*** UPDATES ****

Thanks Martin for fixing the bug that was affecting this thread. It appears to be working just fine now.

I found a very cool picture which shows exactly what I needed…………. It shows Koga’s Zero shortly after it was recovered. It looks as if it’s being disassembled by US Servicemen. The rudder is off the plane, but you can clearly see there does not appear to be any yellow on the remaining fin assembly. There does however appear to be a lighter colored single stripe at the base of the fin. It appears to possibly be white and could have been over painted with “Ame-Iro” Gray. This possible stripe area appears very faint, almost non existent. Sadly, there is also damage to the picture in this area.

The picture damage may simply be something that happened to the photo over the years, or work of a wartime censor.

Then (if you look closely), you will see what looks like a single wide stripe that has been over painted in what also looks like Ame-Iro Gray. The underlying color appears to be very light, possibly white.

If this is true, then it could be possible that this particular A6M was “recycled” from another Japanese Navy Carrier ?

If it’s indeed a single white stripe that was painted over, this would denote the carrier “Shokaku”.

I have a theory about this………………………….

The Shokaku planes had rudder call numbers and letters that started with “EI”. (not too far off from “DI” as on this plane as it was found on Akutan Island.

The Shokaku participated in the Pearl Harbor attack. It had 15 Mitsubishi A6M-2 Zeros on board during the attack, and was part of the 5th Carrier Division at the time. After the Pearl Harbor attack, the Shokaku participated in numerous Naval battles and raids.

Here are some of the battles the Shokaku participated in after Pear Harbor:
Rabaul, Jan. 1942
Indian Ocean Raids, from March – April 1942
Battle of Coral Sea (severely damaged by planes from the Lexington and Yorktown on May 8th, 1942)

Then the Shokaku returned to Japan for repairs. It arrived in Kure Japan on May 17th, 1942. Kure is very close to Hiroshima. When the Shokaku was in Japan, so was the Ryojo. In fact the Ryujo was in Mutsu Bay in Japan on May 25th, 1942. Mutsu Bay is in the Northern part of Japan, approximately 600 miles away from Kure.

It is theoretically possible that the Koga Zero was transferred from the Shokaku to the Ryuho during this time. It could have been done to replace losses and to prepare the Ryuho for the upcoming Aleutian Campaign. The Ryuho had 12 A6M-2 Zeros assigned to it.

It makes total sense……………

This is what makes me think it’s possible that the “Koga” Zero could have initially been assigned to the Shokaku before flying from the Ryujo over the Aleutians. If this is true, the plane could have participated in numerous historically significant attacks, including the Indian Ocean raids AND the Coral Sea…………..

The "Koga Zero" was built after the attacks on Pearl Harbor and Rabaul, since it was completed on February 19th, 1942.

The Shokaku was later sunk by a US submarine, the USS Cavalla, on 19 June, 1944. She went down with 1272 crew members aboard during the Battle of the Philippine Sea. She was hit by at least 3 torpedoes, (possibly 4).

Also my hypothesis for flight leaders all having planes that ended in either a “0” or a “01” was definitely wrong…………… I found several other photos that show this.

So after finding this picture, I’ve decided to leave my plane as is………………… without the yellow stripes.