The Unloved Pacific Hero - Grumman F4F Wildcat | Aircraft History #97

foreign of the Pacific war between the United States and the Empire of Japan there was just one fighter in the U.S Navy's Arsenal that could even hope of going toe-to-toe with the Mitsubishi a6m0 at the time the best carrier Fighter the world had ever seen and that aircraft was the Grumman F4F Wildcat entering service in 1940 the Wildcat was the company's first monoplane fighter and the latest in a line of aircraft they had built for the US Navy developed during the chaotic time when manufacturers were making the transition from biplanes to monoplanes the Wildcat was a mix of both older and cutting-edge Technology it inherited several parts from its predecessors such as its chunky barrel-like appearance and its narrow fuselage mounted landing gear but at the same time it's featured a highly Advanced power plant a potent Armament and and a new ingenious style of folding Wing despite these Innovations the Wildcat would go into the Pacific War at a big disadvantage by the time of Pearl Harbor less than half of the planned number of airframes had been delivered they were often manned by inexperienced pilots and they were being sent up against the numerically and technologically Superior zero which was often flown by highly skilled and experienced Japanese pilots in many ways the story of the Wildcat can draw a lot of similarities with its contemporary operated by the Army Air corps the Curtis P-40 Warhawk both designs inherited equipment or structural parts from their predecessors both were intended to be quickly replaced being looked at more as a stopgap fighter both became popular with foreign operators and surprisingly both were the only us fighters to see active Frontline service for the entirety of the war much like the Curtis P-40 Warhawk the Wildcats played a major part in the early desperate campaigns of the war and sadly much like the P40 its huge contributions are often overshadowed by the aircraft that came after it the f6f Hellcat and the Vault F4U Corsair it won't come as a huge surprise that I have a bit of a soft spot for these two under appreciated machines and hopefully this video and its follow-up Deep dive video does the Wildcat as much justice as those that covered the P40 but before we get into that I want to thank nordvpn for sponsoring today's video and keeping me safe as I scour the Deep recesses of the internet for obscure plane facts on a late Sunday night after one too many glasses of Pinot Noir my work often takes me online whether it's ordering new or secondhand books visiting Museum Pages browsing archives the list goes on and as most of my professional work is done on a computer having a VPN is essential to protecting my data such as passwords and Bank details nordvpn encrypts my data and conceals my IP address so that I can visit websites anonymously but now Nord have made things even better with their new threat protection system this Shields you from malware ransomware trackers and fishing ads these can even come in 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that I can continue to expand what has become a monstrously enlarged collection of research material on Aviation speaking of which let's continue looking at the F4F wildcat the story of grumman's first monoplane fighter actually begins with a biplane design the x f for F-1 in 1935 the Grumman f3f was just about to enter service with the US Navy and the f2f though a little unstable had done moderately well however this was a time of Rapid progress in the world of Aviation and with the new Frontline bombers entering service with top speeds that exceeded the Navy's best fighters their Bureau of Aeronautics sought out something better they invited submissions for a design with an emphasis on high-speed performance and quickly received submissions from manufacturers Brewster and Grumman though the f3f was barely out of the factory Grumman had already been working on a superior version known as the model 16. it was designed to have an 800 horsepower radial engine and it was projected to have a top speed of 260 34 miles an hour the Navy accepted this design and awarded a contract for it to be built as the xfrf-1 in March of 1936 but for Grumman they quickly arose a problem as just a few months later Brewster were given a contract for their xf2a and it was a monoplane this new design threatened to outperform grumman's latest work but the Navy didn't want to cancel the xf4f-1 they viewed it as a sensible backup in case the Brewster design ran into problems especially as the company had never produced a dedicated fighter before Leroy Grumman was none too pleased about being viewed as the Navy's Plan B and upon seeing revisions of the xf-4f1s projected performance with various engines which proved only a marginal improvement over the f3f his design team asked the Navy to cancel the contract for their prototype so that they could submit a new monoplane design line for approval Instead This approval was soon granted and on July the 28 1936 a contract was given for the production of the new xfrf-2 as it was essentially a major redesign rather than something designed from scratch it inherited some parts of the original biplane prototype the landing gear still retracted into the fuselage which was something inherited from grumman's first fighter the FF and the cockpit to location remained the same the landing gear on the Brewster xf2a mimicked that of the Grumman designs and both prototypes took on the appearance of thick midwing monoplanes that had very narrow undercarriages though the Brewster design team had a head start by about a month Grumman completed their prototype first and powered by a 1050 horsepower Pratt and Whitney twin wasp it made its Maiden flight on September the 2nd designed to be equipped with up to 4 machine guns two 30 caliber weapons in the nose with provision for 250 cows in the wings and with the top speed in excess of 290 miles an hour the Grumman monoplane was a promising Contender but the engine let it down during the evaluation trials it was plagued by constant overheating problems and bearing failures which led to several modifications to the cowl and Spinner to try and address them but the problems persisted and the Prototype was heavily damaged in a dead stick Landing during catapult trials in April of 1938. thankfully both pilots and aircraft survived and the xf4f-2 was taken back to the factory for Planned repairs because of the ongoing issues the Brewster prototype was ordered into production as the f2a Buffalo but the Grumman prototype had shown so much promise that the Navy encouraged further development not only had they been impressed with the design but again they wanted a strong backup in case the Brewster Buffalo proved disappointing had that decision not been made the situation for the U.S Navy's carrier squadrons in 1942 could have made for Grim reading undeterred by the setbacks grumman's design team got to work on improving their troubled prototype the front of the airframe was modified to take the new XR 1830-76 twin wasp which was a two-stage to speed a supercharged version that produced an impressive 1200 horsepower the fuselage was reinforced and the cowling changed to accommodate this and to compensate for the added weight the wing was increased in both span and chord among numerous other changes the one that physically set the aircraft apart the most was the squaring off of the wingtips and the tail surfaces with the change in power plant and relev cooling systems most of the problems that had plagued the xf4f-2 were happily absent in the new xf4f-3 it made its first flight on February the 12th 1939 and in the subsequent flight evaluations it attained a top speed of 333 miles an hour though some cooling issues persisted it was not enough to prevent a production order from being placed in August with the Navy placing an initial contract for 54 aircraft as the f4f-3 deliveries to U.S Navy squadrons began in December of 1940 with vf4 from USS Ranger and vf7 from USS Wasp being the first to receive the Wildcat but the Navy wasn't the only customer foreign interest in the F4F had been growing since almost the beginning and shortly after receiving the Navy's order Grumman also received one from France they ordered at least 81 export model which were to be built under the Grumman designation of g36a they were to be powered by a 1200 horsepower ride Cyclones fitted with French equipment and armed with 7.65 millimeter darn machine guns unfortunately the first g36a did not take to the skies until the 11th of May 1940 the day after Germany's Blitzkrieg began against Western Europe in consequence of this the French order was canceled after just a few planes had been built and the order was taken over by the British purchasing commission with the aircraft being adopted and redesignated as the martial art Mark 1. after an awkward beginning when Britain received the first few aircraft still with French throttle settings and heaven forbid metric instruments things quickly improved and the martlet was embraced into the ranks of the Fleet air arm in total over 1100 marlets over six different variants would eventually be supplied to the British and rather unsurprisingly the f4f's first confirmed kill was that of a British flown martial arts one which shot down a Yonkers ju-88 off Scotland on Christmas day in 1940. on the whole it was well liked by British Pilots famed test pilots Captain Eric Winkle Brown often sung the aircraft's Praises and you can't ask for much better recommendation than that its massive fuselage and radial engine made for a striking contrast when compared to such things as the fairy fulmar and more importantly it was especially forgiving when it came to hard Landings this made it quite easy for new pilots to get to grips with the diverting experience of World War II era carrier Landings although the aircraft's narrow undercarriage made taxiing on regular airfields a rather dramatic experience in comparison to its warm reception with British Pilots the Wildcats operated by the US Navy got off to a much poorer start many were not pleased by its handling having been spoiled by the Nimble f2f and the f3f biplanes and the adjustment to the junkie monoplane brought with it a slew of training accidents particularly aboard carriers 1941 was a painful year of adjustment for many pilots and then became one of painful reality come December the 7th by the time of the attack on Pearl Harbor there were just under 250 Wildcats in service most worthy f4f-3 but some were the f4f-3a which had just a single stage supercharged engine this design had been contemplated when there were concerns about Parts shortages for the usual power plant but those spheres never materialized and the dash 3A variant was only built in limited numbers Pearl Harbor was of course the Wildcats combat debut for the US Navy and it was a very one-sided one the Wildcat Squadron stationed at Pearl Harbor was vmf-2-1-1 of the Marines two weeks before the attack they had split their forces basing Harvard Hawaii and the others at Wake Island both elements took heavy losses 9 out of 11 were destroyed on the ground at Pearl Harbor and seven more at Wake Island the four airworthy Wildcats that remained at wake put up a legendary defense of the island with Lieutenant Henry Elrod becoming the first pilot to receive the Medal of Honor though this was awarded posthumously as he was killed when the island was overrun on December the 23rd a lieutenant Elrod also claimed to the first sinking of a Japanese warship when his bombs detonated a rack of depth charges aboard the Japanese Destroyer kizaragi the Wildcats first combat operations from carriers did not begin until February of 1942 when U.S forces began a series of Hit and Run attacks against Japanese held islands in the Pacific not long after this another Medal of Honor would be awarded to a wildcat pilot on the 20th of February Lieutenant Edward Butch O'Hare became the Navy's first Ace when he shot down down five Japanese bombers in one sortie defending the USS Lexington thus far in the war no Wildcat had yet encountered its soon to be famous foe the Mitsubishi a6m0 but that changed with the battle of the Coral Sea the first combat between the two fighters occurred during task force 17's attack on the lights carrier shoho the Japanese sent up a mix of a5ms and a6ms after the incoming torpedo bombers and the escorting Wildcats of vf-42 came in with a huge altitude Advantage enson Walter Hass became the first Navy pilot to shoot down a zero and in this first engagement vf-42 lost no aircraft by the end of coral sea things had changed both sides had been frustrated by poor weather and both sides had entered into combat with either a large advantage or disadvantage in altitude very quickly Wildcat Pilots learned that their opponents was not one to be trifled with the zero came as a shock it was faster it climbed better and it turned tighter than the wildcat in the right hand it was a deadly opponent and it was often in the right hands as the a6m pilots were highly trained combat veterans yet despite the Zero's apparent superiority the Wildcat could hold its own as it could absorb significantly more damage additionally not long into the war many had been refitted with self-sealing fuel tanks something the zero completely lacked the F4F and a6m would Clash again at the Battle of Midway and this would feature a large number of the improved f4f-4 this new version featured folding Wings which allowed many more to be equipped to board carriers and the Armament was changed so that the dash 4 mounted six 50 cal machine guns in the wings a total of 81 f4f-4s took part at the Battle of Midway and although they were still deemed inferior to the zero they shot down three Japanese aircraft for each Wildcat that was lost as escorts they actually did a pretty poor job but this was not the fault of the aircraft but rather an unhappy combination of extreme range improper use of some of the bombers and some decidedly bad luck as a fighter they performed better particularly in the defense of Yorktown and Enterprise this was partly the result of better communication and more accurate Direction being given courtesy of radar and partly because the crews were learning how to use the Wildcat to its strengths the improving fortunes of the Wildcats can be shown by the growing list of Aces at the end of Midway five of these were from vf3 alone despite this many Pilots weren't happy with the performance of the fr-4 many criticized its performance when compared to the zero and the addition of two more machine guns without an equivalent increase in ammunition meant that Pilots now had less gun time this was an especially painful problem for Less experienced pilots who were still learning vital Gunnery and Trigger Discipline skills these complaints would be answered in the next major production variant of the Wildcat the four-gunned fm-1 this was the first Wildcat that was to be produced by the Eastern aircraft division of General Motors who in early 1942 were tasked to take over production of the Wildcat so that Grumman could focus on its eventual successor the f6f but the f6f wasn't ready yet and many more Wildcats were still needed so Grumman Eastern aircraft and the Navy worked together to further improve the design whilst that worker got underway the Wildcat continued to distinguish itself in the Pacific Wildcats operated by the Navy and Marine Corps scored remarkable victories over the Japanese aguado canal collectively the air units here became known as the cactus Air Force Cactus being the code name assigned to the island the campaign had got off to a rough start for a lot of the pilots as many of them lacked many combat experience at all but the Wildcats ruggedness preserved many who should have been lost it could manage Dead stick Landings with remarkable Ease on the land or on the water something helped by the fact that the wings were mid-mounted which allowed the sturdy fuselage to absorb the worst of the impact among the pilots at Guadalcanal was Joe Foss who had become the Marine Corps leading Ace with 25 victories all of which were scored in Wildcats and with 16 of his opponents being a 6m zeros though on paper the a6m was still a superior performer and despite several prominent Pilots criticizing the Wildcat the fact was that its ruggedness gave it a significant Advantage if used correctly the Wildcat was not a defensive flyer the zero could run circles around it but its stronger airframe allowed it to too easily out dive the zero and this favored very aggressive flying Styles Scott mccuskey a wildcat Ace summed it up quite well unless you tried to find Japanese fighter on his terms or did something stupid you were not at a real disadvantage in the Wildcats he could climb away from you but you could dive away from him in the frf we were not going to score a kill in every fight but we never felt that we were at a disadvantage where we were going to lose by the end of 1942 the Wildcat had a kill to loss ratio of just under six to one and it had taken part in key battles that turned the tide of the Pacific War but although it was about to be outclassed by its successor the f6f Hellcat its most produced and most successful model had not even entered service just over 1100 F or f-4s had been built up by Grumman but some 4770 fm2s would be built by Eastern aircraft the fm2 took the four-gun design of the fm1 much caressed by U.S pilots and made it even better it was designed to be used aboard the smaller but more numerous escort carriers vessels from which the newer and heavier f6f Hellcat and F4U Corsair could not operate it was powered by a lighter and more powerful engine the 1350 horsepower right 1820-56 to compensate for the increased torque the tail was made larger which makes the type easy to distinguish when part of an amphibious task force a regular role for escort carriers in the Pacific the fm2s were responsible for providing vital air support for the Marines on Shore as well as providing assistance to TBM Avengers which also operated from the escort carriers they would also see use in the Atlantic helping to keep the vital shipping lanes open and by the end of the war they had assisted in the sinking of 30 U-boats the most notable event involving the Wildcats from escort carriers was of course the Battle of Leyte golf 228 Wildcats across 16 escort carriers would be involved and because the escort carriers were so heavily engaged it briefly became the most intense period of aerial combat for the wildcat in the entire War the battle also saw the last two aces in a day for Wildcat Pilots lieutenants Kenneth G hibb from vc3 shot down five key 48s within a space of 20 minutes and to Lieutenant Commander Harold n Funk shot down four bombers and a zero in the morning then on a second assortee he shot down another bomber in the evening by the end of the Pacific War fm2s from 38 squadrons had been credited with some 432 aerial victories the fm2 also became the only Wildcat to see larger scale dedicated use in the ground support role the last 1400 produced were fitted with launch racks for the 5-inch High Velocity aerial Rockets these late model fm2s saw action during the invasion of the Philippines and Okinawa performing Vital Air Support missions for the Marines ashore in May 1945 the Navy accepted the last 60 fm2 Wildcats for service and production of the aircraft finally came to a halt production of the aircraft by both Grumman and Eastern aircraft totaled some 7251 units when the war ended the Wildcats quickly disappeared from the Navy some were put into storage While others were sold as military surplus but none saw active post-war service because of this a good number of wildcats survived to this day multiple examples of the fm2 survive along with a small number of the dash 3 and Dash 4 f4fs and there is even a modular to Mark 1 on display at the Fleet air arm Museum in the UK unhappily none of the later models were preserved the Wildcat like the P40 is remarkable in that it remained useful throughout the entirety of the second world war even when other more capable aircraft took to the skies and if you want to learn more about it keep an eye out for the upcoming Deep dive video where I take a look at this aircraft in depth and I mean it moving forward this is the new format every aircraft I cover gets a shorter overview video and then anything that requires it will also get a much much longer Deep dive video where I'll cover the technical details in depth discuss its service history and lend my own opinions about its Effectiveness contributions and so on so I hope many of you look forward to that but as always thank you all so much for watching and a big thank you of course to the patron supporters whose names you'll see here I'm making some changes to my video formats good changes moving forward um what I just talked about being part of that but more info on that in the next Rex Rambles video that should be going up soon ish a big thank you of course to our wing Commander tier patrons our highest tier members once again I'm having issues at getting the names updated to me with patreon so if I've missed anyone new I apologize for that and I should hopefully have things fixed for next time but as always thank you all so much for your continued support and I'll catch you all next time goodbye

Channel: Rex's Hangar

Views: 334,457

Keywords: Grumman wildcat, Grumman F4F, Grumman F4F Wildcat, Wildcat, F4F Wildcat, WW2 aircraft, grumman f4f-3 wildcat, grumman f4f-4 wildcat, ww2 history, aviation history, pacific war, ww2 aircraft carrier, carrier aircraft, rex's hangar, rexs hangar, he Unloved Pacific Hero, aircraft overview, forgotten aircraft, ww2 aircraft documentary

Id: 1ls4Lrrp_xY

Length: 26min 20sec (1580 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 26 2023