Статистика, оценки, факторы первые годы PTO

Прошу воздержаться от дебатов а просто писать различные факты с указанием источников .

Wildcat:
US Marine F4Fs (11 squadrons) 562 victories
US Navy F4Fs (28 squadrons) 520.5 victories
US Navy FM (38 squadrons) 432 victories

15 top credited (kills) Wildcat units:
VMF-121 Solomons 160
VMF-233 Solomons 133.5 (22.5 TAD)
VF-5 Saratoga and Solomons 79
VGF-11/VF-21 Solomons 69
VC-27 Savo Island 61.5
VMF-224 Solomons 61.5 (6.5 TAD)
VMF-112 Solomons 61
VMF-212 Solomons 57
VF-11 Solomons 55
VF-3 Lexington, Yorktown 50.5 (some as VF-42)
VGF/VF-26 Sangamon, Solomons and Santee 46
VF-72 Hornet and Solomons 44
VF-10 Entreprise and Solomon 43
VMO-251 Solomons 33
VMF-221 Solomons 30

Об вооружении:

" Essentially, US Navy Fighter squadrons used two methods in aligning their guns. Probably most common was convergence of all six weapons around a point 1000 ft ahead of fighter. The size of circle varied from squadron to squadron, but three nils was certainly as small as aby one cared to use. In that case. three mils sibstented three ft at 1000 ft range, for pattern one yard in diameter.
However, only an expert aerial gunner could make a good use of a three mil harmonisation. Most pilots were not so profecient, and consequently, a wider dispersion was developed by boresighting each set of guns at different ranges:usually 250,300,and 350 yards for outboard, middle and inboard guns, respectively. This pattern boresight was attributed to Lt Cdr Gordon Cady, who fle F4Fs with VF-11 at Guadalcanal during 1943. Though inherently less lethal than the tighter cone of fire, its greater dispersion of lead made some hits more likely, which could often have a telling effect in any case due to the fact that Japanese aircraft lacked both airframe armour and self-sealing tanks.
The Blue Devils, US NAVY & Marine Aces of WWII, Mark Styling & Barett Tillman ISBN 1 84176 735 2

О сравнительных тестах Zero и Wildcat:

"Recovering an almost intact A6M in the Aleutians was a major intelligence coup for the Americans. But the task of repairing Petty Officer Tadayoshi Koga's crashed Zero was by no means simple - American engineers had no technical data to consult. Fortunately, major repair work only needed to be done to the nose, canopy and tail unit, and brolen Sumitomo propeller was replaces by a Hamilton Standard, the two being virtually idenctical. The repair task was completed by October 1942, and Zero was sent to San Diego so that it could be evaluated against various types of US fighters in first-line service at the time. After the Zero was pitted against the Grumman F4F Wildcat in simulated combat, the subsequent report concluede that:
"The Zeke (Zero) is superior to the F4F-4 in speed and climb at al altitudes above 1000 feet and superior in service ceiling and range. Close to sea level, with the Wildcat in neutral blower, the wto aircraft are equal in level speed. During the dives the two aircraft are also equal with exception that Zeke's engine cuts out in pushover. There is no comparisson between the turning circles of the two aircraft due to the relative wing loading and low stalling speed of the Zeke.
' In view of foregoing the F4F type in combat with Zeke is basically dependent on mutual support, internal protection, and pullouts or turns at high speed where minimum radius is limimited by structural or physiological effects of acceleration (assuming that the allowable acceleration on the F4F is greater then that of the Zero), However, advantage should be taken, where possible, of the superiority of the F4F Wildcat in pushovers and rolls at high speed, or in combination of two"

Combat Legend Mitsubishi Zero, Robert Jackson ISBN 1 84037 398 9

Пилоты о Wildcat

Американские пилоты:
Thomas Furlow

"The Wildcat was a simple plane. You didn't really have to monitor much. The air cooled engine was a real advantage. I saw many planes that come in that had been hit, cylinders missing, shot off. And the plane got back. An inline engine went down fast if the coolant was damaged. And you had to crank the landing gear up by hand. It was hard to fly formation and crank the thing- you'd be looking down for the crank and looking around at other aircaft. And later you had to crank it down. The tail wheel stayed down all the time. But it was a reliable way to lower gear. I don't remember anyone coming in on their belly because the gear wouldn't go down. It was extremely forgiving except for the ground loops. And also extremely rugged. It had good armor plating and was beautifully put togather. Grumman knew how to make tough planes. You couldn't pull the wings off it in maneuver or anything like that"

Foss:

"Even though the Japs had us outnumbered, they didn't want to mix it up close. They realized that we'd fight like a creeching cat in a dark bag with a snake in it. They knew they might get hit, so they'd hesitate- stay on the outside and try to make a jab at us. If I'd have been directing their activities I wouldn't have gotten inot our group at all. I would have made high-speed runs to pick off US planes from the outside. I'd be darned if I'd ever gotten tangled up close with our planes. We had six .50-caliber machine guns, and the enemy knew if they got cought and were clobbered that their machine was liable to blow up. Out pilots had the advantage of worrying a lot less about that. We'd take a lot off lead all the time. People have asked me,
" Wouldn't you rather have had a P-51?" and I'd say, "No way". With the number of times that I got whacked, if I'd had something that leaked I'd have been out of action in a hurry with frozen engine, The Wildcat came from what we called "Grumman Iron Works"

Японский пилот:
Saburo Sakai:
" I realized that Grumman's fighting performance far exceeded that of American, Dutch, or Chinese fighter planes, but had full confidence in my ability. For some strange rason, even after I had poured about five or six hundred rounds of ammunition directly into the Grumman, the aeroplane did not fall, but kept flying. I thought this very odd - it had never happened before - and closed the distance between the two aeroplanes till I could almost reached out a touch the Grumman. To my spurise, his rudder and tail were ripped to shreds, looking like an old torn piece of "rag"
[A short with later] I saw them about 1500 feet belowe me a single Wildcat pursued by three Zeros, firing in short burst at the frantic Japanese planes. All four planes were in a wild dogfight, flying tight left spirals. The Zero should have been able to take the lone Grumman without trouble, but every time Zero cought Wildcat before its guns the enemy planes flipped away and come out again on the tail of Zero. I had never seen such flying before"

Британский пилот:
Joch Herbert
"Concerning the Wildcat I echo the line of one of our best test pilots - it was probably the finest deck-landing naval aircraft ever built. It wasn't much good on land because the wheels were narrow, os if you had a slight crosswind and weren't that good you could ground-loop in very easily. But for deck landing visibility was superb. I once landed a Wildcat with a hole in one wing big enough to put my desk through. I've landed with most of the tail shot away and with holes all over it, and bits dripping out of the engine, and still the bloody thing flew. It was incredibly good. The Spitfire was the opposite. On land Spitfire V was a splended aircraft. When they tried to put it on board carrier, where it was called Seafire, it just didn't have the strength. The Royal Navy employed many American aircraft and the pilots appreciated it greately


Fire in the Sky. The Air War in the South Pacific. Eric M. Bergerud ISBN 0 8133 3869 7 (pb)

Посмотрел интервью с пилотом, который летает на восстановленном Уайлдкэте.
Вот его слова: "Основная слава в Битве за Британию досталась "Спитфайрам", хотя основную работу сделали "Харрикейны". Если бы не было "Харрикейнов", но ход битвы мог быть совсем другим. Так же и "Уайлдкэт" - хотя он и проигрывал по основным характеристикам тем самолетам, которые переломили ход воздушной войны на Тихом океане - "Хеллкэтам" и "Корсарам", но если бы у нас не было в начале войны "Уайлдкэтов", то все могло быть гораздо хуже, чем было на первых этапах войны".