Nakajima A6M2-N Rufe in French Service
France operated a single Nakajima A6M2-N Rufe, the floatplane version of the Mitsubishi A6M2 Zero fighter. This particular plane had belonged to the 934th Naval Air Group of the JNAF during WWII and ended the war at Surabaya in the Dutch Indies. From there it was flown by the British to Singapore, and then to an RAF base at Tebrau in Malaya where it was evaluated by by ATAIU-SEA.
In September 1945 it was donated to France and flown to Cat Lai, French Indochina. During the Rufe’s first operational mission on 19 February 1946, it crashed near Rach Ba Sang.