A6M2 'Zero' vs F4F 'Wildcat' - An Unfair Fight in the Pacific?

the a6m2 an icon of the Rising Sun the premier Japanese carrier born Voyager has racked up a fantastical reputation at jail and swift the zero surf is nasty surprise to the Allies we World War two even after defeat this plane sends as perhaps one of the most potent machines of the early years of war in the Pacific pitted against it fighters that buries to the chance with an often popular memory at obsolescence clumsy or an adequate but is this a fair assessment let us compare the a6m2 with the American f4f Wildcat as one of the most classic aerial duels of World War two comparison between these two fighters can teach us valuable lessons not only about the aircraft involved but also of the shifting nature of aerial warfare note that for this comparison all future mentions of the a6m2 and zero referred to the a6m2 of mod 21 in all mentions of the f-4s refer to the f4 f dash 4 unless specifically mentioned also notice that the purpose of this video is not to convince you that one time was better than the other instead it is here to inform you so that you have the knowledge and the context required to make an informed judgment yourself let us start with the basics the a6m2 was a single-engine plane capable of being operated on both land and sea by the used carriers powered by the nakajima Saki 12 a 14-cylinder radial engine that produced just shy of 1,000 horse powers it did not have the strongest power plan of its time however is yours lightweight structure and emphasis on wage hitting during the construction counted this deficiency empty ethics and to wage 3,700 pounds loaded 5,300 pounds overall the plane was fantastically agile and responsive to the pilot there is a caveat attached to this however something will go into later on top speed of the 0 is somewhat disputed factoring together most source in top speed is set somewhere between 330 to 345 miles an hour in his book samurai Japanese a sapporo Sakai States 345 miles an hour basing it own experience with the airplane us tests were done with captured airplanes that needed repairs before the way ever he wants more this obviously influenced aerodynamics we're event a breakdown and just a loss of a valuable trophy us tests were also conducted by using a safe engine setting and the stop going full out with the engine this results in top speeds at fall as low as 280 miles an hour and that's not realistic as such for the purpose of this video I will assume a top speed of around 330 miles an hour with boost and such a figure seems likely and is supported by various sources its service ceiling was around 37,000 feet and its operational range of 1,000 160 miles unheard of at a time for a plane of its kind of to rifle caliber type 97 machine guns or in 680 rounds each and to type 99 - 120-millimeter cannons holding 16 rounds each plane boasted a similar armament to the German tier 409 a meal when flying in the combat the Japanese used to show Tie free airplane formation similar to the standard Vic formation of the time this flight consisted of a one leader and two wingmen just like the pilots from other nations the Japanese quickly noticed that the V was too rigid and inflexible in combat as such next to Germany Japan became one of the first countries to turn our backs on the old way of flying into combat instead a more loose information was posed typically the leader and one link man would fly ahead the distance between these could be up to 200 meters the wingman would also fly slightly higher than the leader the second wingman was even further back and the highest information this way the short I had better fields of view and could concentrate on searching potential targets this information says that further advantages over the standard wick for example allowing pilots to organically adopt line abreast align discern just before attacking an enemy the leader could also opt to keep the third wingman as a higher lookout or cover when engaging in combat the friendship options were on the table to the loose and staggered formation allowed mutual support and covering arcs of fire the short I was definitely better suited to air combat and it was based on in contrast to the zero the f4f wildcat gives the impression of being a brute compacted buff its design radiates strengths over finesse like a zero it could operate on both land and sea as carrier-borne single-engine fighter with 1,200 horsepower out of its cotton Whitney plane could be assumed to outperform the zero in terms of speed this is not the case well the f4f - free was closer to the zero speed you have your F 4 F - 4 was slower and as you clock up only about 318 miles an hour at 19,000 feet compensating this the square horsepower did allow for sturdy heavy construction on a scale the F 4 F hits five thousand seven hundred pounds empty and clear a nearly eight thousand pounds loaded although typical configuration stayed around 7,500 pounds event show modifications on armor and the introduction of self-sealing fuel tanks alone increased the weight by 900 pounds it has a service ceiling of around 34,000 feet and it's ranges only 770 miles on with 6 m2 browning machine guns of 240 rounds per gun the plane had a streamlined armament and was sufficient for the task in the Pacific when war broke out with Japan the US Navy is often reported to having persisted in the use of the increasingly obsolete v-formation with no modifications being made to the status quo well it's true that by the time the European war erupted the favored doctrine remained a good old link it amid some of the experimentation that was conducted by VF 2 and V f5 to Navy squadrons and the eventual decision to stop flying like a few months before Pearl Harbor already in peacetime the Navy has long trial missions of two men flights Spacek two aircraft apart by around 150 feet ample room was created for flexibility and mutual support each quadrant had 18 aircraft set up into three divisions of six it would then be further split up into two plane elements staggering the formation and flying in echelon x' the distance between each slide was about 300 feet before the war broke out se was saturate for developed by Lieutenant John sach apparently inspired by a rudimentary intelligence report on a0 he was one of the few not to ignore or the potential danger taking two elements of two aircraft the planes would be flying in a beam defense position the width would be executed as an enemy fighter approaches should the right element be attacked it would will break left the left element mirrors the move forcing a head-on with the enemy this so it was hoped but either ensure destroyed enemy plane or at least a startled enemy pilot who breaks off the attack if necessary the move could be repeated this move could naturally also be conducted between two aircraft before with the a6m2 against the Wildcat however that was compared to two fighters in more detail and change the more light on their operational capabilities as mentioned the a6m2 has a mixed armament of rifle caliber machine guns and cannons to type 97 machine guns replacing on the engine synchronized with the propeller or they fix some 80 rounds per gun i'd like to produce whicker's class ii machine gun at five a seven point seven x 56 milk are around it could fire a standard ball AP tracer and incendiary ammunition a small 7.7 H around was also available the two type 99 - 120-millimeter cannons were placed in the wings and held 60 rounds each this provided a zero with a good punch on paper if the two 20-millimeter cannons will quickly expended similar to the German mg FF it was a Japanese version of the Oerlikon FF but lighter in weight than the original and its German counterpart it was officially termed as a machine gun firing a 20 x 72 mil RB around it had four different runs th e round had an explosive content of around 11 grams in comparison the German mine shell in the mg FF - M had 20 grams the incendiary round had a feeling of six grams of explosive serving chemicals the tracer held five grams of explosives the AP round held four grams the low muzzle velocity of 600 meters per second made aiming difficult and the overall punch of the specific cannon was lower than over twenty millimeter cannons over time some Japanese pilots even reported to prefer the machine the cannons but this seems to stand mainly out of the early operations where enemy planes gave up easy targets who see us being able to follow every maneuver include to detail their adversary the wildcat had a streamline armored number four and eight a six 12 by 7 m2 Browning's the famous 50 cal firing the twelve point seven times 99 milind its api ammunition had a muzzle velocity of 890 meters per second the FoF - three helpful and fifty rounds per gun allowing for 34 seconds of fire the 240 rounds per gun on the f4 f4 allowed for around 20 seconds as such some pilot opted to omit the additional 250 Cal's in the - for the MA deuce was well-suited to the Pacific Theater in a way that the Japanese we'd never really feel it tough aircraft that could withstand a barrage of shots from this calibre the good rate of fire tightly packed sweater shot enable pilots spray down an enemy aircraft and inflict serious damage with a good lead with a good ammo load the f4f wildcat held enough ammo for most engagement it does did not feature the same problem as a zero that lost most of its ina power once it had expanded its cannon as navy fighters the operational range of both aircraft was paramount here the zero is a clear winner with a range of up to 300 miles further than the Wildcat however both aircraft featured the optional choice of the drop tank on 0 a centerline 330 litre drop tank could be installed boosting its maximum range over incredible 3,000 kilometers that's more than 1,900 miles the f4 f dash 3 held 147 gallons of fuel and had a natural range of up to 840 miles all the f4f - for the sum of it and could only reach around 765 months to wing-mounted 85 gallon drop tanks could be installed propping up the total fuel load to 260 gallons throughout my research I found conflicting information on the maximum range of the f4 x - 4 equipped with drop tanks it seems likely that it could fly depending on the setup for a distance of 1,200 to 1,400 miles some figures quote as much at 1600 miles but at any rate it stays behind there zero could be equipped with a bomb load of 132 pounds with 166 pound bomb six under each wing one five on a fifty pound bomb could potentially be equipped as well the right side could load up to 200 pounds of ordnance 100 pound bomb under each wing overall this was extremely rare from one statistic from 1946 that mentions only 154 tons of ordnance for example in Wildcats assuming that this is a u.s. coin this would mean only about $3,000 were locked from f-4s throughout the war this less than some former formations would drop in a day as such where both planes had the option to load bombs practicality and lethality of these bombs was limited and they we're just seldom used both planes featured an optional storage concession the tips of the a6m2 wings could be folded over decreasing the width of the aircraft by 40 inch to 36 feet for sewing purposes for the f4f stash for the wings could be folded reward decreasing the necessary space for storage by house is allowed fighter squadrons to UM carry us to double their complement of Wildcats and rapidly transport multiple fo FS to the flight that from the carrier it should be noted that the initial clashes between the Allies and the zero were not with the f-4s instead to do all the Buffalo's hurricanes before these P for hundreds and P 49 bore the brunt of the fight on some of these planes had some advantages over the zero initial combat performance was largely poor many reasons were given as to why the Japanese pilots and fighters were so hard performing better with many empty excuses making up the bulk of them some allied personnel even chose to ignore fact and pretended that nothing bad was happening one of the main problems was that allied pilots have been trained in a manner that played into the hands of the Japanese pilot having been drilled in the art of dogfighting but possessing a little combat experience the allied pilot was at the mercy of the battle-hardened Japanese whose plane was simply better in a close quarter dogfight to put things into perspective the pilots on the Japanese carrier groups had an average of durational flight time of 600 to 800 hours including the combat missions they flew in China in Contra in 1939 Navy pilots had only racked up around 200 hours during flight framing and only by 1941 did they benefit by additional training of up to 150 hours in the advanced carrier training groups to make matters worse it was also in 1941 that the Navy abolished the requirement that their carrier pilots be trained in the use of all carried aircraft so fighters dive bombers and torpedo bombers this means that just before the war in the Pacific commenced Navy pilots had only helped the flight time of Japanese pilots very few hours in operational missions and none in combat missions and time they have worked up was distributed between three different types of aircraft US military owes I am able to provide factual data on the zero to its pilot until late 1942 based on a captured Bureau at Akutan Island in June 1942 valuable lessons were drawn from information intelligence summary number 85 it was also surveys like these that served as proof supporting what the pilot that the front lines were saying for some time the zero is a better dog fighter and it cannot be beaten using our conventional method for from the flank and matter of fact I is number 85 the zero fighter has a period maneuverability to all present service type aircraft outstanding characteristic of the zero is a high rate of zoom u.s. service type ships will stall out at the steep angle where the zero has just reached its most movable speed in other words if you follow a zero in a steep climb at low speed you'll rest in pieces it should be remember that these conclusions were drawn from a captured airplane that needed repairs and that due to the lower the next engine setting was lying somewhat slower than it would on the frontlines in fact each American document under zero coats a different speed figure even when the same plane was tested during the tests comparison sites for conducted against the handful of American plane these clearly detailed the strong points of the a6m2 but also gave definite data on the speed neces we are going to focus on the findings in awesome of the f-4s against the f-4s zero is quoted as being superior to the f4f - forth in speeding climb at all altitudes above thousand feet it is superior in service ceiling and range close to sea level the two plates are equal in level speed the zero and the f-4s are equal and dive and of course the latter point is interesting as it seems to be contradictory to sort of the conceptions we have of the zero we will return to this topic soon documents also states there is no comparison between the turn of both airplanes since the zero does it that well and it's not even a contest the conclusions we're as follows the f-4s - four in combats the zero is basically dependent on mutual support and internal protection advantage of the superiority of the f4f in push overs and rolls at high speeds should be taken the document states that beyond the speed of 300 miles an hour which is just below the maximum speed in level flight attainable by the aircraft the zero becomes increasingly sluggish and unresponsive and that it has troubles with negative G maneuvers based on this the recommendations were to never dot Phi the zero say about 300 miles an hour in a slide goes to zero unless one holds a favorable position never follow a climbing zero at slow speeds airplanes expected to fight a zero they also recommended to ditch all non-essential equipment the document does agrees in some point but pilots has responded unfavorably to the increased weight of the F where F - 4 / - 3 it as we noticed it also states that it applies with a zero internal protection was important of course having gone through the findings we're hardly surprised much of the information is in common sense to us based on what we know now in this we are somewhat mirrored by the service pilots that were fighting the zeros in the field however I is number 85 should not be disregarded since this gave concrete black and white information at the behind the frontline personnel could digest and this would serve to assist aircraft designers and theorists at their work ironically I is number 85 was just finished when the Japanese started to subside the a6m2 of the newer a six and three as we will see however by this point the frontline pilots had already come to blows with the Japanese for months racking up valuable experience against a zero let's make our way to the frontline the FoF was not the plane to suffer the brunt of the Japanese offensive instead rooster Buffalo's Hawker hurricane P for these fixes and P forties we're engaged in the fight these initial engagements were largely dominated by the a6m2 while various allied units did find ways to at least deter the japanese fighters in some way most of these machines simply did not allow for anything more than a token resistance or we could go into detail into the first month of fighting one specific Road sums it up pretty well in the campaign lasting less than three months the two Japanese units which never must have more than 220 a 6 and toons defeated Allied forces of some 550 aircraft including 50 booster Buffalo's 24 quarters right interceptors 20 curtiss hawk 75 a seven and 48 Hawker hurricanes some forty p-40s and additional 33 Hawker hurricanes and a few Brewster buffalos at Wake Island in December of 1941 a handful F F 4 F - leaves had their first fights with Japanese zeros most of them were destroyed on the ground without ever made me into the sky to defend the island regardless they are credited with the destruction of at least two zeroes during the operation a one can amp with two of 100 pound bombs is also credited with the kill on the Japanese destroyer his eroge this is probably the first and most famous and only effective use of bombs on a wildcat throughout the whole war roughly half a year before I is number 85 was released these zeroes were starting to increasingly run into wild cats duking it out of the cold sea on May 7th 1942 task force 17 onto an attack on the IgM carrier showroom as the Japanese concentrated their defensive attacks on the incoming torpedo bombers the 8 F 4 F - freeze from VF 42 were left relatively alone of the three zeros in the air one was shot down the next day another division of VF 42 probably six machines once again escorted torpedo bombers in this day were supported by nine mile cut from vf2 on the action that day free wild cats were lost while playing free zeros interestingly the claims of the Japanese pilots amount up to 18 wild cats more than were probably in the air today later in the day the Japanese attack was escorted by 18 zeroes and met by 20 wild cats the wild cats it had to focus their attacks on both the zeros and the incoming attack aircraft had a pretty rough time three planes were lost it seems probable that only one zero wash down in his after-action report Lieutenant Commander Jim flatly states the F 4 F - r efn properly handled can be the enemy carrier-based fighters encountered so far this includes type 0 he goes on to state that the most effective attack is to obtain altitude advantage dive in attack and pull up using speed captured in the dive the old dogfighting of changing tails is not satisfactory and must not be employed when opposed jet VF fighter planes flatly also outlined some tips for his pilots the hints to Navy bf pilots it includes the following statements if you get into a tough spot dive away Luverne violently find the clouds they together the jeff's air discipline is excellent the Japs have a method of creating smoke from their reserves which doesn't mean a thing set them on fire before you take your guns often and of course if you are confused about the last one just remember that when the zero went in to boost its exhaust will show a flame out at 6 smoke for tray of the aircraft it's cause some allied pilots believe zero was hit and was going down when in reality all was fine flatly statements our particular interest because of two reasons first this is sobering assessment of the reality affirming that a Japanese plane how's the trunk cards in a classic engagement on the other hand it also outlines the quintessential changes that we're developing an aerial warfare but flatly probably being one of the first Navy pilots to realize the full extent of it flat these comments were widely distributed among Navy pilots another aspect I want to mention is last week's comments about the dice performance of F or F - speed against a zero here a few months before is number 85 that's as you will remember states to the 0 and the FoF are similar and Di's you flat out comments to the f4f the superior in that aspect I assume at this point that the approximate nature of I is number 85 as the nature of its claim perhaps referring more to the initial dices who is 0 could say on a wild cat for a short period of time in June 1942 over Midway the wild cat and 0 would clash again thatch utilized this wave for the first time forcing his f-4s little head on water four times he and his wingman shot down four zeros his division claimed the number two division only experienced one loss however each aircraft had suffered damage the wild capture ruggedness was making its mark later that day and number five zero kills were claimed to the loss of four Wildcats although it positive kill count had been established well two fighting that day such just like when he had received the first report on the Lyra had only an eye for reality commenting on a day in his after-action report such states it is surprising that any of our pilots returned alive any success against the Japanese zero fighter is not due to the performance of the airplane we fly but is the result of comparatively poor marksmanship of the Japanese stupid mistakes made by a few of their pilots and superior marksmanship and teamwork of some of our pilots on the f4 FZ States the f4 f airplane is pitifully inferior inclined maneuverability and speed end of quote such as common suggests that it Navy's focus on gunnery training was starting to pay off and that his particular precautions had achieved the desired effect yes his comments on the enemy pilots also highlighted another key element the enemy was overconfident or maybe increasingly filled with pilots with limited experience the following actions that Guadalcanal amplified this also over claiming became comment on the side of the Navy a spectacular example of this is on August 24 1942 in VMs two-to-three intercepted attack aircraft and zeros the US pilots claimed 11 bombers and 5 zeros this is Japanese however only lost three bombers n10 and turn they also came 15 wild cats actual losses were free of f-4s US pilots came the number 15 zeroes later that day and two days later we are f-22 free explained the number eight bombers and five zeros only free a6m2 s were actually lost on august 30 14 zeros were claimed although only nine were lost even though the action loss rates of the Japanese were lower than the US believe every loss on the Japanese slides don't leave Japanese fighter pilots ever painted position after grueling training truly making them into expert pilots even before going into combat at the time leaders and requirements placed on them were not realistic in sustaining a fighter force during a full-scale war especially against an enemy that both the numericals mayority in the sky in the book summarize the Barossa Kies discourse on the training regime you're on the wind is telling even though the English translation had quite some hyperbole added to it the fact remained even under the revised and quickening training regimes new pilots were coming in too few and far between to make matters worse the comparative low survivability of the Japanese planes against the American planes prevented many novice pilots from getting away from the site there's nothing but a blue eye and it was fried instead they're playing - in town - damage that an FRS was able to sustain two more comments by US commanders are interesting considering that fos was now holding its own against the zero the first comes from Lieutenant Commander Leroy a censor who commanded via flying when he was told that some of us tests have placed the f-4s - for to be equal in speed to the zero he said that the report was flat wrong Major John Smith commander of BNF - - free at Guadalcanal mentions that they had much more performance than we had I think that is because we just couldn't stay with them at all and dogfight at any altitude as such while the US pilots were able to slowly turn the tide in the f-4s no one was under any illusions the success was attained by a mix of proper tactics good gunnery and disciplined flying in a plane that was able to take a beating until the better plane was not available the wildcat pilot could only go so far it should be mentioned once more that the Navy squadrons had - contextual advantages over other units in the Pacific and Southeast Asia first they were some of the last to engage the zeros and could not draw on some rudimentary reports coming in from the front lines this allows them to get ready ahead of time second the initiative of a few individuals such as Latvian such as well as the comparative success early on against 2-0 gave the Navy pilots confidence this was in many ways half the battle won by 1943 tactics used against Japanese zeros were established with new pilots benefiting from the experience of being the early generation the combat tactics stressed that altitude and a positional advantage had to be attained before any offensive action could be contemplated and that pilots should a disengage and spotting high-flying enemy fighters on an intercept course the sections were instructed in combining firepower on individual targets slashing at the enemy one plane at a time this allowed us Navy to effectively engage the vero as a concluding example let us create a section of two Wildcats against a standard Japanese short die unless pressed the section will attempt to gain altitude advantage or hold off until the tactical advantage can be gained usually 2,000 feet of altitude advantage for in optimal from there this section would concentrate on the highest zero the tail end after gun pass it would extend and reset its positional advantage by loom climbing back to altitude but for the enemy the quieter was destroyed or not mad as little as long as the game's even advised can be successfully reset into the altitude should one zero try to break and climb up the focus would switch through it this way the enemy was continuously forced to act defensively and thus unable to see the favorable position to gain the initiative even though the whole show tire might not be destroyed one or two kills could be obtained - no friendly losses but only as long as no one got cocky to conclude when comparing aircraft in respective kill counts it should be remembered that the fighter fire craft is nothing but a vessel beyond its performance the signal determining factor of success is the pilot this is as true in the Pacific as in Europe or on the Eastern Front regardless of the period we are in while various aircraft in the allied Arsenal were less able to counter the a6m2 the specific trades of the f-4s ensured a competent and disciplined pilots using the right tactics could effectively engage zero units such as the American volunteer group in China or the Navy squadron adapted their tactics and utilize the strong points of their planes where they existed over the Japanese aircraft thus they were successful where offers were not regardless it was not until the next generation of Navy planes those with the f6f hellcat or the f4u Corsair that the Americans had planes it was definitely more suited in a fight against the zero in the settlement between February 1943 and February 1944 601 a6 ends were shot down and the Japanese lost 481 zero pilots this is based on verified Japanese records the Allies lost 486 aircraft in total but 526 air crews lost although these losses are not verified and might be slightly higher in reality an estimated 144 were f4u corsairs 55 were Wildcats 41 were held cats 90 were P 48 Lightning's 62 or P 40s and then we have another four p-47s the rest were attack aircraft slowed planes oh bombers well the zero of this D still had five in it to tie deterrent I hope that you enjoyed this video and learned something from it as usual my sources are in description make sure to share this video with your friends and pass by those flight buttons on your way out if you would like to learn more about a very special German night fighters quadrant the wild horse click here and if you want to learn something about Japanese maybe attack aircraft tactics check out this video by a military history visualised as always have a great day good hunting and see on the sky

Channel: Military Aviation History

Views: 1,909,741

Rating: 4.8591409 out of 5

Keywords: WW2, Pacific, A6M2, Zero, F4F, Wildcat, US Navy, IJN, Japan, Imperial, war, history, education, lesson, aviation, planes, Bismarck

Id: H9l8CsKP0SY

Length: 30min 27sec (1827 seconds)

Published: Thu May 11 2017