Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Betty bombers during an air raid over Darwin, Australia. In its first year of combat the G4M was a success. They bombed the U.S. Army air base Clark Field, Philippines on 8 December 1941. The G4M was instrumental in sinking HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse two days later.
Yamamoto’s weapon of choice was the torpedo, and the Betty was first and foremost a torpedo bomber, carrying a single 1,890-pound Type 91 tin fish—the world’s most accurate and powerful aerial torpedo right up until the end of the war.
It was Nell’s successor—the Mitsubishi G4M or “Betty”—that went on to become one of the most famous Japanese aircraft ever produced. Serving in almost every Pacific battle in every role imaginable, the G4M became a powerful symbol of Japanese strength and airpower second only to the vaunted Zero.
A burning Japanese Mitsubishi G4M (Allied code Betty) bomber buring during an attack by US planes, probably in the southwest Pacific, ca. 1943-1945.
It was codenamed Betty by the Allies. It was built in greater numbers than any other Japanese bomber and it became the most famous Japanese bomber of World War II. When it first appeared west of the Gilbert Islands, the Allies were surprised and thought that the bombers were carrier based.
The Japanese built more of them than any other bomber during World War II. From the first day of war until after the surrender, BETTY bombers saw service throughout the Pacific and Indian Oceans.
The ‘Betty’, as the Mitsubishi bomber was called in the Allied code, proved itself an excellent combat aircraft on all fronts. Its outstanding range literally revolutionized operational concepts in the Pacific.
On August 19, 1945 two Betty bombers took off from Tokyo with the Japanese delegation. Both planes were kept under close watch by constant U.S. Army Air Force escorts due to concerns that the delegates might attempt a kamikaze mission under the color of a flag of truce.
Few would know it by its official designation, the Navy Type 1 Attack Bomber. The Allies called it the BETTY but the men that flew the airplane nicknamed it the 'Hamaki,' Japanese for cigar, a reference to the airplane's rotund, cigar-shaped fuselage.
It was the most famous Japanese bomber of the war, and it was deployed in nearly every battle in the Pacific. At the beginning of its career, it attacked two of the most powerful ships in the...