Am I the only person in the world who's a fan of the Ki-43

[syscom3]

The invasion of the PI put a cork in japans ability to send raw materials back to it's factories. A snap invasion of Iwo in Sept 1944 would have been better. The marines were not really required by MaCarthur due to the numerous army divisions in the OOB.

 

[soulezoo]

And just how well were the Allies equipped to handle the strength of Japanese forces in 1944 compared to 1945?

The war of attrition on the Japanese was showing definite results on both the IJA and IJN by spring of 1945...so an assault on Okinawa and/or Iwo Jima in 1944, when the Japanese had greater material strength seems to me like it may have turned into a disaster for the Allies.

As for the "political assault" on the Philippines...at what point should they have been taken?

The Philippines provided a wealth of military resources for the Japanese in airfields, naval bases and staging areas that was a "jumping off" point to held areas to the south, east and the Asian mainland - taking that away from the Japanese drove a huge wedge into their ability to move, resupply and hold areas in the region.

This is a bit of a derail from the OP, but I am reminded that MacArthur received the MOH out of pure politics as well. Roosevelt wanted to sack him due to his indifference at the initial reports of Japanese movements against the PI to the poor defense planning he utilized. So the MOH was awarded to deflect the attention from how bad he actually behaved. I've only been able to speak to a few people over time that were fairly close to MacArthur and he is not held in high regard. The Japanese, post war, have a different view.

 

[Shinpachi]

Yes, General MacArthur was respected by Japanese because he tried to understand them as he testified later in the Armed Services and Foreign Relations Committees of the United States Senate – 82nd Congress, Thursday May 3, 1951. His mistake, however, was to have disbanded IJA and IJN perfectly. He would have missed them when he encountered communists in Korea.

 

[Elmas]

Yes, General MacArthur was respected by Japanese because he tried to understand them as he testified later in the Armed Services and Foreign Relations Committees of the United States Senate – 82nd Congress, Thursday May 3, 1951. His mistake, however, was to have disbanded IJA and IJN perfectly. He would have missed them when he encountered communists in Korea.

This seems to be an error that Americans tend to do often.

In 2006 I was invited to a conference of Sir Edward Chaplin, then HM Ambassador to Italy and, just before, notable for serving as British ambassador in occupied Iraq from April 2004.

After his speech the audience was allowed to pose some questions.

"What do you think, Sir" was mine " has been the worst error of the Americans in Iraq?"

"No doubt, to have disbanded the Iraqi Army" was his reply.

 

[Shinpachi]

That's it, Elmas.
Our old proverb says a snake knows its path well.

 

[Timppa]

Speaking of MacArthur , Japanese are the masters of interpreting subtle expressions. But even "gaijin" got a clear message of who was the boss in Japan immediately after WW2, after seeing the photo of Gaetano Faillace, MacArthurs personal photographer.


When MacArthur Met the Emperor

 

[Shinpachi]

Hirohito looks taller than before.
Not a bad picture

 

[Jenisch]

Bringing this thread back to life!

I also like from the Ki-43. I was wondering if the top speed of the the Ki-43I, of 495km/h, was military power or if the plane could fly faster than that. If it could fly faster, anyone knows how much?

 

[Greg Boeser]

What impresses me about the Japanese fighter forces in general was their ability to take down even American heavies with such light armament. The 408th BG in China got a severe bloody nose in the summer of '43, when Ki-43s made mince meat of their unescorted formations.

 

[GregP]

Funny you should say the CBI was a sideshow relative to the Pacific Ocean Areas. The USAAF flew 2.5 more sorties in the CBI than in the POA and dropped twice as much bomb tonnage in the CBI as in the POA. The Far East Air Force was 2.5 time more again than the CBI.

All probably due to the fact that a carrier didn't ccarry all THAT many aircraft when compared with a large ground base, and though we had a few carriers, we had a LOT more ground bases.

 

[michaelmaltby]

"...General Douglas MacArthur had landed at Atsugi airbase two days before; since the VJ day, he had been asked by President Truman to oversee the occupation of Japan. It was a daunting task. On his drive to Yokohama from Atsugi, tens of thousands of Japanese soldiers greeted him with their bayonets out in one final act of symbolic defiance. .."

The General made a greater impression when he debarked at Atsugi two days before UNARMED ... and at his insistence the rest of his staff. Winston Churchill claimed that was the bravest act of WW2 .... hyperbole, no doubt, but memorable

 

[michaelmaltby]

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1p8OIWdnAo

 

[Shinpachi]

I remember the ruined fields and lively Japanese in the 1950s as a kid.

 

[Old Wizard]

 

[Jenisch]

I found a post about armor in the Ki-43 II in a Japanese aircraft blog:

Aviation of Japan 日本の航空史: Armour Plate on the Ki-43 Hayabusa

An excerpt caught my attention:

An intercepted Japanese report of early 1944 summarising combat lessons after the first clashes between the Ki-43 and RAF Spitfires in Burma mentions that its pilots were pleased with the armour and fuel tank protection in the Type 1 Hayabusa and that one aircraft had returned safely after receiving 39 hits.

However it appears that the Ki-43 never had an armored windscreen, since armor only for the back and head of the pilot are mentioned.

 

[tomo pauk]

Indeed, the newly-installed protection is mentioned in Allied docs, too. Eg: link

 

[Jenisch]

According to the report, that thing could go to almost 560km/h using WEP at 20,000ft. How much the late variants of the P-40 could go with WEP?

 

[Shortround6]

P-40s had a somewhat different performance envelope. A P-40N-1 (stripper model) could do 548kp/h at 20,000ft but that is with military power. The supercharger could not provide WEP at much above 15,000ft. It could provide 57in of boost (13 1/2 lbs?) up to 9200ft in level flight. Boost fell from that altitude on up. 46.75in at 15,000ft and 43.8in at 17,000ft (military power).
The P-40N could do 352mph (567km/h) at 9-10,000ft using 57in of boost.

These figures are from a RAAF tests and not Curtiss Factory tests which give better speeds.

There is little doubt the P-40 was much faster at lower altitudes than the Ki 43 if more than the Military "rated" 43.8-44.5in of boost was used.
However even the later P-40s ran out of "puff" as they got close to 20,000ft and even the Stripper P-40N-1 (no electric start, one fuel tank taken out, magnesium wheels, aluminium radiators and just four guns with limited ammo) still went between 7750-7900lbs instead of the 8350-8550lbs of the fully equipped late model P-40s.

P-40s attempting to fight at over 20,000ft could be in real trouble.

Picking only one altitude to compare performance at doesn't give a real good picture of planes actual ability.

 

[Jenisch]

Yeah, certainly the speed at just one range is not enough.

By what I have read about the Ki-43, the main complaints were about lack of armor (at least before armor was introduced), structural failure (in the first production model) and weak armamment. However I did not read criticism about what I think is the greatest issue this plane had: it's speed. That thing was just SO slow for an aircraft that was entering in service in late 1941. I think that even against Hurricanes and Buffalos it was outclassed in terms of speed. Not to say a P-40E.

Contrary to popular criticism, I don't think the Japanese were wrong in regard to wish a great maneuverability in their aircraft. Their main problem, as I have said I belive, was with speed. The Soviets had planes with great speed and agility in the form of the late Yaks and La fighters. So I think the Japanese were not totally in wrong in trying to force close in combat with the Allied planes. They just needed a mean to do this (i.e. engine power). And I think the Ki-43 airframe was not bad at all, because I have read that the model III could reach 358 mph of top speed (again, I don't know how the speed was distribued among the different altitudes, neither if this value is with WEP or not). If only they could have started the war with this version as standard, the Japanese would have had a much more decent airplane. Although it should be mentioned that neither the P-40 was avaliable in it's full potential in 1941, with aircraft such as the P-40B and even the P-36 being operational. So things were indeed more complex.

 

[Shortround6]

The Ki 43-I had a single speed supercharger and power at the higher altitudes was a bit lacking. The Ki 43-II used a two speed supercharger and had a lot more power at 20,000ft while not giving up anything at lower altitudes. The engines were the army equivalents of the engines used in the Zero.

You can get WEP in two basic ways, one is by using more boost (manifold pressure) than normally allowed but this only works at altitudes were the supercharger can actually supply the higher pressure, that is to say below the FTH. (full throttle height) or critical altitude. Once the throttle plate is fully open the supercharger is delivering all the air it can and there is no more power to be had.
The 2nd way is to use more RPM than normally allowed, this places even more stress on the engine and is limited to short periods of time. It is also useful to countries than did not have access to high performance number fuel.

Most countries also used water/alcohol injection for WEP in some engines.