Fall 2026 Militaria and Aviation Auction
Lot 179:
Description
Imperial Japanese Navy Type 4 Flight Navigation Computer, Sokkisha Co., Ltd., No. 404475 – Named War-Trophy Bring-Back Hand-Inscribed to USAAF Lt. Col. Robert G. Welman, 69th Troop Carrier Squadron, 433rd Troop Carrier Group Offered here is a scarce, positively named example of the Imperial Japanese Navy’s standard kneeboard-mounted flight navigation computer (), manufactured by Sokkisha Co., Ltd. of Tokyo and stamped with serial number 404475 on its maker’s data plate. The instrument’s reverse aluminum base is hand-scratched twice with the name of its American owner – "Robert G. Welman" in cursive with a directional arrow, and "ROBERT G. WELMAN" again in block capitals near the hinge – identifying it as a personal bring-back tied to a documented USAAF officer. No separate published biography of Welman has been located; his service and this souvenir’s likely circumstances rest on his official military record and the physical evidence of the instrument itself. Robert G. Welman (1919-1974) was, per a contemporary Arizona newspaper announcement of his 1942 marriage to Mildred Hanna, a civilian flight instructor at Thunderbird Field before entering the U.S. Army Air Forces on 28 July 1943. His VA headstone application records service with the 69th Troop Carrier Squadron, 433rd Troop Carrier Group – a C-47 unit of the Fifth Air Force that hauled troops, supplies, and wounded through the New Guinea campaign, supported the Philippines liberation, and took part in the airlift buildup into occupied Japan at war’s end. It was likely in this final phase, amid the flood of surrendered Japanese aviation equipment passing through American hands in 1945, that Welman acquired this Japanese naval flight computer and scratched his name into its base, as many returning airmen did with their war souvenirs. He was discharged 26 May 1946 as a Lieutenant Colonel and is buried, per his headstone application and grave marker, at East Resthaven Park Cemetery, Phoenix, Arizona, alongside his wife. The instrument itself is the standard folding kneeboard pattern: a black-enameled aluminum lid opens to reveal a rotatable circular slide-rule with true airspeed, altitude, and temperature-correction scales printed in kanji; the lower base carries a rotating azimuth ring calibrated to compass points over a wind-drift and groundspeed plotting grid beneath an aged but legible celluloid window. The maker’s data plate reads clearly with the Type 4 designation, serial 404475, and the Sokkisha company mark, though the Showa-year field is only partially legible in photographs. The reverse retains its original folding leg-strap mounting hardware for cockpit use. Condition is honest and combat-veteran throughout: the lid shows substantial scattered paint loss, scratching, and edge wear consistent with genuine field handling; the interior dials, plotting grid, hinge, adjustment knobs, and clasp remain intact and fully functional. Photographs of Welman’s VA headstone application, a wartime newspaper clipping of his marriage, and his grave marker accompany this listing as research documentation supporting the named attribution. A rare, positively named Pacific Theater bring-back that ties a serialized Imperial Japanese Navy flight instrument directly to a documented USAAF troop-carrier officer of the New Guinea, Philippines, and Japan-occupation campaigns.
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