A5M Claude
A5M is a Japanese carrier based fighter aircraft manufactured by Mitsubishi. The allied code name was Claude.
Almost all A5M Claudes have open cockpits, though a closed cockpit was tried but wasn’t favorable among Navy aviators. All A5Ms had fixed, non-retractable undercarriage with wheel spats.
By early 1937, A5M Claude entered service and saw action during the Second Sino-Japanese War and aerial battles with Chinese Air Force’s Boeing P-26C Model 281 “Peashooters”. There were a number of A5Ms still in service at the beginning of World War II. The A5M was believed to have been the current primary Navy fighter, but it was replaced by the A6M Zero on first-line aircraft carriers and with the Tainan Air Group. The A5M was continuously used by other Japanese carriers and air groups until production of the A6M caught up with demand.
On May 7, 1942, A5M Claude’s last combat action took place at the Battle of the Coral Sea, when two A5Ms and four A6Ms of the Japanese carrier Shoho fought against the US planes that sunk their carrier. In the closing months of the war, most remaining airframes were used for kamikaze attacks.
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