GregP
Major
I've noticed that the Grumman F6F Hellcat gets little respect in here from a lot of people and is generally not all that well thought of since this forum seems to like on top speed over other characteristics. I decided to re-check "Duels in the Sky" by Eric Brown, widely acclaimed as the most experienced aviator of WWII and immediate post-war. I reclled he rather liked the F6F.
In his "duels," he rates the Hellcat as the probable winner versus the Meserschmitt Bf 109G-6 and says the outcome of a Hellcat versus Fw 190A-4 would be decided by pilot skill. He says both the Hellcat and the Corsair should have little trouble dealing with a Tony 31, which was slightly inferior to a Zeke 52.
Eric rates the Fw 190D-9 as the finest all-round German fighter in Luftwaffe service and says the Fw 190D-9 should win in a straight-up fight with the Hellcat if the pilots were evenly matched. For theoretical combat, he allows the Spitfire IX should win in a fight with the Hellcat, but a lot of sweat would be expended before the conclusion.
In the end Eric rates the Spitfire and Fw 190 as tied at the top for best fighter of WWII, followed by the Hellcat, followed by the P-51, followed by the Zero (or Zeke). He says that while the Hellcat didn't rate as the top fighter, it was certainly the best Naval fighter in the Pacific and also the greatest Naval fighter of WWII.
So, as a Hellcat fan myself, I'm glad to see a well respect pilot rating the F6F as high as he did. I submit it would not have had quite the bad time some people in here think had it been introduced in numbers in the ETO, but that is a "what if." Though the Royal Navy did fly a few, they didn't have many and they didn't play much a part in the ETO.
What would really strike my fancy is if Grumman had been allowed to tweak the F6F-5 and fix the rather slow roll rate and introduce a few general upgrades. They had the ideas but were never allowed to interrupt production to introduce the refinements.
The Hellcat was not alone in that regard, and most fighters probably had another variant or two left in the basic airframe that never got built due to the war winding down while using the existing variants to good effect. The war was already expensive enough and there was little point in improving planes that were already finding it hard to locate victims in the closing month of WWII. I'm thinking a "Super Hellcat" could have been introduced in late 1944, but the end of the war in Germany was in sight by then. Once Europe was won, the change in deployments to the Pacific would result in an easy doubling of the forces there, and there was also no point in spending money to improve planes that were available in large numbers for re-deployment to the Pacific if necessary.
No big statement here, just the thought that the F6F was no pushover if encountered in a fight wherever it might be.
In his "duels," he rates the Hellcat as the probable winner versus the Meserschmitt Bf 109G-6 and says the outcome of a Hellcat versus Fw 190A-4 would be decided by pilot skill. He says both the Hellcat and the Corsair should have little trouble dealing with a Tony 31, which was slightly inferior to a Zeke 52.
Eric rates the Fw 190D-9 as the finest all-round German fighter in Luftwaffe service and says the Fw 190D-9 should win in a straight-up fight with the Hellcat if the pilots were evenly matched. For theoretical combat, he allows the Spitfire IX should win in a fight with the Hellcat, but a lot of sweat would be expended before the conclusion.
In the end Eric rates the Spitfire and Fw 190 as tied at the top for best fighter of WWII, followed by the Hellcat, followed by the P-51, followed by the Zero (or Zeke). He says that while the Hellcat didn't rate as the top fighter, it was certainly the best Naval fighter in the Pacific and also the greatest Naval fighter of WWII.
So, as a Hellcat fan myself, I'm glad to see a well respect pilot rating the F6F as high as he did. I submit it would not have had quite the bad time some people in here think had it been introduced in numbers in the ETO, but that is a "what if." Though the Royal Navy did fly a few, they didn't have many and they didn't play much a part in the ETO.
What would really strike my fancy is if Grumman had been allowed to tweak the F6F-5 and fix the rather slow roll rate and introduce a few general upgrades. They had the ideas but were never allowed to interrupt production to introduce the refinements.
The Hellcat was not alone in that regard, and most fighters probably had another variant or two left in the basic airframe that never got built due to the war winding down while using the existing variants to good effect. The war was already expensive enough and there was little point in improving planes that were already finding it hard to locate victims in the closing month of WWII. I'm thinking a "Super Hellcat" could have been introduced in late 1944, but the end of the war in Germany was in sight by then. Once Europe was won, the change in deployments to the Pacific would result in an easy doubling of the forces there, and there was also no point in spending money to improve planes that were available in large numbers for re-deployment to the Pacific if necessary.
No big statement here, just the thought that the F6F was no pushover if encountered in a fight wherever it might be.
