Aviation and War Machine

Many aviation authorities regard the North American P-51 Mustang to be the best American air superiority fighter of the Second World War. Many top aces flew the Mustang, including Colonel Donald Blakeslee (15 victories) and C.O. of the famous 4th Fighter Group (which destroyed over 1,000 German aircraft, more than any other American fighter group in WW II), Captain Don Gentile (35 victories), Captain John Godfrey (31 victories), and General Chuck Yeager (the first man to break the sound barrier). Also Colonel Eagleston (23 victories), commander of the 354th Fighter Group of the Ninth Tactical Air Force, and top ace of the 9th. Also in the 9th was Major James Howard, the only American ace in both theaters of the war (6 victories in China flying P-40’s, and 6 victories in Europe flying P-51’s).
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It is hard for modern researchers to understand just how dominant the Zero was in the early years of the Pacific War. No Allied plane could stand against it. The obsolete Brewster Buffalo and the sleek looking but comparatively low performance Bell P-39 fared poorly against the Zero. The best of the early American Army fighters was probably the Curtis P-40, and the early models of this fighter were distinctly inferior in most respects to the Zero. Even the contemporary models of the famous British Spitfire and Hurricane fighters, which had won the Battle of Britain, had major problems with the Zero when they met in 1942.

At sea, the situation was hardly much better. The U.S. Navy’s Grumman F4F Wildcat was out classed by the Zero, although it probably provided the best competition of any of the Allied fighter in the theater. Navy and Marine pilots used the stubby fighter’s maneuverability to good advantage in the desperate early battles in the Pacific.

Most of Japan’s many top aces flew the Zero. Prominent among them is Saburo Sakai (with 64 victories), the top scoring Japanese ace to survive the war, and Hiroyoshi Nishizawa (actual total of victories unknown, but 104 confirmed), perhaps the greatest Japanese ace of them all. Among other Japanese aces, Shoichi Sugita had 120+ victories, Tadashi Nakajima 75+, Naoishi Kanno 53, Teimei Akamatsu 50+, and Kinsuke Muto 35.
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In 1941 the German Luftwaffe encountered a previously unknown Russian fighter with a long slender nose, clearly powered by an inline or “Vee” type engine. The known Soviet fighters were powered by radial engines and lacked the performance of the front line German fighters. German intelligence was very poor concerning the Soviet Air Force and the existence of this new fighter took Luftwaffe fighter pilots completely by surprise.

Equally surprising, and disconcerting, was that this sleek Soviet fighter was faster than the Bf 109F, Germany’s top fighter at the time, and could out maneuver the vaunted Messerschmitt as well. At first the Luftwaffe High Command refused to believe the reports of their pilots, but soon the reality became undeniable. The MiG-3 had arrived.

The following comments from a German expert, Dr. Ing. Karl-Heinz Steinicke, as quoted in the book Horrido! by Trevor J. Constable and Col. Raymond F. Toliver, are worth repeating.

“In July and August 1941, during the first aerial combats over Kiev, elegant low-wing monoplanes with straight engines appeared next to the Rata. A few of them had been seen over Lemberg during the first few days, but this didn’t cause much of a surprise because they were held to be our own.”
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The Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighter was flown by many of the top scoring Luftwaffe fighter pilots during WW II. The top fighter pilot of all time, Erich Hartmann (who flew 1,400 missions, shot down 352 enemy planes–mostly on the Eastern Front–and was proudest of the fact that he never lost a wingman), and the second highest scoring fighter pilot of all time, Gerhard Barkhorn (301 victories, all on the Eastern Front), both flew the Bf 109. So did the third highest scoring ace of all time, Gunther Rall (275 victories). The top scoring German ace of the Western front, Hans-Joachim Marseille (158 victories), also flew the Bf 109. As did the first “General of Fighters”, Werner Molders (115 victories), and his famous successor in that job, Adolf Galland (104 victories).

Squadron Commander Heinz Knoke, who wrote the fascinating book I Flew For the Furher had 33 victories (plus 5 that were not confirmed before the end of the war), 19 of them 4-engine bombers. Knoke logged over 2,000 flights and over 400 combat missions, all in the Bf 109.

The prototype Messerschmitt Bf 109 first flew in 1935. It participated in trials to become the new fighter of the expanding Luftwaffe and won decisively. The successful new fighter prototype was a low wing, all metal monoplane with an enclosed cockpit and retractable landing gear; the type of fighter that became the mainstay of all sides in WW II. But the Bf 109 was the first such fighter to appear in service.
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The P-40, with the distinctive shark’s mouth painted on its nose, has always been one of the most recognizable fighters of World War II. Yet few realize that it is also one of the most controversial. The Curtis P-40 is thought by many to have been slow and obsolete from its inception. Its role in the defense of the Pacific during the early years of the war has been minimized. The Warhawk was, in fact, a much better fighter than most observers believe.

There are three main reasons for this misconception. For one, the P-40 was based on an older aircraft, the P-36. The forward section and the liquid cooled Allison V-12 engine (V-1710) were new, but from the firewall to tail it was exactly the same as the P-36. Because of this, the P-40 is thought to have been obsolescent from its inception. Its naval contemporary, the F4F Wildcat (which is described as being a better opponent for the Zero by World War II magazine) was based on a biplane design! Of course, few authorities mention that. The P-36 airframe wasn’t obsolete, merely proven successful. It was actually very sturdy. Secondly, newer fighters, including the P-38, P-47, and P-51 overshadowed it. Finally, its faults (and it had some–all aircraft do) were exaggerated to the point that it seemed impossible for the P-40 to succeed against any enemy aircraft. Although it couldn’t out maneuver the Zero (the Warhawk’s main foe in the Pacific Theater), neither could the Spitfire, Hurricane, Lighting, Thunderbolt, Mustang, Wildcat, or Corsair, but that is never mentioned.

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Quite possibly the best Air Force of the Second World War, in terms of kill-to-loss ratio, belonged to the Finland, an ally of Germany. And one of the most ironic results of that war was that the preferred fighter of the Finns is widely considered today to be the worst fighter of the war, an aircraft that failed in every other theatre in which it participated. But what about this diminutive plane, was it’s performance really as poor as historians claim?

The Brewster B-239 (U.S. Navy designation F2A) was created in response to the United States Navy’s request for a modern aircraft to replace the Grumman F3F pursuit plane. Four aircraft manufactures threw their hat in the ring. The Curtiss-Wright Company proposed a variant of its P-36 Hawk with reinforced landing gear and a tail hook. Seversky offered similar modifications to their P-35. Grumman made the natural progression of its line with the F4F Wildcat. And the small Brewster Aeronautical Corporation of New York City presented a stocky, barrel-like fighter designed by Dayton T. Brown.

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One of the first monoplanes to fly from U.S. carrier decks, the Grumman naval fighter became one of the most successful, in the hands of Butch O’Hare, Joe Foss, Marion Carl, and other great pilots. Grumman’s stubby, rugged fighter held the line against the Zeros in the early air battles over Guadalcanal and in the 1942 carrier battles of the Coral Sea, Midway, and the Eastern Solomons. In pure performance, the Zero outclassed the F4F, but with its tough construction and well-trained pilots using appropriate tactics, the Wildcat prevailed. Later in the war, the FM-2, an Eastern-produced version of the Wildcat, flew from escort carriers.

Development

In 1936, the US Navy published a requirement for a carrier-based fighter, While the Navy first selected the Brewster F2A Buffalo, it authorized Leroy Grumman’s Bethpage, Long Island company to build one prototype, the XF4F-2, as an alternative. Experienced builders of carrier planes, the Grumman designers planned the Wildcat for the challenging take-offs and landings on small, heaving carrier decks. With large wings, situated well forward on the fuselage, the plane had very high lift, permitted quick take-offs, slow landings, and excellent maneuverability. But high lift resulted in slower speed, which could only be improved with a more powerful engine.

Grumman test pilot Robert Hall first flew the XF4F-2 in September, 1937. Powered by a Pratt & Whitney R-1830-66 Twin Wasp, rated at 1,050 horsepower, it achieved 290 miles per hour in test flight. The XF4F-2 featured a cantilever wing set midway up the fuselage, all-metal construction, semi-monocoque construction, mill-riveted skin, four .50 caliber machine guns, and main wheels that retracted into the fuselage. Despite the F4F’s speedy performance in a 1938 fly-off at Anacostia, the Navy went with the Brewster.

"On its own hook," Grumman improved the design further with the next prototype, the XF4F-3. The "dash Three" had the more powerful R-1830-76 P&W, larger wings, a better machine gun installation, and (ultimately) a higher-mounted tailplane. With a top speed of 335 MPH, it impressed the Navy, and 78 F4F-3 aircraft were ordered in August, 1939.

An export version of the F4F-3, powered by the Wright Cyclone R-1820, served with the British Fleet Air Arm (FAA), as the Martlet Mark I. Other Martlet versions included the Mark II, Mark III, and Mark IV. They served primarily on escort carriers in the Battle of the Atlantic. Among the notable achievements of FAA Martlet pilots was the downing of a four-engine Fw 200 Condor off Gibraltar in September, 1940.

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