Jacob Terlouw has very kindly shared this image of a pair of derelict 381 Ku A5M 'Claude' fighters photographed at Tebrau in Malaya post war. which comes from a very old Airfix magazine (issue date unfortunately unknown). Jacob confirmed the location with a nifty bit of detective work by comparing photos of the same aircraft offered on eBay. The Claude in the background, photographed from the front (below), reveals a small number '31' in white on the lower cowling lip, so these two are BI-31 and B1-32.
The B1 code was used by 381 Ku (13th Air Fleet, 10th Area Fleet) to designate fighters, whilst a B2 code was used to designate trainers. The latter is confirmed by a photo of a derelict K5Y 'Willow' at the same location with tail code B2-03. This means that however the two 'Claudes' were deployed operationally they were maintained as fighters and not as trainers. 381 Ku also operated A6M2-K trainers, A6M2 and A6M5 fighters and Raiden fighters from Singapore airfields. A model of A6M2 BI-12 made by Koh Tse Hsien of Singapore was shown at the blog here in August 2023. Tebrau is just north of Singapore on the Malaysian mainland.
B1-32 appears to have a complete upper surface scheme of very chalked, matted and faded green (?) with no indication of anti-glare paint or apparently the usual blue-black cowling. The data plate and hinomaru border appear to be bare metal, perhaps from masking off before the camouflage paint was applied. The hinomaru on the upper wings appear to have their borders overpainted with a dark colour. B1-31 appears to have the remnants of a dark painted cowling where the camouflage has peeled away and both aircraft have broad yellow wing leading edge IFF strips. The prop blades have the twin yellow tip stripes so were probably dark brown, also show considerable wear. The spatted undercarriage appears to have been camouflaged with the upper surface paint. Note that the tail code for BI-32 has been applied level with the ground position rather than horizontal to the airframe line. These aircraft would be interesting to model in the context of their deployment and in schemes different from those usually associated with the type, with challenging opportunity to represent the wear and tear.
The 13th Air Fleet also had under command 936 Ku at Seletar, Singapore with 17 'Jake' and 7 'Pete', as well as the Malay Airfield Unit which controlled all IJNAF airfields in Malaya.
With special thanks to Jacob for sharing these images.
Image credit: B1-32 Airfix Magazine via Jacon Terlouw; BI-31 eBay via Jacob Terlouw.
2 comments:
Thanks for these pics, Jacob and Nick. I don't remember ever seeing them. Excellent sleuthing on the part of you both; these look like they had been in situ quite a long time.
Very interesting information. Thanks for the article and sharing. A5M is a rather strange "fighter" for the end of War.
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