AP 118 · No. 10 Section II · Aircraft Plate 134 / 325

Plate 134 of 325 · Second World War · Long-range land-based naval bomber

Mitsubishi G4M

G4M1 Model 11 T1-323, painted as Mitsubishi G4M1 Model 11 T1-323 (manufacturer’s number 2656) of the 705th Kokutai, Imperial Japanese Navy, the bomber carrying Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto when it was shot down by US Army P-38 Lightnings near Buin, Bougainville, on 18 April 1943: a twin-engined long-range land-based naval bomber with a deep cigar-shaped fuselage, a glazed nose with a single machine gun, a stepped cockpit canopy, a teardrop dorsal gun blister, teardrop beam blisters on each side and a long glazed tail cone with a 20 mm cannon, a mid-set tapered wing carrying two Mitsubishi Kasei radials in long nacelles with three-blade propellers, and a single fin and rudder, shown tail down on its main wheels and tail wheel: dark green upper surfaces and fuselage sides over light grey undersides, a black anti-glare panel on the upper nose and black cowlings, yellow identification strips on the inner wing leading edges, red hinomaru on the upper and lower wings and on a white square on each side of the fuselage, and ‘323’ in white on both sides of the fin, as recorded from photographs of its wreck, which still lies in the jungle near Buin, and of the 705th Kokutai in 1943 (no complete G4M survives and none is in a UK museum; shape from a published G4M2 three-view altered to the G4M1’s nose, dorsal blister, beam blisters and tail cone from a Model 11 drawing and wartime photographs; the colour of the lower cowlings, the underside shade and the propeller blade colour are not shown in any photograph of this airframe and follow other aircraft of its type and unit).

3D model

Turn it over

A procedural model built in Blender from published dimensions, drawings and photographs, painted as Mitsubishi G4M1 Model 11 T1-323 (manufacturer’s number 2656) of the 705th Kokutai, Imperial Japanese Navy, the bomber carrying Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto when it was shot down by US Army P-38 Lightnings near Buin, Bougainville, on 18 April 1943: a twin-engined long-range land-based naval bomber with a deep cigar-shaped fuselage, a glazed nose with a single machine gun, a stepped cockpit canopy, a teardrop dorsal gun blister, teardrop beam blisters on each side and a long glazed tail cone with a 20 mm cannon, a mid-set tapered wing carrying two Mitsubishi Kasei radials in long nacelles with three-blade propellers, and a single fin and rudder, shown tail down on its main wheels and tail wheel: dark green upper surfaces and fuselage sides over light grey undersides, a black anti-glare panel on the upper nose and black cowlings, yellow identification strips on the inner wing leading edges, red hinomaru on the upper and lower wings and on a white square on each side of the fuselage, and ‘323’ in white on both sides of the fin, as recorded from photographs of its wreck, which still lies in the jungle near Buin, and of the 705th Kokutai in 1943 (no complete G4M survives and none is in a UK museum; shape from a published G4M2 three-view altered to the G4M1’s nose, dorsal blister, beam blisters and tail cone from a Model 11 drawing and wartime photographs; the colour of the lower cowlings, the underside shade and the propeller blade colour are not shown in any photograph of this airframe and follow other aircraft of its type and unit). Drag to orbit, scroll or pinch to zoom · download .glb (1.2 MB)

Data plate

Specification

First flight, number built and top speed are for the whole family (G4M1 & G4M2 (Allied name ‘Betty’)); engine, crew and dimensions are for the G4M1 Model 11 T1-323 modelled here.

History

The G4M

In 1937 the Imperial Japanese Navy asked Mitsubishi for a land-based attack bomber to follow its G3M, able to carry a torpedo or bombs much further across the Pacific. Kiro Honjo’s team at Nagoya proposed four engines to carry the load; the navy insisted on two. To find the range they built the fuel into the wing itself, with no armour and no self-sealing, and wrapped the crew and a bomb bay in a deep, round fuselage that its crews nicknamed ‘Hamaki’, the cigar. The prototype first flew on 23 October 1939, and the navy accepted the G4M1 as its Type 1 Attack Bomber in 1941.

G4M1s first fought over China in 1941. On 8 December they flew from Formosa to bomb the American airfields in the Philippines, and two days later G4Ms of the Kanoya Kokutai, with G3Ms, sank the battleship HMS Prince of Wales and the battlecruiser HMS Repulse off Malaya: the first capital ships sunk at sea by aircraft alone. The Allies gave the type the code name ‘Betty’. Its range carried it to Darwin, Guadalcanal and the Aleutians, but the unprotected wing tanks caught fire so easily that American pilots called it the flying lighter, and losses over the Solomons in 1942 and 1943 were very heavy.

The G4M2 of 1943 had more powerful Kasei 21 engines, a new wing and a powered dorsal turret, and the G4M3 at last had protected tanks and armour. In 1945 G4M2s carried Ohka rocket-powered suicide aircraft beneath them, but most were shot down before they could launch. About 2,435 were built, more than any other Japanese bomber. No complete G4M survives, and none is in a UK museum; parts of several are held in the United States and Japan, and wrecks remain on Pacific islands.

This airframe

G4M1 T1-323 (c/n 2656)

T1-323The airframe modelled

T1-323, manufacturer’s number 2656, was a G4M1 Model 11 of the 705th Kokutai. On 18 April 1943 it left Rabaul carrying Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, commander of the Combined Fleet and planner of the attack on Pearl Harbor, on a tour of bases near Bougainville. American codebreakers had read the signal giving his timetable, and sixteen P-38 Lightnings intercepted the two bombers and their escort near Buin. T1-323 was shot down in flames into the jungle, and Yamamoto and everyone on board were killed; the second bomber came down in the sea and his chief of staff, Vice-Admiral Matome Ugaki, survived. The wreck still lies where it fell, and a wing panel is at the Yamamoto Isoroku memorial museum in Nagaoka, Japan. No complete G4M survives, so the model shows this, the best-recorded single airframe, as photographs of its wreck and of the 705th Kokutai in 1943 show it: dark green above and on the fuselage sides over light grey, a black anti-glare panel on the nose and black cowlings, yellow strips on the inner wing leading edges, hinomaru on the wings and on a white square on the fuselage, and ‘323’ in white on the fin. Its shape was taken from a published G4M2 three-view, altered to the G4M1’s nose, blisters and tail cone from a Model 11 drawing and wartime photographs. The colour of the lower cowlings, the exact underside shade and the propeller blades are not recorded for this airframe and follow other aircraft of its type.

Where to see one

Not on charge

No complete G4M survives. Parts of several are held in the United States and Japan, and wrecks remain on Pacific islands.

All 325 plates

Profiles and models are procedural interpretations built in Blender from published dimensions, three-view drawings and photographs of each airframe. Treat the museum aircraft as the reference.