page_title: Yokosuka P1Y
section_title: Operational history
hierarchical_section_title: Yokosuka P1Y / Operational history
caption_attribution_description: English: Yokosuka P1Y "Frances" shot down next to USS Ommaney Bay (CVE-79) by 0945 on December 15, 1944. (USS Natoma Bay (CVE-62) Logbook Project)
context_page_description: The Yokosuka P1Y Ginga was a twin-engine, land-based bomber developed for the Japanese Imperial Navy in World War II. It was the successor to the Mitsubishi G4M and given the Allied reporting name "Frances".
context_section_description: The first flight was in August 1943. Nakajima manufactured 1,002 examples, which were operated by five Kōkūtai (Air Groups), and acted as land-based medium and torpedo bombers from airfields in China, Taiwan, the Mariana Islands, the Philippines, the Ryukyu Islands, Shikoku, and Kyūshū. During the last stages of the war the P1Y was used as a kamikaze aircraft against the United States Navy during the Okinawa Campaign in Operation Tan No. 2.
  A night fighter version, the P1Y2-S Kyokko (極光, "Aurora"), with Mitsubishi Kasei engines, was equipped with radar and Schräge Musik-style upward-firing as well as forward-firing 20 mm cannon. A total of 96 were produced by Kawanishi, but due to inadequate high-altitude performance against the B-29 Superfortress, many were converted back to Ginga bombers.
caption: Yokosuka P1Y "Frances" shot down next to USS Ommaney Bay (CVE-79) by 0945 on December 15, 1944.[4]
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