This what happens to Zeroes after Hoppo gets one, the Americans pull out the F6F Hellcats and begins the Marianas Air Massacre
Well it is not actually the USN planes that give an overall advantage in winning air battles after Midway. After all, the IJN's lost of it's most veteran pilots results to it.
Well it is not actually the USN planes that give an overall advantage in winning air battles after Midway. After all, the IJN's lost of it's most veteran pilots results to it.
Well, the Akutan Zero crashed at the same time during the Midway operations so to be truthful, it is a combination of both. Which means the US had been very nice to the RNGoddess.
Well, the Akutan Zero crashed at the same time during the Midway operations so to be truthful, it is a combination of both. Which means the US had been very nice to the RNGoddess.
It's really the veterancy issue at play, here. (After all, most of those planes weren't even zeroes.)
I remember reading how one American ace managed to bag 4 kills in a row because the pilots were told to fly in formation in a straight line to the target, since they would run out of fuel, otherwise... so they didn't even maneuver to evade enemy aircraft. The guns on the bombers are backwards-facing, but on the top of the aircraft, so the American pilot just flew below and behind them, then nosed up to rip the belly out of a plane, then move on to the next one in the flight.
It was nicknamed "The Great Marianas Turkey Shoot" for a reason. Doesn't matter how good a plane is if nobody knows how to fly it.
Because of that "out range tactic", the Americans had fueled-up aircraft (warned well in advance of enemy positions thanks to improved radar to the point of destroying the land-based aircraft on the ground) defending against enemies that had to choose between dooming themselves trying futily to complete their mission flying straight into the maw of air supremacy, or dooming themselves by fuel exhaustion trying to perform maneuvers they weren't really even trained to do. (Well, they didn't quite fly straight at the Americans, they stopped to wait for their planes to catch up, which gave the Americans time to get their Hellcats on the enemy bombers. This is in contrast to the American attack in Midway, where they were sent strung out at maximum range, and the torpedo bombers were ripped to shreds, but served at least as distractions for the dive bombers. In the Philippine Sea, they just flew in circles until almost none of them were left to attack.)
