Aichi D3A
The Aichi D3A (Allied codename "Val") was the Imperial Japanese Navy's principal carrier dive bomber of the Second World War. First flown in January 1938, it attacked Pearl Harbor in December 1941 and was credited with sinking more Allied tonnage than any other Axis aircraft. Increasingly flown from land bases as the war turned, it remained in combat to the end, many of its last sorties as kamikaze attacks. Nearly 1,500 were built; almost none survived the war, and a single D3A2 is being restored to fly in California.
Why It Mattered
The Aichi D3A, known to the Allies by the codename "Val", was the Imperial Japanese Navy's standard carrier dive bomber when the Pacific war began. On 7 December 1941, 126 D3As left their carriers for the attack on Pearl Harbor, and the type was the first Japanese aircraft to bomb United States shipping in the Second World War. From there its reach ran from the Philippines to Australia and into the Indian Ocean, where in April 1942 it was credited with sinking the carrier HMS Hermes and two cruisers, HMS Cornwall and HMS Dorsetshire. By the end of the war the D3A had been credited with sinking more tonnage than any other Axis aircraft.
Design Notes
Design of the D3A began in 1936, when the Imperial Japanese Navy invited bids to replace its aging D1A biplane dive bombers. Aichi's answer was an all-metal, low-wing monoplane powered by a 1,000 hp radial engine, with an elliptical wing inspired by the German Heinkel He 70 and dive brakes similar to those of the Junkers Ju 87. It kept fixed, spatted landing gear: the aircraft flew slowly enough that the drag was no serious penalty, and fixed gear saved weight and maintenance. The prototype first flew in January 1938, but the results were disappointing: it was underpowered, unstable in turns, and its dive brakes vibrated excessively. A second prototype, with a more powerful Mitsubishi Kinsei engine, an enlarged vertical tail, revised wing leading edges and strengthened dive brakes, proved a much better aircraft. In December 1939 the Navy ordered the D3A into production as the Type 99 Carrier Bomber Model 11. Its armament was a single 250 kg bomb slung under the fuselage, two 60 kg bombs under the wings, and three 7.7 mm machine guns, one of them worked by the rear gunner. Nearly 1,500 D3As were built in all.
Operational History
The D3A saw its combat debut in November 1939, flying from land bases at Haikou on Hainan during the Second Sino-Japanese War. It entered service with the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service in 1940, quickly displacing the older D1A from frontline service. On 7 December 1941, 126 D3As took part in the attack on Pearl Harbor. In April 1942, during the raid into the Indian Ocean, D3As were credited with sinking HMS Cornwall, HMS Dorsetshire and HMS Hermes. At the Battle of the Coral Sea the following month, D3A1s scored three hits on the carrier USS Yorktown and were credited with sinking a destroyer and a tanker. From August 1942 an improved model, the D3A2, appeared with a larger 1,300 hp engine and increased fuel capacity. By 1943 the newer Yokosuka D4Y was steadily replacing the D3A on the remaining fleet carriers, and the Val increasingly served from land bases across the Pacific. In the Battle of the Marianas in June 1944, twenty-seven D3A2s flew into the battle and all were shot down, without the type scoring a single hit. The D3A remained in combat to the very end of the war, many of its final sorties flown as kamikaze attacks.
Afterlife
When Japan surrendered, no D3A was set aside for preservation: surviving intact aircraft were cut up and melted down for scrap. The most complete survivor is a D3A2 recovered as a wreck from Balalae Island in 1968, rebuilt in Canada and flown again in November 1969. Donated to the Canadian National Aviation Museum, it was acquired by the Planes of Fame Air Museum at Chino, California, in 1983. Planes of Fame is restoring the aircraft to flight status; finished, it will be the only flyable Val in the world. Two unrestored wrecks are displayed by the National Museum of the Pacific War in Texas, and in 2022 the Pearl Harbor Aviation Museum took in another wreck recovered from the South Pacific.