NAKAJIMA G5N SHINZAN "LIZ" OFF SAIPAN
| The following photos were contributed to our site by Ms. Ogawa Reina.
She took them during her vacation to Saipan. It's a fairly famous diving spot
where all the guides tell you that it's the one with the "B-?" wreck.
Sometimes it is referred as a B-17, sometimes a B-29. What is certain is that
the plane had four engines and that it wasn't American. Notice the flash hider
of the machine gun and the seat, not to mention the propeller. Initially, we
thought it was the wreck of a Kawanishi H8K "Emily" but the shape of the machine gun mount
just didn't fit. Finally, in an issue of a Japanese aviation magazine (that is absolutely
impossible to locate at the moment...) similar photos of the same spot appeared with the caption
mentioning that everything points to this airplane being a Nakajima G5N Shinzan!!!
This is, of course, a huge surprise since only 6 airframes were ever built of this unsuccessful airplane
that was based on the Douglas DC-4E. Mike Goodwin also noticed that the engine is a Mitsubishi Kasei,
meaning that this is a G5N2 or G5N2-L So what is this plane doing in Saipan? One possibility is that it was captured at the end of the war, was being transported for evaluation in the U.S.A but for some reason, somebody must have had a changed of mind. Or, it could be that the airplane was shot down over Saipan during a mission to bring supplies to the garrison. Whichever is the case, this is a really rare airplane that is going to waste at the bottom of the sea...After realizing its true type, I promised myself I would lose weight and start taking diving lessons. So hopefully we'll have more photos in the future. Meanwhile we are greatly in debt to Ogawa san. (George E.) (Click on the images for larger versions) |
 |
 |
@ |
 |
 |
