The Caged Eagles

Superior, Wisconsin may not rival Sarasota, Florida as a mid-winter hot spot, but it's where I'd like to be on the morning of Saturday, January 29. At 10 AM on that day, Jim Hencinski of the Richard I. Bong Veterans Historical Center will deliver a lecture called "The Caged Eagles: American Warplanes in Japanese Service." (Many thanks to Ron Darner, a regular contributor to CR4's Aerospace Blog, for bringing this program to my attention.)

Captured Combat Aircraft

The following description of Jim Hencinski's lecture is from the Bong Center's website.

"It is a little known fact that Japan used more than 1500 transport planes and trainers during World War II that were originally designed in the 1930s by American aircraft companies like Lockheed, Douglas and North American Aviation. A sizable number of U.S. military combat aircraft were also captured and flown by the Japanese during the war including examples of the Curtiss P-40 Warhawk, the North American P-51 Mustang, the Grumman F6F Hellcat and at least three Boeing B-17 Flying Fortresses.

Jim's presentation uses photographs and newly discovered information from rarely seen Japanese sources to tell the fascinating story behind these forgotten American aircraft and how they came to be turned against the U.S. in the Pacific between 1941 and 1945."

Sounds like there will be plenty of information for some blog entries there.

About the Bong Center

Named after Richard Ira Bong, the son of a Swedish immigrant who became the U.S. Army Air Corps' "Ace of Aces" during World War II, the Center is a self-described "educational resource that preserves the tangible legacy of veterans and their home front supporters". Current exhibits include a Kasei Model 15 aircraft engine recovered from Wake Island and "unique pieces of wheeled history" such as a 1942 Snow Weasel a 1944 Snow Tractor.