Hobby Master 1/72 Air Power Series
HA2014
B5N2 Type 97 "Kate" AII-3II, Lt. Ichiro Kitajima, IJN Carrier Kaga, Dec 1941 "Pearl Harbor first wave attack"
 
General Background
When Japan entered WWII the B5N Kate was the standard torpedo bomber and sank more Allied ships than any other type of Japanese aircraft. B5N2's played the main role in sinking the carrier Lexington at Coral Sea,Yorktown at Midway and Hornet at the Battle of Santa Cruz in October 1942. There were 1,150 B5N1 and B5N2 Torpedo Bombers produced but by 1944 the Kate had been replaced by the B6N "Jill". The Kate ended its service being used for Kamikaze attacks leaving no surviving examples. 
 
The Aircraft 
In the first wave attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 the group leader of the Japanese aircraft carrier Kaga was Lt. Ichiro Kitajima flying his Nakajima B5N2 torpedo bomber AII-3II. In all 40 B5N1 Kates and 49 B5N2 Kates took part in the initial raid with 54 more B5N2s arriving in the second wave along with 26 Aichi D3A Val dive bombers. When it was over Japan had sunk the USS Arizona, USS Oklahoma, USS West Virginia and USS California, USS Nevada sinking.