Aichi D3A1 Type 99 Model 22 “Val”

Aichi D3A1 Type 99 Model 22 “Val” Imperial Japanese Navy Spring 1942.

The first prototype of the D3A1 was completed in December 1937, and 4 years later 129 of these carrier-based bombers were the first Japanese aircraft to drop bombs on American targets, at Pearl Harbor. D3As took part in all major Japanese carrier operations in the first ten months of the war but were obsolescent and replaced in first-line units by August 1942. Code-named 'Val" by the Allies, most of the remaining aircraft were employed as kamikazes late in the war.