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Re: Two Unidentified 18 Cylinder Engines located near the Forbidden Island of Rumung
Last year we received information from various Yapese dive guides about the wreckage of a plane near the forbidden island of Rumung north of Yap. We received permission to view the crash site this year. When we arrived at the crash site we found two 18 cylinder engines about 40 feet apart. One of the engines still had it's props intact. During low tide one of the props sticks above the water. The rest of the plane has been destroyed by the surf and storms over the years. Based on the engines and the props I believe the wreckage is from a Japanese plane.
Schubert
Senior Missing Air Crew Member
Member # 26
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A list of two engine Japanese planes with eighteen cylinder engines. A good as place as any to start. Mitsubishi Ki-67 "Peggy" 698 built " Ki-109 modified Ki-67 22 built Rikugun Ki-93 2 prototypes built Tachikawa Ki-70 "Clara" 3 built Tachikawa Ki-74 "Patsy" 16 built Yokosuka P1Y Ginga "Francis" Tim Schubert
Posts: 20 | From: Albany Oregon | Registered: May 2006
| Logged: 67.171.195.28
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Almost every engine we found on Yap this year was 18 cylinders. I had to re-count the cylinder's on each engine numerous times thinking some of the engines had to be the more common Japanese 14 cylinders. I'm still puzzled about all the 18 cylinder Japanese engines we discovered in various locations.
Posts: 682 | From: Cameron, Wisconsin | Registered: Dec 2004
| Logged: 63.231.183.145
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I have added additional pictures to this page including underwater picture. Please review the engine and prop and let me know if anyone can id the type of engine (Japanese or American).
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Yukitoshi from Japan likely helped us solve this crash site. The site is likely the wreckage of a Japanese P1Y Ginga plane. Information about the Ginga's can be found at http://www.combinedfleet.com/Tan%20No.%202.htm. Also, see Yukitoshi email below.
In shot, I believe Yukitoshi is correct that the crash site we found near the northern “Forbidden Island of Rumung” is likely one of the P1Y Gingas. If you look at the historic picture (see link below) and one of the pictures we took in September you will see that the location lines up (same distance off shore and direction of the wreckage):
> The Emilys were divided into two units. The first unit consisted of three flying boats, including the weather reconnaissance flying boat, and the second unit consisted of two planes.
The first unit was one H8K (weather reconnaissance). The second unit was two H8K (pathfinders).
> One of the second lead unit's H8Ks took off at 0800.
Lt.(j.g.) Sugita's H8K. His airplane went missing after the takeoff.
> One of the H8K2 Emily pathfinders disappeared and six P1Y Ginga bombers had to turn back to Kanoya.
Sugita's H8K was not able to join P1Ys. There are no aircrafts equivalent to "six P1Y" of the sentence.
> Four P1Ys of the Special Attack Unit crash-landed on Yap, possibly due to an unreliable new type radio-altimeter installed on the Gingas.
They were not four P1Ys. There were three P1Ys which arrived at Yap... One P1Y landed at the airfield. One P1Y failed in landing to an airfield, and was damaged. One P1Y ditched.
> After seeing the Gingas off over Yap, Warrant Officer Nagamine Goro’s H8K went to Meleyon.
This H8K's airplane commander was Ens. Komorimiya. W/O Nagamine was pilot. Komorimiya's H8K was separated from seventeen P1Ys. P1Ys went to Ulithi. "Meleyon" is Woleai Atoll.
24 P1Ys takeoff. 5 P1Ys turn back. 2 P1Ys ditched. 17 P1Ys reached near Ulithi. - 1 P1Y rammed to USS Randolph. - 1 P1Y rammed to hill. - 12 P1Ys ditched? (MIA) - 3 P1Ys to Yap.
The photo on your website: http://www.missingaircrew.com/images/micr/YPC07004.jpg This has a high possibility of being an P1Y from Ulithi. And it is thought that it is also the same as the airplane photoed this time.
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Additional information has been posted at the link below regarding the engines and wreckage we found near Rumung, Yap in September. The wreckage and crash site is from a Japanese P1Y Ginga "Frances" bomber.
The plane was one of twenty-four Yokosuka P1Y Ginga "Frances" attack bombers led by Lt Kuromaru Naoto (67th) took off on a one-way "tokko" (suicide) mission to Ulithi in March 1945. Each Ginga carried a single 1,764-lb bomb. Eight hours after take off the Azusa Special Attack Unit descended through the overcast and due to a navigational error and unexpected head winds, they found themselves near Yap Island. Three P1Ys of the Special Attack Unit arrived at Yap. One P1Y landed at the airfield. One P1Y failed was damaged while attempting to land at the airfield and one P1Y ditched off of Rumung (The plane we found). The page includes a picture of the plane in the water near Rumung that was taken after the war.
Three crew members were on the P1Y that ditched nearf Rumung; however, two crew members were shot by the garrison of Yap at Rumung when the P1Y's arrived at night and the soldiers thought the aircraft was American.
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