Recent content by mjdavis

  1. M

    FM-2 Wildcat and dive bombing

    Thanks for the info. I believe that the plywood version I read about was a temporary field modification that was made until the actual production version was available. It's too bad these modifications weren't available at Midway.
  2. M

    FM-2 Wildcat and dive bombing

    The ring-tail was an arial torpedo with a a contraption made of plywood attached to the tail. It broke away when the torpedo hit the water but helped to stabilize it on the way from the plane to the water. This allowed the Avengers to drop torpedoes from much higher heights (800 ft instead of...
  3. M

    FM-2 Wildcat and dive bombing

    To Timshatz (Cocerning your response about Taffy aircraft being used for ground attack roles when Kurita appeared) Worse, many of the planes were involved in activities like dropping supplies and water to the Marines ashore. Taffy 3 was under attack and launched whatever aircraft that was on...
  4. M

    FM-2 Wildcat and dive bombing

    To Amsel In my previous response I didn't address your interesting comment about strafing. I'm not a pilot and never flew in anything smaller then a commercial airliner so i don't have a feel about how strafing actually works. With that caveat I'll make the following asumptions/guesses...
  5. M

    FM-2 Wildcat and dive bombing

    It would seem like a good idea for the CVEs of Taffy 2 to arm some of their Wildcats with bombs (or rockets if they had that equipment) when they went to the aid of Taffy 3 at Samar. Taffy 2 was no more than 35 miles from Kurita's ships and they might have had the information that Kurita didn't...
  6. M

    FM-2 Wildcat and dive bombing

    The technical specifications for the FM-2 Wildcat usuually say it can carry 2 - 250lb bombs on wing hardpoints but I've never been able o find anything in writing that actually describes a FM-2 Wildcat actually bombing anything. I have seen the description of the F4F Wildcats at Wake Island...
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