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Posted by Craig Bennett on November 8, 2024, 9:52:57, in reply to "IJN Pre-War Carrier Aircraft Markings"
I don't have everything . But I have this. In 1941
the IJN had 9 carriers . These carriers were assigned to carrier divisions or Kaku Sentais.The marking worked like this.Painted in whitish silver
behind the national Insignia was a color band
Red-1st carrier divison
Blue-2nd carrier divison
None -3rd carrier divison
Yellow-4th carrier divison
White -5th carrier divison
The color band or bands indicate divison flagship
with 1 band and with 2 bands indicates 2nd ship
of the divison. Going to the planes tail are additional markings.Assigned letters indicating
carrier divison number
Akagi-A-I- 1st carrier divison
Kaga -A-II-1st carrier divison
Soryu-B-I- 2nd carrier divison
Hiryu-B-II-2nd carrier divison
Ryujo-D-I- 4th carrier divison
Shoho-D-II-4th carrier divison
Taiyo-D-III-3rd carrier divison
Shokaku E-I-5th carrier divison
Zuikakau E_II-5th carrier divison
This is followed by a hyphen and then 3 numbers.
1st number is planes purpose:1-Fighter,2-Dive Bomber and 3-Torpedo Bomber and the last 2 numbers
is the number of the plane assigned to that squadron . What I don't know is how many planes did these squadrons have.Hopthis helps.
Previous Message
Does anyone know what the system the IJN used for pre-war carrier aircraft markings? As far as I know, from around 1925 the individual aircraft aboard each carrier received a character that indicated the carrier and usually three numbers (I have seen some photographs of aircraft with only two numbers). How were these numbers allocated and what was their meaning, i.e., did the first digit designate the type and the successive numbers the position within the unit, or was there some other system?
Thank you,'
Maurice
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