The Aircraft in the Conflict

The U.S. Navy and Marine Corps were definitely at adisadvantage when America entered World War II in December 1941. Besidesother areas, their frontline aircraft were well behind worldstandards.

The Japanese did not suffer similarly, however, forthey were busy building up their arsenal as they sought sources of rawmaterials they needed and were prepared to go to war to acquire. Besidespossessing what was the finest aerial torpedo in the world — theLong Lance — they had the aircraft to deliver it. And they hadfighters to protect the bombers. Although the world initially refused tobelieve how good Japanese aircraft and their pilots were, it wasn't longafter the attack on Pearl Harbor that reality seeped in.

In many respects, the U.S. Army Air Force — ithad been the U.S. Army Air Corps until 20 June 1941 — and the Navyand Marine Corps had the same problems in the first two years of thewar. The Army's top fighters were the Bell P-39 Airacobra and theCurtiss P-40B/E Tomahawk/Kittyhawk. The Navy and Marine Corps' twofrontline fighters were the Brewster F2A-3 Buffalo and the GrummanF4F-3/4 Wildcat during 1942.

Of these single-seaters, only the Army's P-40 and theNavy's F4F achieved any measure of success against the Japanese in 1942.The P-40's main attributes were its diving speed, which let it disengagefrom a fight, and its ability to absorb punishment and still fly, aconfidence builder for its hard-pressed pilots. The Wildcat was also atough little fighter ('built like Grumman iron' was a popularcatch-phrase of the period), and had a devastating battery of four (forthe F4F-3) or six .50-caliber machine guns (for the F4F-4) and a fairdegree of maneuverability.

Both the Imperial Japanese Army and Navy also hadoutstanding aircraft. The Army's primary fighter of the early war wasthe Nakajima K.43 Hayabusa (Peregrine Falcon), a light, little aircraft,with a slim, tapered fuselage and a bubble canopy.

The Navy's fighter came to symbolize the Japanese aireffort, even for the Japanese, themselves. The Mitsubishi Type 'O'Carrier Fighter (its official designation) was as much a trend-settingdesign as was Britain's Spitfire or the American Corsair.

However, as author Norman Franks wrote, the Alliedcrews found that 'the Japanese airmen were...far superior to the crudestereotypes so disparaged by the popular press and cartoonists. And in aZero they were highly dangerous.'

The hallmark of Japanese fighters had always beensuperb maneuverability. Early biplanes — which had been developedfrom British and French designs — set the pace. By the mid-1930s,the Army and Navy had two world-class fighters, the Nakajima Ki.27 andthe Mitsubishi A5M series, respectively, both low-wing, fixed-gearaircraft. The Ki.27 did have a modern enclosed cockpit, while the A5M'scockpit was open (except for one variant that experimented with a canopywhich was soon discarded in service.) A major and fatal disadvantage ofmost Japanese fighters was their light armament — usually a pair of.30-caliber machine guns — and lack of armor, as well as theirgreat flammability.

When the Type '0' first flew in 1939, most Japanesepilots were enthusiastic about the new fighter. It was fast, hadretractable landing gear and an enclosed cock pit, and carried two 20mmcannon besides the two machine guns. Initial operational evaluation inChina in 1940 confirmed the aircraft's potential.

By the time of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor,the A6M2 was the Imperial Navy's standard carrier fighter, and rapidlyreplaced the older A5Ms still in service. As the A6M2 proved successfulin combat, it acquired its wartime nickname, 'Zero,' although theJapanese rarely referred to it as such. The evocative name came from thecustom of designating aircraft in reference to the Japanese calendar.Thus, since 1940 corresponded to the year 2600 in Japan, the fighter wasthe Type '00' fighter, which was shortened to '0.' The western presspicked up the designation and the name 'Zero' was born.

The fighter received another name in 1943 which wasalmost as popular, especially among the American flight crews. A systemof first names referred to various enemy aircraft, in much the same waythat the postwar NATO system referred to Soviet and Chinese aircraft.The Zero was tagged 'Zeke,' and the names were used interchangeably byeveryone, from flight crews to intelligence officers. (Other examples ofthe system included 'Claude' [A5M], 'Betty' [Mitsubishi G4M bomber], and'Oscar' [Ki.43].)

As discussed in the main text, the Navy and MarineCorps Wildcats were sometimes initially hard-pressed to defend theirships and fields against the large forces of Betty bombers and theirZero escorts, which had ranges of 800 miles or more through the use ofdrop tanks.

The Brewster Buffalo had little to show for its fewencounters with the Japanese, which is difficult to understand given thetype's early success during the Russo-Finnish War. The F2A-1, a lighter,earlier model of the -3 which served with the Marines, was the standardFinnish fighter plane. In its short combat career in American service,the Brewster failed miserably.

Thus, the only fighter capable of meeting theJapanese on anything approaching equal terms was the F4F, which wasfortunate because the Wildcat was really all that was available in thosedark days following Pearl Harbor. Retired Brigadier General Robert E.Galer described the Wildcat as 'very rugged and very mistreated (atGuadalcanal).' He added:

Full throttle, very few replacement parts, muddylanding strips, battle damage, roughly repaired. We loved them. We didnot worry about flight characteristics except when senior officerswanted to make them bombers as well as fighters.

The Japanese also operated a unique form of fighter.Other combatants had tried to make seaplanes of existing designs. TheU.S. Navy had even hung floats on the Wildcat, which quickly became the'Wildcatfish.' The British had done it with the Spitfire. But theresulting combination left much to be desired and sapped the originaldesign of much of its speed and maneuverability.

The Japanese, however, seeing the need for awater-based fighter in the expanses of the Pacific, modified the A6M2Zero, and came up with what was arguably the most successful water-basedfighter of the war, the A6M2-N, which was allocated the Allied codename'Rufe.'

Manufactured by Mitsubishi's competitor, Nakajima,float-Zeros served in such disparate climates as the Aleutians and theSolomons. Although the floats bled off at least 40 mph from theland-based version's top speed, they seemed to have had only a minoreffect on its original maneuverability; the Rule acquired the samerespect as its sire.

While the F4F and P-40 (along with the luckless P-39)held the line in the Pacific, other, newer designs were leavingproduction lines, and none too soon. The two best newcomers were theArmy's Lockheed P-38 Lightning and the Navy's Vought F4U Corsair. TheP-38 quickly captured the headlines and public interest with its uniquetwin-boomed, twin-engine layout. It soon developed into a long-rangeescort, and served in the Pacific as well as Europe.

The Corsair was originally intended to fly from aircraft carriers, but its high landing speed, long nose that obliteratedthe pilot's view forward during the landing approach, and its tendencyto bounce, banished the big fighter from American flight decks for awhile. The British, however, modified the aircraft, mainly by clip pingits wings, and flew it from their small decks.

Deprived of its new carrier fighter — havingsettled on the new Grumman F6F Hellcat as its main carrier fighter— the Navy offered the F4U to the Marines. They took the firstsquadrons to the Solomons, and after a few disappointing first missions,they made the gull-winged fighter their own, eventually even flying itfrom the small decks of Navy escort carriers in the later stages of thewar.

Besides the two main fighters, the Army's Oscar andthe Navy's Zeke and its floatplane derivative, the Rufe, the Japaneseflew a wide assortment of aircraft, including land-based bombers, suchas the Mitsubishi G4M (codenamed Betty) and Ki.21 (Sally). Carrier-basedbombers included the Aichi D3A divebomber (the Val) which sawconsiderable service during the first three years of the war, and itsstablemate, the torpedo bomber from Nakajima, the B5N (Kate), one of themost capable torpedo-carriers of the first half of the war. The MarineCorps squadrons in the Solomons regularly encountered these aircraft.First Lieutenant James Swett's two engagements on 7 April 1943 nettedthe young Wildcat pilot seven Vals, and the Medal of Honor.

Although early wartime propaganda ridiculed Japaneseaircraft and their pilots, returning Allied aviators told differentstories, although the details of their experiences were kept classified.Each side's culture provided the basis for their aircraft designphilosophies. Eventually, the Japanese were overwhelmed by Americantechnology and numerical superiority. However, for the important first18 months of the Pacific war, they had the best. But, as was also thecase in the European theaters, a series of misfortunes, coincidences, alack of understanding by leaders, as well as the drain of prolongedcombat, finally allowed the Americans and their Allies to overcome theenemy's initial edge.