This is my contrbution to Captain Kurt's excellent new Nakajima B6N2 Tenzan ('Heavenly Mountain') codenamed "Jill" by the Allies. I'm not sure what Kokutai the machine belongs to, but the only remaining Jill, at Willow Grove NAS IIRC, is painted in this scheme.

The B6N, although a conventional-looking aircraft, was in some respects superior to contemporary Allied torpedo planes. Known as the Tenzan ('Heavenly Mountain'), it was a slender and clean-lined machine with no internal weapons bay.  The torpedo was carried offset to the right,  with the large oil cooler offset to the other side.  The big Mamori engine of the B6N1, driving a four-blade Hamilton-type propeller, underwent severe vibration and overheating. Although it was kept in service it was replaced in production by the the B6N2.  The lower power of the older and well-tried Kasei engine was compensated for by improved streamlining, which produced less drag. 
Tenzans went into action for the first time in late 1943, off Bougainville in the Solomon Islands.  At the huge air-sea Battle of the Philippine Sea the air complement of the Mobile Fleet's carriers included some 80 B6Ns. Towards the end of the war some Tenzans were equipped with radar for night torpedo attacks on Allied shipping. Additionally, many Jills were employed in kamikaze attacks on the US fleet, especially during the Okinawa campaign in April and May of 1945. 

J.P O'Neill
oneill717@hotmail.com


Captain Kurt's original readme:

"EAW - Imperial Japanese Navy Nakajima B6N2 "Jill" torpedo bomber from the 752 NAG, which was a "special attack" (meaning kamikaze operations) group based in Japan in 1945.

The B6N2 was designed to replace the B5N2 Kate torpedo bomber on board Japanese carriers. It had a protracted development period because of engine troubles, and did not begin replacing the Kates until 1944. Most IJN carrier air groups had the Jill as their standard torpedo bomber in time for the battles around the Marianas and Philippines in 1944. After that, the Japanese did not have any carriers operational and so the Jill became a land based aircraft operating from Okinawa and Japan proper. In addition to carrying torpedoes, many were used as bombers as well as kamikaze aircraft.

I developed this model from the PAW1942 Kate 3DZ. It is for use in JU87 slot of the ECAPanel by Charles Gunst. There is an additional skin choice for 653 Naval Air Group (NAG or Kokutai), Second Battle of the Philippine Sea Oct, 1944 on board the carrier Zuikaku. 

To use place the *.3DZ, and *.tpc files in your EAW folder. Open ECAPanel after placing the files in your folder and select B6N2 in the JU87 slot window.

Cheers

Captain Kurt
July 2004"