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"The
One and Only..." ...foreign military aircraft to bomb the mainland of the United States, was this Yokusuka E14 Y1 floatplane (codenamed "Glen" by the allies), on September 9th, 1942. The pilot was WFO Nobuo Fujita. The aim of the mission was to set fire to the forests of
Southern Oregon - an ambitious aim when all you have is two 170kg bombs and rain has been falling throughout the night before !
However....the plane was launched from one of Japan's large aircraft carrying submarines, the I25 (Commander - Meiji Tagami) - which possibly had better things it could have been doing ! However....the escapade was something of a propaganda coup for Japan, nobody was hurt, the small fires soon fizzled out, and a good time was had by all! In addition, Fujita most surely must have had the best 'bragging rights' in Japan! He probably dined out on this one for years!
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The I25 was one of the IJN's "Type B" boats, built by Mitsubishi in their Kobe yard. Her statistics are interesting when compared with a typical Type VII or Type IX U-Boat. With a displacement of 2589 tons (3654, submerged), a length of almost 357 feet, a complement of 101, armament consisting of a 5.5" deck gun, 2/25mm guns and a floatplane - in addition to six 21" bow tubes, she was a large boat - but still not as large as the biggest Japanese subs! Of them - more another day...another painting...!
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