NARRATOR: The war in
the Pacific is raging. American aircraft
are being torn apart by the infamous Japanese Zero. No Allied plane can match
the agile dogfighter. Then the US Navy unleashes
the powerful new F6F Hellcat, the legendary warbird destined
to destroy over 5,000 enemy planes and score the
greatest kill ratio of any fighter in World War II. Now, through state of the
art computer animation, you're in the cockpit for the
clash of titans, the American Hellcat vs the Japanese Zero. Experience the battle,
dissect the tactics, relive the dog fights
of the Zero killer. [theme music] October 5, 1943, a flight
of American F6F Hellcats from the carrier Yorktown
streak toward Wake Island, a small Japanese-held base
in the Central Pacific. Their mission-- establish air
superiority and attack ground installations. The brand new Hellcat
has yet to face off in a dogfight against the most
feared fighter in the Pacific, the Japanese Zero. 22-year-old Navy fighter
pilot Ensign Robert Duncan is well aware of the
Zero's fearsome reputation. When we went up against
the Zero, I was intimidated. Most of us were moment. Because we knew they
had a good plane. We knew just exactly what the
Zero could do, how fast it was, how high it could go, how
well they could hit with it. NARRATOR: Suddenly, a glint
of metal catches Duncan's eye. In the distance--
a Japanese Zero. I don't think he
was aware of the fact that we were there, because
it was in the morning. The sun was just
barely coming up, and I'm not sure he even saw us. NARRATOR: The other American
pilots don't see the Zero. Duncan's radio is out. Voice radios of this era
are new and unreliable. He can't warn the others. He tries to alert his flight
leader with hand signals. And I tried to get with
him and point like that. And I saw that he wasn't
going to get in position quick enough. The key to this
story is not that he's trying to communicate and
tell the guy what's going on. Because the
priorities are aviate, navigate, and then communicate. Duncan tries to tell
his flight leader. When it fails, he goes with the
general prudential rule, which is "when in doubt, win the war." And he breaks off
and he leads the way. NARRATOR: Duncan banks
left to intercept. He opens the throttle, and
the Hellcat's 2,000 horsepower kicks in. He closes fast. The Zero is here. Duncan moves to the
enemy's 9 o'clock. From this position, Duncan
must shoot from a steep angle. Leading the target with
his gunfire is critical. Guys don't put in enough lead. They tend to want to point
at their target, which is a common human tendency. Point at the target and shoot. But if you do that,
every bullet you shoot is going to be
behind your target. So you have to pull
your nose out in front, shoot out in front,
and basically let those bullets meet that
target in a point in space. NARRATOR: Duncan's
technique is perfect. I just held what I had, and
he flew right in front of me. It was the easiest
shot I ever made. I opened up, and he
blew up immediately. NARRATOR: Duncan's 50 caliber
rounds detonate the Zero's unarmored fuel tank. Ensign Robert Duncan has just
scored his first aerial kill of the war. But it's another
major milestone. I was the first one with
a Hellcat to ever shoot down a Zero. NARRATOR: There's no
time to celebrate. Duncan is about to square
off against a Japanese ace with nine kills. And the Navy will soon find out
if the Grumman F6F Hellcat is truly a match for
the Japanese Zero. The Mitsubishi A6M2 Zero
was deadly from the start. In its first four months of
operation over China in 1940, the lightweight, maneuverable
fighter scored 59 kills against no losses. Through the early
months of World War II, Japanese aerial
victories mounted. The truth was inescapable. The 300 mile per hour Zero,
or Zeke, as it was codenamed, was the most capable
fighter in the Pacific. The exceptional range
and performance of the Zero was evident from the first
day of the Pacific War. You had a naval fighter capable
of engaging and defeating land-based enemies
almost routinely. And that was a situation for
which America and Britain were totally unprepared. NARRATOR: The Navy's
best available fighter to combat the Zero
was the F4F Wildcat. It compared favorably with
the Zero in firepower, but was no match for it in
speed or maneuverability. The Wildcat was the one that
was out there holding the line at the beginning. It had some disadvantages. It was underpowered,
for one thing. And the climbing
wasn't that good. The guns weren't always
working properly. NARRATOR: In a Wildcat,
even being on a Zero's tail was treacherous. You couldn't out-turn a Zero. If you were behind a Zero and
didn't maintain your speed properly, they would
say that the Zero would be on your tail
inside of two turns. NARRATOR: Range was
another problem. The Zero's range
was 1,150 miles. The Wildcat's range
was only 770 miles. The Zero fought the Wildcat
in the Pacific Theater, which is the largest
battleground there's ever been in human history. The Pacific Ocean
covers something like 60 million square
miles of planet Earth. And that meant that any aircraft
committed to that battle was going to have
to have long legs. NARRATOR: It was clear a more
powerful fighter was needed to challenge the Zero. The Navy accelerated development
of the new F6F Hellcat. The Hellcat was a key element of
a new strategic naval concept-- fast aircraft carriers replacing
battleships as the main strike force. By October 1943,
the Pacific War had been going on for
nearly a year and a half. It really had taken that
long for the Pacific fleet to not only recover
from Pearl Harbor but to actually produce from
scratch the fleet it really needed to have to wage war
across the broad Pacific. Wake Island was like a
proving ground for this brand new military machine the world
had not seen up to that point. NARRATOR: The new Essex
class carriers pack a powerful offensive punch-- an airwing of 36 dive
bombers, 18 torpedo planes, and 36 fighters. This force will be tested in the
heat of battle at Wake Island. October 5, 1943,
Ensign Robert Duncan has just scored the
first air-to-air Zero kill for the Hellcat, but
the fight is far from over. Duncan spots a Zero with
a Hellcat on its tail, but the Hellcat is in
trouble and doesn't know it. At that time,
I looked up above and there was a Zero
about 300 feet above me. And he started down to get
behind this Hellcat that was chasing the Zero. But he wasn't in
range to get our man. NARRATOR: Duncan is here. The first Zero is here. The other Hellcat pilot
is on his 6 o'clock. The second Zero is diving,
gaining airspeed and closing on the Hellcat. Duncan, out of range
for machine gun, fire must close the distance. He adds power, climbing
and banking left. Duncan knows he
can't reach the Zero, but maybe he can shake him
off the Hellcat's tail. So I tried something. I just pulled up the
nose of my airplane. I was still not in range. And I cut loose with a burst. Just like you take a hose
and shoot out like that. NARRATOR: It works. The Zero pulls away. But now Duncan's in trouble. He dropped off from our
man and made a left turn, hard left turn out like this
around, to come around to me. NARRATOR: Duncan pulls
into a hard left turn to evade the Zero. Both planes circle each
other in tight left turns. Each pilot yanks the
stick hard to the left, coaxing their fighters
into tighter turns, trying to gain the
advantage on the other. The Zero gets a firing angle. 20 millimeter cannon fire
rips through Duncan's tail. I didn't-- I didn't have any fear toward
what was going to take place. Generally, I didn't feel any. It was afterwards
that my knees start. NARRATOR: What happens next
takes Duncan by surprise. The Zero suddenly pulls out
of the turn and goes vertical. And I looked, and I
said, what's with this guy? He must be right out
of flight training. He's going to get
himself killed. NARRATOR: But Duncan is wrong. The Japanese pilot
is no trainee. This is warrant officer
Toshiyuki Sueda, a feared ace with nine kills. He's used this
climbing tactic before and emerged
victorious every time. NARRATOR: October 5, 1943. American aircraft are
attacking the Japanese base at Wake Island. This raid is a critical test
for the new fast carriers and the Hellcat fighters. Their effectiveness will
determine the strategy for the rest of the Pacific War. Ensign Robert Duncan is dueling
the formidable Japanese ace Toshiyuki Sueda. Sueda has made a bold move. He's taken the fight
into the vertical, where the Zero excels. The maneuver is a
favorite Japanese tactic. The Zero climbed far
better than the Wildcat. Many Zero pilots lured the
older American aircraft into a vertical climb, waited
for them to stall out and lose control, then rolled over
and pounced for an easy kill. Duncan climbs aggressively
after the Zero-- exactly what Sueda
wants him to do. I started up after him. I mean, I poured
the coal onto it. NARRATOR: But this isn't
the underpowered Wildcat. The new Hellcat, with
superchargers whining, easily keeps pace with the Zero. Sueda reaches the top of his
climb and confidently noses over, anticipating the sight
of a stalled American aircraft below. The reality is much different. The 2,000 horsepower
Hellcat has energy to spare. Duncan skillfully lines
up the Zero and fires. And I got him up
there on the top. And I shot him down, as
you shoot down any plane, and watched him go in. I thought, poor, young fella. You sure didn't know
what you were doing. NARRATOR: The Zero
bursts into flames and spirals down
towards the sea. The Japanese ace has
made a fatal error. He thought he was dog fighting
the old American Wildcat. I then realized why
he did what he did. He'd shot down
most of his planes pulling this trick
with the Wildcat. NARRATOR: This is what probably
would have happened if Duncan was flying the
8,000-pound Wildcat. If he'd been in a
Wildcat, the chances are he would have stalled out
at the top before the Zero. The Wildcat would
have gone up, gone greedy, tried to get the
shot, couldn't get the shot, stalled early because it's a
heavier airplane with heavier wing loading, and fallen away. The Zero watching from
above rolls behind him, catches him out of the
stall, and shoots him. That's the way that this pilot
got many kills in the past. If I had been in that Wildcat,
I would have been shot down. There's no question
in my mind about it, that I'd have been
too smart to do that. NARRATOR: The two day
raid on Wake Island is a stunning victory
for the new fighter. The Hellcat Downs 22 Zeros. Opposition over Wake
has ceased to exist, and the Americans destroy 90% of
the Japanese ground facilities. Six Hellcats are
lost in dogfights. Another six fall to
antiaircraft fire. The F6F Hellcat has demonstrated
its mettle against the rising sun. Back in the US, the
engineers at Grumman Aircraft breathe a sigh of relief. Their careful design and
testing has paid off. The process had started on June
30, 1941, nearly six months before Pearl Harbor, when
Grumman Aircraft was awarded a contract to upgrade
their F6F Hellcat. Grumman had a very long term
relationship with the Navy. They had put fighters
on the Navy decks since the very beginning
of Naval aviation at sea. So Grumman knew what the
requirements were flying out at sea. They knew what the requirements
were to take a fighter and make it carrier-suitable. NARRATOR: At first,
the new plane was slated to be a modest
improvement over the Wildcat, but the US Navy, wary of the
Zero's dominance in China, demanded more. The key to the design
was the engine. The engineers chose the Pratt
& Whitney R-2800 double wasp. At 2,000 horsepower,
it had almost twice the power of the Wildcat. The larger engine demanded an
expanded fuselage and wings. This allowed for
larger fuel tanks, yielding 300 mile greater
range than the Wildcat. Grumman equipped the new F6F
Hellcat with six .50 caliber machine guns and the same rugged
construction and heavy armor protection that earned
the company the nickname Iron Works. The plane featured thick armor
plating around the engine and cockpit, bullet
resistant windscreens, and rubber-coated self
sealing fuel tanks. Grumman as a designer
had tremendous respect for the pilots in terms of
their lives and their safety. They knew that it was
not enough for a pilot to just go out and fight. You had to give them the ability
to sustain damage and come home. NARRATOR: On June 26, 1942,
Grumman test pilot Selden Converse successfully flew
the first prototype Hellcat. Soon, an entire
factory was dedicated to Hellcat production,
with 20 planes a day rolling off the assembly line. By January 1943, the new plane
was delivered to the fleet. The Hellcat had gone from
prototype to carrier operations in less than a year. Experienced Wildcat pilot and
flight instructor Robert Duncan well remembers the first
time he flew a Hellcat. And I thought, boy,
this is a wonderful plane. It's a 100% better
plane than the Wildcat. And I flew it right off the
bat without any difficulty. It was like sitting in the
seat of your mother's lap. NARRATOR: The Hellcat wasn't
just better than the Wildcat. It was better than
the enemy's Zero. The Hellcat flew about 30 miles
per hour faster than the Zero. The F6F had a comparable
rate of climb, but because of its power and weight could
easily out-dive the Zero. The Hellcat could also
take tremendous punishment and keep on flying, something
the lightly armored Zero could not do. The Zero did not have
self-sealing tanks, and if you got one
of the gas tanks, they would catch
on fire in a hurry. We had six .50 caliber guns. And you fire of six
of those, and you can start tearing pieces off of it. NARRATOR: November 11, 1943,
one month after the Wake Island attack. American Dauntless
and Avenger bombers head for the key Japanese
Naval base at Rabaul. A flight of Hellcats fly escort. The new carrier task
force is relentlessly assaulting Japanese outposts. Rabaul was a tough nut to
crack, and everyone going in knew that. The Japanese had invested a
considerable amount of material in turning Rabaul
into a bastion. And so moving into Rabaul
to launch a carrier strike was not looked upon as being
any kind of easy endeavor. NARRATOR: 22-year-old Hellcat
pilot Lieutenant Junior grade Hamilton McWhorter scored
his first kill at Wake. At Rabaul, he'll
earn his reputation as a brilliant aerial gunfighter
in one of the most famous dogfights of World War II. NARRATOR: November 11, 1943,
a combined strike force of American bombers
and fighters move in to attack Japanese ships
in the harbor at Rabaul. The bombers initiate
their diving attack. Lieutenant JG Hamilton
McWhorter noses his Hellcat over to stay with them. He pulls out on a strafing
run on a Japanese cruiser. McWhorter runs a lethal gauntlet
of 25 millimeter antiaircraft fire and 8 inch shells. In these situations,
everything's coming back at him-- Japanese heavy rounds,
machine gun rounds. Everything is spraying at him. He is fearless as he's
bearing down on these ships. NARRATOR: The Hellcat's six
.50 caliber machine guns can put 4,000 rounds per
minute on the target. Every fifth projectile is
a white hot phosphorous incendiary round. And when it hit, you
got a nice, bright flash. And I can still see in my mind
the superstars of that cruiser lit up like a Christmas tree. NARRATOR: McWhorter pulls up and
heads for the rendezvous point. Climbing, he spots a dozen
Hellcats and 30 or more Zeros mixing it up in a wild furball. It reminds me what you used
to see in the movies about World War I-- planes all over
the sky exploding, parachutes, planes going down. NARRATOR: Hamilton McWhorter
is about to become a Hellcat legend, using both his eight
months of flight training and special intel derived
from a chance discovery. In June 1942, a US
Navy flying boat on routine patrol over Akutan
island in the Aleutians spotted a downed plane partially
submerged in the soft marshy soil. It was an intelligence coup-- a virtually undamaged
A6M2 Mitsubishi Zero. The plane, dubbed
the Akutan Zero, was hurriedly shipped to San
Diego, where it was rebuilt, repainted with US markings,
and thoroughly flight tested by the Americans. Having the Zero in hand
allowed us to actually test it and to compare it to all
of our existing fighters. We could tell where
its strengths were and where its weaknesses were. That's not an academic exercise. That's an exercise to tell
our pilots where they are strongest, where the Zero
is weakest, therefore where to force him, so that
you can beat him in a dogfight. NARRATOR: A key find was that
the Zero had a disadvantage in a high speed dive. Above 200 knots,
its ailerons froze, restricting any kind
of rolling maneuver, especially to the right. This important data was quickly
passed to Grumman engineers and on to the fleet. Now Hamilton McWhorter
will put it into practice. McWhorter is heading into
a swirling mass of Zeros and Hellcats. He spots a Hellcat with
a Zero on its 6 o'clock. I could see big pieces of
metal flying off the Hellcat. NARRATOR: The wounded
Hellcat is here. The Zero is right behind him. McWhorter is here. He will pull a high G climbing
turn to get behind the Zero. McWhorter's Hellcat easily
closes the distance. His machine guns shred the
Zero's unarmored fuselage. McWhorter gets a good look
at his first kill of the day. I looked down right
into the cockpit. Couldn't have been more than a
second or so since I'd fired. And there were flames coming
out from under the instrument panel. He had no chance whatsoever. The Zero had no armor
plate behind the pilot. NARRATOR: Then, looking up, he
spots another Zero at 1 o'clock high, 2,000 feet away. He pitches up and banks
right on an intercept course. It looks like another easy kill. But suddenly he's
jolted by a loud noise. Best way I can describe it
is you're standing on a metal shed, and someone throws a
couple of big handfuls of rocks against the outside. That's what it sounds like when
your plane gets hit by machine gun bullets. Very loud, and you can actually
feel the impact of bullets hitting. NARRATOR: McWhorter is
focused on his target and doesn't see the plane
that's peppering his Hellcat. It's the bogey you don't see
that will generally get you. McWhorter target fixates on
the Zero that he's going for. And much to his
surprise, he hears noise on his aircraft that alerts
him, that says, get your head up and look around. Get your head on and swivel. NARRATOR: A Zero making a high
speed pass from above rakes his Hellcat with
machine gun fire. Stunned, McWhorter looks around
to find two more Zeros directly on his tail. McWhorter is here,
chasing a Zero. The Zero shooting
at him is here. McWhorter never sees this
plane, but its gunfire actually saves his life by alerting
him to the Zeros behind him. At that point, he's in a
life and death situation, and he's got to take immediate
action to get out of it. NARRATOR: Remembering the
lessons learned from the Akutan Zero, McWhorter dives steeply
toward the ocean below. The Japanese, knowing
their plane can't dive with the Hellcat,
choose not to follow. At that point, he looks
through his windscreen and sees an aircraft passing
directly in his line of travel. McWhorter slides his
aircraft into the same plane with the Zero and rakes him
with gunfire and gets a kill. [gunfire] Now he's had his second
kill within about 45 seconds. It's all just due
to good airmanship, maintaining a situational
awareness, executing that nose low maneuver when he was being
attacked by an unseen Zero, sets himself up for an
attack on another aircraft. NARRATOR: It's an
incredible achievement, one that's respected by every
generation of fighter pilot. Two kills in 45 seconds
would be outstanding. It would be awesome. Fighter pilot's dream. NARRATOR: But McWhorter
isn't out of the woods yet. He pulls his aircraft up out of
its dive, climbs to 3,000 feet, and again heads for
the rendezvous point. Then, from 11 o'clock, another
Zero dives directly toward him. McWhorter breaks left to engage. The Zero rolls
toward his Hellcat. The enemy has the
altitude advantage. That translates to more
energy, more speed. He can counter any
move McWhorter makes. But suddenly, even though
the Zero has the advantage, he breaks away from the
Hellcat and makes a run for it. Whereas the Japanese Zero
used to be the king of battle and have the upper
hand, now the Japanese recognize the
Hellcat has arrived. They understand the strengths. They know they can't fight
the Hellcat one on one. NARRATOR: A week later, Hamilton
McWhorter scores two more kills, earning him
a coveted title-- the first Hellcat ace. The Hellcat shot
down more planes than any other American fighter. 5,300 planes, 305 aces. And I just happened to
be the first Hellcat ace. NARRATOR: The November 11 attack
on Rabaul lasts less than one hour. The Americans sink the
Japanese destroyer Suzunami and destroy 20 planes. Later that day, the Japanese
launch a counterattack, but they are
intercepted en route, and another 35 Japanese
planes are downed. So many enemy pilots are lost,
the Japanese cannot effectively respond to the invasion of
Tarawa less than two weeks later. The tide is turning against
the empire of Japan. The Hellcat, through superb
engineering and tactics, is truly becoming a Zero killer. Three months later, the Hellcat
would face its fiercest test-- attacking the might of
the Japanese Navy head-on. NARRATOR: February 16, 1944,
dawn, waves of Hellcat fighters speed toward Truk Atoll. Their mission-- destroy enemy
shipping in the highly defended Japanese stronghold. 25-year-old Lieutenant
JG Alex Vraciu flies with a division
of 12 Hellcats from the aircraft
carrier intrepid. This was a mission that
had us going against an enemy that we weren't certain
of, but we felt confident. And I guess that's what a
fighter pilot's supposed to be-- be confident or he
can't do his job. NARRATOR: Truk Atoll
in the Caroline Islands is Japan's main anchorage
in the South Pacific. They've been fortifying the
Atoll with port facilities and runways since the
end of World War I. Truk was billed as almost
impregnable, their version of Gibraltar or Pearl Harbor. And the propaganda
was very strong that Truk would be an
incredibly tough fight. NARRATOR: The barrier reefs that
surround Truk put the Atoll out of range of the
battleships' big guns. The only way in is by air. The plan calls for
a two day raid. Day one is a fighter sweep. 72 Hellcats from six
carrier air wings will swarm in to eliminate
the enemy fighters, clearing the way for day
two, when Dauntless, Avenger, and Helldiver
bombers will target the anchored Japanese fleet with
high explosive 500-pound bombs. This was going to be an
attack of annihilation. So what you're seeing
with the Truk raid is a systematic
approach to taking a substantial shorebashing and
reducing it to nothingness. NARRATOR: Pure fighter
sweeps are rare. Hellcat pilots are anxious for
a raid unencumbered with bomber escort. It was the first time
we didn't have to escort, and we were just pure
fighter, we called ourselves. And as we got closer
and closer to it, and being in a plane that
we knew we can handle, I'll tell you, quite honestly,
we were looking forward to it. NARRATOR: Vraciu and
his wingman, Lou Little, bring up the rear of
their 12-plane formation. As they fly the 90 miles
from their carrier, they stay low to
avoid enemy radar. Approaching the atoll,
they climb to 13,000 feet. The higher altitude gives
them better visibility and positions them
for diving attacks. You want to have an altitude
advantage because altitude can be translated into
airspeed with a dive. NARRATOR: The enemy
has scrambled fighters. The Americans haven't
spotted them yet. Vraciu's flight noses over
to start its strafing run on the enemy airstrip. First 10 had already
started their dive going down, and we were just preparing
to, but I just took a look around back, looked
back over my shoulder, and that's when my mind
was quickly changed. NARRATOR: There they
are, 3,000 feet above, a swarm of Japanese Zeros,
closing fast from 7 o'clock. Vraciu radios the
other Hellcats, but they're already diving. He must stay and fight. I couldn't continue, because
then I'd have a stream of Zeros right behind us while
we were going down. NARRATOR: Vraciu
and Little are here. The other Hellcats are here
diving, the Zeros attacking from above. If Vraciu dives, the Zeros will
be on his and the squadron's 6 o'clock-- perfect attack position. His only option is to turn
sharply into the enemy, minimizing his cross section and
reducing his time in the Zeros' gun sights. Vraciu and Little pull a
hard left turn and focus on the lead Zero. He was already
starting to shoot. I could see the
twinkle of the guns. So I headed towards them, and
made a burst, a fast burst, just to discourage him. And he stopped his run
and just kept going down. They had a habit that they
weren't afraid to attack, but once they were countered,
they'd dive down for the water. NARRATOR: The first Zero darts
away, but immediately another swings around on Vraciu's tail. The Americans counter by pulling
up into a steep chandelle. They're relying on the Hellcat's
superior power, large wing area, and strong air frame to
push them through the high G maneuver and turn the
tables on the Zero. The chandelle maneuver,
it's basically a maneuver to try and point your
aircraft in another direction in a fairly quick method. Instead of just
doing a level turn, actually pitch your nose up
high, roll over on a wing, and now you can
use gravity or what we like to call God's G to
help you out in the turn, allow you to pull your nose
around faster and point in the other direction. NARRATOR: The enemy
cranks over hard, trying to stay
behind the Americans, but the Zero can't
hack the severe turn. He stalls. The Hellcats roll over and
get behind the falling Zero. They're primed for the kill, but
more Zeros speed in from above. I had ideas to
try to follow him, but there were still
some planes above me. I had to get them out of-- out of my back. He doesn't want to be fighting
anybody that can be sitting up on a perch 2,000 feet above
him, who can then instantly dive down, pick up energy, and
now have an advantage on him in a turn. So he wants to bring the whole
fight down low if possible, to beat everybody down
to the same state. NARRATOR: Vraciu and Little
must neutralize the enemy's numerical and
altitude advantage. They snap into a classic
defensive maneuver, the thatch weave. In the thatch weave, the two
Hellcats swing back and forth, providing mutual
support and protection. If a Zero positions himself to
fire on one of the Hellcats, he will fall under the guns of
the second American fighter. Vraciu and Little
dodge and weave. The Zeros come at them
from every direction. These Zeros were good. We were able to ward them off
a little bit, but what they do, they fake you on
one side, and then the guy would come
from the other side and try to come on in. NARRATOR: The Zeros
press the attack. The Hellcats are surrounded. NARRATOR: February 16, 1944,
above Truk Lagoon in the South Pacific. Hellcat pilot Alex Vraciu
and his wingman Lou Little mount a desperate
defense against attacking Japanese Zeros. Frustrated by their inability
to score decisive hits, the Japanese move down to
the Hellcats' altitude. It's a fatal mistake. The Americans break
their defensive formation and seize the advantage. Up until that time, we
were purely defensive. Once they came down
to our level or below, then we were able then
to go on the offense. NARRATOR: The Americans have
skillfully turned the tables. Now the Zeros are vulnerable
to the powerful and highly maneuverable Hellcats. What ensues is the dogfight
equivalent of a brawl, and the winner determined by
who can line up the first burst. Vraciu turns hard on
an attacking Zero. The Japanese pilot
dives to escape. One of the favorite
Japanese techniques, if engaged in a
defensive position, was to try to dive away and
try to head for the water. NARRATOR: The technique
worked with a Wildcat, but not with the Hellcat. Once he caught on
fire, OK, he's gone down, you're looking for another one. You just go from
one to the other and hope you get
a dozen of them. NARRATOR: Vraciu draws
a bead on a second Zero. The enemy tries to dive
away, but the Hellcat easily catches him. It's Vraciu's second
kill of the day. Then he spots a roof, a
floatplane version of a Zero. Again, the enemy dives away. Vraciu is relentless. His job is to sweep
the enemy from the sky. Once I got on their
tail, I didn't let go. NARRATOR: Kill number three. Vraicu spots another
Zero at 12 o'clock low. I start to try
to get in position, but he wouldn't let me. He kept ducking into a cloud. NARRATOR: The Zero is
running from cloud to cloud, so Vraciu calls on a
basic dogfighting tactic. I'm not going to
let the SOB get away. So I just pulled up and kept
looking for him while he was ducking in and out,
and got in position to where I figured
he couldn't see me. I pulled up into the sun, and
waited until I got a good shot, and I came down on
him from 5 o'clock. I don't think he ever
knew what hit him. NARRATOR: Vraciu's .50
caliber armor piercing rounds slice into the Zero's
wing tank and cockpit. Vraciu's fourth kill of the day
plummets in a flaming spiral. The American fighter sweep
continues throughout the day, turning the skies above
Truk into a swirling vortex of gunfire and flame. There are loose fights
all over the place. They were those planes going
down one every 30 seconds. This was a wild dog
fight, a wild one. NARRATOR: The Americans
are unyielding. The fierce combat costs the
Japanese 130 planes in the air, and another 74 on the ground. Eight Hellcats are lost,
mostly by anti-aircraft fire. Hellcats basically function
like strike fighters, like F18s of today. And the Hellcats went in as
fighters and as fighter bombers to completely clean the
sky of Japanese aircraft, so much so that there was no
opposition to the bombers that went in later on. NARRATOR: On the planned
second day of the attack, American bombers sink
47 Japanese ships. Truk Atoll, the Gibraltar
of the East, is left smoking and in ruin. The results of
the Truk raid were quite devastating to
Japanese air power as well as the merchant fleet that had
been at anchor inside the atoll. It was also an indication
once and for all that Truk was no
longer a bastion for the Japanese defense
network, which was rapidly collapsing in the
Central Pacific. NARRATOR: The skill of
American pilots combined with the Hellcat's superb flying
characteristics helped turn the tide against the Japanese. The Hellcat in tremendous
numbers with great quality control, with survivability,
with lethality really made a difference in the Pacific War. 75% of all the Navy's air to
air kills were from the Hellcat. It's a tremendous record. What more can I say? We knew we had the best plane. It had a kill ratio that
was 19-1, the greatest kill ratio of any plane in
any war in any country. And to me, it was up to us
to demonstrate our use of it, to do it and do it well. NARRATOR: The war would go
on for another 18 months after Truk. By the end, the
Hellcat blasted down nearly 5,300 Japanese aircraft. Japanese air power was
dead, and the Hellcat was the executioner.
