Betty Bomber - Truk Lagoon June 2024

‘Betty’ was the code designation for the Mitsubishi G 4 M bomber, was used by the Japanese Navy mainly as a tactical strike plane, but it could also be used to drop torpedoes against surface ships. In the early days of the Second World War Japan had no independent Air Force, so the Navy pushed the whole project through and got mass production started in the early 1940’s. By all accounts she was a good airplane, with a long range which revolutionized air operations by the Japanese in the Pacific. At first she was well liked by her pilots, but soon she became known as the ‘flying cigar’ partly because of her shape, and partly because her fuel tanks were unprotected, and so when she was hit they would immediately burst into flames.
In just 65 feet of seawater, the Betty rests relatively intact though the nose section is heavily damaged. Her engines were likely running when she hit the water "low and slow" as they detached and lie a couple of hundred feet away.
The Betty Bomber is fairly clean of growth after 80 years. The aluminum airframe does not provide a good platform for marine growth.