Why the Hellcat Dominated the Zero at the Battle of the Philippine Sea

follow on the 4th of June 1942 the United States and the Empire of Japan clashed in a massive naval battle near the Pacific island of Midway the U.S Navy emerged Victorious and dealt a devastating blow to the Imperial Japanese Navy especially its potent aircraft carriers despite this great Victory not all American officers were happy the commander of fighting Squadron 3 Lieutenant Commander John thatch was appalled by how overwhelmed American aircraft were against the main Japanese fighter The Fearsome a6m0 at this point the best carrier Fighter the United States had to combat the zero was the F4F Wildcat which had some advantages but was no match for this Nimble adversary in his after action report that wrote that the Wildcat was pitifully inferior incline maneuverability and speed simply put the United States needed a Next Generation fighter that could outperform its Chief rival in the Skies over the Pacific thatch wouldn't have to wait long just 22 days after he filed his report the xf6f Prototype fighter made its first flight piloted by test pilot Robert Hall designed by Grumman before the U.S entry into the second world war the aircraft was originally intended as a modest upgrade over the Wildcat fighter however the U.S Navy was in dire need of a true air superiority fighter and after several modifications the f6f Hellcat officially entered service in mid-1943. once in the hands of American Pilots the Hellcat established a reputation as a zero killer and would eventually go on to score an astounding 13-1 kill to death ratio against Japan's Premier fighter this is the story of how the Hellcat became the dominant aircraft of the Pacific War and one of the greatest fighters of the second World War the United States had little information about the zero before war broke out even though it had first been deployed against nationalist China in August of 1940. modern soviet-made Chinese Fighters stood no chance against the mysterious new Japanese fighter and the zero scored 59 kills against Chinese aircraft without a single loss the U.S military got its first taste of the zero during the attack on Pearl Harbor and quickly realized their own aircraft were outclassed by the a6m in the first three months of the Pacific War from Pearl Harbor to the end of the duchy Cindy's campaign xeros claimed 471 out of the 565 Allied aircraft destroyed what made the zero so lethal in the dogfight was its maneuverability when designing the aircraft the Mitsubishi Aircraft Company emphasized Speed and Agility making every possible attempt to shed weight the result was a light Nimble aircraft that could outturn and out climb adversaries it even came more heavily armed than almost all Allied Fighters the zero was equipped with two 20 millimeter cannons and two 7.7 millimeter machine guns the first encounters with this fearsome aircraft ended in disaster for the Allies as the Japanese quickly established air superiority over most battlefields however the United States rearmament program had begun developing a new generation of aircraft by the time the nation entered the war when it became clear that the Wildcat Brewster Buffalo and other American fighters were not up to the task of dealing with the zero the Hellcat had already been designed and the first production f6fs began rolling off the assembly line by the end of 1942. in January of 1943 fighting Squadron 9 aboard the new Fleet carrier USS Essex received the first hellcats earmarked for combat operations the Hellcat arrives just as the U.S Navy needed it most although it was not explicitly designed to fight the zero it was the perfect aircraft to neutralize the Zero's best qualities despite the wildcat's shortcomings its armor protection allowed it to take a lot of punishment and increased pilot survivability the Hellcat carried 212 pounds of armor concentrated around the cockpit along with six browning 50 caliber air cooled machine guns the windshield was bullet resistant and later variants improved cockpit visibility by replacing the Plexiglas windscreen with a flat armored glass panel furthermore the Hellcat was equipped with self-sealing fuel tanks which substantially reduced the risk of fire or explosions Japanese Pilots soon found that even when they could get a jump on the new American fighter their Weaponry was not able to bring it down the biggest Advantage the Hellcat held over its Chief rival was in power the xeros designer jira harikoshi wrote after the war of all types of airplanes none are so dependent upon engine selections as are Fighters when it came to the Zero versus the Hellcat there was no question which aircraft had the better engine when Pilots first flew the f6f in 1942 they liked the improved vision and armor but were critical of the right r2600 twin Cyclone engine the twin Cyclone had 14 cylinders and could produce 1 700 horsepower but it was not powerful enough for the 10 000 pound Hellcat which suffered from a lethargic climb rate and acceleration furthermore the initial dogfights between Allied Fighters and the zeros convinced the Navy that a more powerful engine would be required to defeat its Nemesis in the skies above the Pacific analyzing a captured Japanese zero American Engineers were able to identify that it performed poorly at higher altitude also influencing the decision to procure a more powerful engine for the Hellcat the solution was to replace the twin Cyclone Engine with the Pratt and Whitney r2800 double wasp which was also the primary engine in the F4U Corsair and the P-47 Thunderbolt with 18 cylinders and a power plant that could produce up to 2 200 horsepower the f6f was now Superior in speed rate of climb and maneuverability whereas the a6m had a top speed of 331 miles per hour the Hellcat could achieve 391 miles per hour due to the powerful new engine this gap between the two fighters only widened the higher the altitude much like the British Merlin 61 engine transformed the P-51 Mustang into a dominant fighter in the European theater the double wasp engine turned the Hellcat into the most fearsome aircraft in the Pacific by comparison the zero was falling behind its competition due to a multitude of factors when Japan entered the war the ace exam was powered by the 14-cylinder 950 horsepower Sakai 12 engine despite the lower horsepower the zero is lightweight and Sleek Contours allowed it to perform excellently against the comparatively slow lumbering Allied aircraft at the time however once the next generation of Allied Fighters appeared in the Pacific Theater the Japanese aviation industry did not have the resources not the technical expertise to keep up this was painfully clear to the Imperial Japanese Navy as early as 1940 a full year before the attack on Pearl Harbor Mitsubishi and Nakajima works together to build a more powerful 18-cylinder Engine That Could deliver 2 000 horsepower but industrial limitations meant this engine could not be built in large numbers at an April 1943 conference called by Imperial Japanese Navy commander-in-chief Admiral isaroku Yamamoto his senior air officers assured him and the Navy's High command that the zero was still an excellent fighter aircraft however the Corsair and P-38 Lightning had already been deployed in combat and Japanese Pilots had observed that American tactics were reducing the effectiveness of the zero although Japan's next generation of Fighters was already well in development the lack of industrial capacity ensured that these aircraft would not see the battlefield for quite some time thus the decision was made to extend the lifespan of the zero for as long as possible Mitsubishi went back to the drawing boards to figure out what steps they could take to improve their Flagship aircraft before the introduction of the next generation of Fighters in the summer of 1943 Mitsubishi introduced the A6 m30 with multiple improvements this variant Incorporated an improved Sakai engine which could produce 1130 horsepower increasing the zero speeds to 351 miles per hour and the diving speeds to 410 miles per hour further variants such as the A6 M5 increase the muzzle velocity of the 20 millimeter cannons fulfilling another urgent request by Japanese Pilots to upgrade the xero's armament however two of the aircraft's greatest flaws remained the most pressing being is fragility having sacrificed armor in exchange for maneuverability it did not take much to bring down the zero the lack of self-sealing fuel tanks also led to a far greater chance of mid-dogfight fires or explosions furthermore the Zero's performance continued to drop at higher altitudes compared to the newest American fighters for all of its positive attributes the xero was an obsolete aircraft in 1943 yet nothing could account for the most important reason why the zero and in fact all Japanese aircrafts stood no chance against the Hellcat pilot training before the attack on Pearl Harbor Japanese Aviation Doctrine had always emphasized pilot quality over quantity the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Force went to war with 3 000 trained pilots and only added 5000 over the next two years combined in comparison the U.S Navy alone trained 17 000 in the same time span a number which also does not include the usaaf the impact of this discrepancy began to be felt more acutely throughout 1942 and 43. even though attrition rates were relatively equal during the Solomon Islands campaign the United States could easily replace pilots who had gone through their full training while Japan struggled to do the same while the U.S Navy rotated pilots and units out of combat after a certain period the Japanese had no such policy Navy units remained in constant combat until Pilots were killed wounded or succumbs to physical exhaustion this led to a death spiral among Japan's veteran pilot Corps which wore the brunt of the war of attrition even though the zero was obsolete it was still a dangerous foe in the hands of the right pilot Hellcat Pilots were warned not to try and dogfight the zero in close quarters where it still maintains Superior turning ability however by 1944 U.S Navy Hellcat Pilots joined their units with 500 or more flying hours whereas their Japanese counterparts were lucky to approach 300 hours of flying time the first dogfight between zeroes and hellcats occurred over Wake Island on the 5th of October 1943. in a one-sided fight 48 hellcats pounced on 23 Japanese Fighters and shot down 16 of them for the loss of no American aircraft although the Japanese were outnumbered the dogfight took place entirely below 12 000 feet which was where the zero operated best even in these favorable conditions the Hellcat still wildly outclassed the a6m by June of 1944 the Hellcat had clearly established itself as the dominant aircraft in the Pacific Theater it had its greatest moment during the battle of the Philippine Sea the largest aircraft carrier battle in history on the 19th of June alone the Japanese Navy lost 275 aircraft predominantly to the Hellcat which suffered only 15 losses in air to air combat against the zero the day which would become known as the Marianas turkey shoot only confirmed what had been apparent for quite some time the Zero's time was over and the Hellcat now ruled the Skies over the Pacific Theater [Music]

Channel: The Intel Report

Views: 1,698,120

Keywords: ww2, pacific campaign, us navy, documentary, history, japan, grumman hellcat, hellcat, zero, mitsubishi zero, fighter aircraft, battle of the philippine sea, aircraft carrier, uss enterprise, F-6F

Id: tv7cfuJ3-uI

Length: 12min 31sec (751 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 07 2023