Posted on 01/27/2016 6:22:00 AM PST by Olog-hai
One of Mitsubishi's legendary Zero fighter planes took to the skies over Japan on Wednesday for the first time since World War II.
The restored plane made a brief flight to and from a naval base in southern Japan. Decorated former U.S. Air Force pilot Skip Holm flew the aircraft.
Zero fighters were considered one of the most capable fighter planes in World War II, rivaling the British Spitfire. Their long range allowed them to play a prominent role in the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor. Only a few are still in operating condition. ...
(Excerpt) Read more at bigstory.ap.org ...
Losing several hundred pilots at Midway didn’t do them any favors, either.
America's best fighter pilots were rotated home after a given number of missions to train the next batch of young hot shots.
I used to think that but then I read a historian say the Japs search and rescue (SAR) effort to collect ditch pilots after midway was pretty successful. I do not know what to think now.
True. If they’d rotated their veteran navy pilots home after the middle of ‘42 to train cadets they could’ve been a more potent force for a longer period. As it was they lost most of them by the end of the Guadalcanal campaign.
“Come and get some of that scrap metal you sold us, Yank!”
“Don’t call me Yank. I’m from Georgia.” —”God IS My Co-Pilot” (1945)
They didn’t lose very many pilots at Midway - what really hurt were the mechanics they lost with the flattops. Unlike the typical American boy who had a car or tractor at home, the average Japanese were not mechanically inclined.
ping
P-38 was more than a match for the A6M and had considerably more range than the 109 or the Spit. Later model P-38’s were much faster as well.
But even the USN’s Wildcat and the USAAF’s P-40’s could run with the Zero simply by out-diving them. A6M’s couldn’t dive very well over 300 mph because their “barn-door” ailerons would lock-up and they couldn’t turn worth a damn.
Allied tactics in ‘42 over the Solomons was get altitude, dive on the Zeros, light-em up with 6 50 cal. guns loaded with ball/incendiary, and dive away. By late ‘43 the Japanese had lost almost all of their best pilots as a result.
I read the same thing. They rescued most of the pilots but the well trained mechanics and other aircraft service crew went down with the carriers.
The Mitsubishi Thunderbolt, called the Jack by the Allies, was also a good interceptor that came out toward the end of the war. The aircraft museum in Chino, Calif. has one of these, along with a Zero that flies. Once, when I visited, I watched a flight of a MiG-15 which the museum got from China.
There was a severe flaw with the Zero. Any damage to its unarmored fuel tank and the plane would explode. And once the US pilots realized this, an awful lot of Zeros met their end. And Japanese pilots did not wear parachutes, to save weight.
Shattered Sword by Jonathan Parshall was probably what you read. The most detailed well researched account of the Midway Battle ever written IMO.
My step-grandfather was at Pearl Harbor on December 7th. One day, I was at his house helping him do some yard work, and a plane flew over head. I didn’t think anything of it, because it happens all the time. Then I noticed him very visibly shaking, and when I asked him what was wrong, he started sobbing. He said that the plane that flew overhead was a Jap Zero, and he could tell just by the engine sound. I took him inside to calm down and get him a glass of water. When we got in, his phone rang. It was one of his friends calling to see if he had heard the Zero, because the friend had heard it too.
In China, the American Volunteer Group, US fliers in service to the Chinese government was shooting down Zeros using P-40's. Claire L. Chennault, the group's commander, had figured out ways to take advantage of the Zero's shortcomings, such as its lack of armor. In addition, the Japanese army pilots they were facing were not as well trained as their counterparts in the navy.
The American Volunteer Group was soon absorbed by the US military and eventually became the Fourteenth Air Force.
* flies over Japan for 1st time since WWII And in a related story... 
the Enola Gay will make its first flight over Japan since World War Two--
Film... 
at Eleven!
*http://www.warbirddepot.com/dbimages/97/97-d-1280.jpg
I know someone who found a Zero part in a flea market that someone had brought back as a war souvenir.
He sold it for some good money on eBay, I think he said it went to Australia to someone who was restoring one.
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