Mansyū Ki-98d Ruby

[comrade harps]

Mansyū Ki-98d Ruby
4th Mitate Special Attack Group, Imperial Home Defence Command
Matsumoto, Japan, 1 April 1946




In addition to the baseline attack version, which entered production as the Ki-98a, the IJA recognised the type's potential for other roles. Responsibility for these specialised versions was contracted to the Honshu-based firm of Kokusai, who built three Ki-98b photo reconnaissance aircraft, nine Ki-98c night fighters with the centimetric Ta-Ki 5 radar and four 20mm cannon (two in a ventral pannier and two in the upper fuselage with forward inclined mounts) and six Ki-98d torpedo bombers with the Ta-Ki 6 centimetric surface search radar. Both the c and d models featured an identical blunt-shaped radome made of fiberglass, although the antenna dish of the Ta-Ki 6 was larger than the Ta-Ki 5's. Relying on speed and maneuverability for defence, Ki-98d was unusual in not having any defensive or offensive armament other its externally mounted bomb or torpedo ordnance. The mentality that lead to the decision not to install guns or cannon and not even external lighting on the Ki-98d also lead to another variant of the basic design, the Ki-98-II. A dedicated special attack version, the Ki-98-II featured a nose-mounted shaped charge warhead and jettisonable take-off gear. Although proposed in January 1945 and ordered into mass production in March, none had been completed by the time all Ki-98 production was terminated in February 1946. By then the last of 96 Ki-89as had been delivered by Mansyu in August 1945 and emphasis had moved to lighter, short-range special attack aircraft.




By the time of Operation Coronet the Japanese armed forces defending the Home Islands were organised into the Imperial Home Defence Command, which effectively combined the Army and Navy into a joint force. One result was the assignment of the six Ki-98d torpedo bombers to the 4th Mitate Special Attack Group, which had previously been a Navy unit. Held in reserve until the invasion of Honshu, the unit's strength had nonetheless been weakened by training accidents and Allied air strikes,  with onr Ki-98d destroyed during a training flight and two written-off as the result of a bombing. Of the three remaining, two carried torpedos and one was fitted with a No.50 Model 2 armor-piercing bomb (as seen here) as they went into battle against the invasion fleet on the evening of 1 April 1946.




Escorted by fighters and part of a larger strike package of kamikaze aircraft, the plan was for the three to use their radars to identify the largest enemy warships and target them, although only two had working radars. Hounded by fighters and flak, one of the torpedo-carrying planes was hit and took aim at a nearby ship, the  Haskell-class attack transport, USS McCracken (APA-198), striking amidships and causing it to sink with the loss of 136 lives. The remaining torpedo carrier and the bomb plane meanwhile flew on to target USS Wake Island, an escort carrier that had already been struck by a kamikaze and was listing to port. Instead of dropping their loads, both Ruby pilots flew direct at the ship, the torpedo plane falling short as it disintegrated amid a hail of flak, but the bomb plane struck at the stern, it's bomb flying into the aft hangar space. The ship survived but had to be towed out the fight after the loss of 83 lives.




The Allies codenamed the Ki-98 Ruby.

[Old Wombat]

Nice work!

[Dizzyfugu]

That's looking very cool! 
What went into it?

[zenrat]

 

[comrade harps]

That's looking very cool! 
What went into it?

Blohm & Voss P.178 night fighter nose gear and fuselage with Ta 154 main wings, engines, main gear and prop hubs and A6M Zero propellers. Bomb from Airfix Kate and exhausts from Airfix Lancaster.

[zenrat]

I thought I recognised Moskito parts.

[NARSES2]

That looks good 

[comrade harps]

I thought I recognised Moskito parts.

Well spotted!