bombardier and Tomio Koyama as rear gunner. Their mission that fateful day was to take part in the attack on the battleship U.S.S. California.
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< span style="background-color: #ffffff;font-weight: bold;">Glue and paints are not included in the set
