| Plane type & model |
Carrier-based dive bomber (D3 A1) |
The Val (as the american nicknamed the plane) was soon definited as the Stuka of the Pacific and remained for a long time as the principal dive bomber of the Japanese Navy. Designed and realized in 1936 to substitute its predecessor, the D1A biplane, after accurate studies on German dive bombers He 66, He 70 and He 74, this plane really presented a Stuka-like design, also if it was of more harmonious lines. It was characterized by a low-wing profile and by the entirely metallic structure. The prototype, after some corrections, won the confrontation with another Nakajima project, and was ordered for series production in 1939, as Embarked-Bomber Model 11 Type 99. The Val was in a primary role in the Pacific : it partecipated to Pearl Harbor attack, then in the April 1942 dealt a blowing punch to the Far East British Navy by sunking in 10 minutes the H.M.S Hermes carrier. Only after the Coral Sea battle it encountered fierce adversaries and from the Midway battle its primary role began to decline. A certain number of these plane partecipated, in the last part of the war, to Kamikaze attacks. |
