ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 193036
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| Date: | Saturday 23 January 1943 |
| Time: | 23:05 |
| Type: | Mitsubishi G4M (Betty) |
| Owner/operator: | Imperial Japanese Navy |
| Registration: | |
| MSN: | |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 7 |
| Aircraft damage: | Destroyed |
| Location: | 15 mi off Vangunu Island, Western -
 Solomon Islands
|
| Phase: | En route |
| Nature: | Military |
| Departure airport: | |
On 23 January 1943, fifteen G4Ms of 751 Kokutai took off from Kavieng late in the afternoon to raid Guadalcanal. Three apparently got lost and returned to base after jettisoning their bombs. Arriving over Henderson Field at 2205 hrs, two three-plane shotai dropped sixty or more 133-pound bombs, causing slight damage. Another shotai paused briefly at Munda before reaching the Florida Islands and dropping thirty bombs on the Tulagi anchorage. The last three Bettys hit a nearby target, possibly the PT-boat base at Purvis Bay. The bombers also strafed their targets, spraying a total of 6,060 rounds of ammo. during the raid.
One bomber was lost on the way back. A G4M from the first shotai was forced down by the weather and radioed at 2305 hrs that it was ditching some fifteen miles off Vangunu Island. All seven crewmen survived and made landfall on Mbulo Island at the eastern end of the New Georgia group. There they waited on the coast, by the mouth of a small creek, until a flying boat, escorted by a dozen Zeros of 253 Kokutai, landed offshore on 27 January to pick them up.
Sources:
“Operation Ke: The Cactus Air Force and the Japanese Withdrawal from Guadalcanal”, by Roger Letourneau, Dennis Letourneau. ISBN 1-59114-446-5
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vangunu
http://wikimapia.org/#lang=en&lat=-8.630000&lon=158.000000&z=9&m=b
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 23-Jan-2017 21:38 | Laurent Rizzotti | Added |
| 17-Aug-2018 06:11 | angels one five | Updated [Aircraft type, Narrative] |
| 30-Nov-2021 00:17 | Ron Averes | Updated [Aircraft type, Operator, Location] |
| 05-Jun-2022 03:17 | Ron Averes | Updated [Aircraft type] |
| 10-Jul-2022 22:18 | Ron Averes | Updated [Aircraft type] |
| 02-Jul-2023 02:27 | Ron Averes | Updated [[Aircraft type]] |
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