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And yet, oddly, the F4F did much better against all the best Axis fighters (including both Bf 109 and A6M) than the Hurricane or Sea Hurricane did, let alone the obsolescent Fulmar, Skua, or Sea Gladiator. The Dauntless, like it's Japanese counterpart the D3A, sunk far more warships than the Swordfish or Albacore ever did, and the American fleet defeated the Japanese fleet, while the RN fleet, even with considerable support from land based aircraft, was crushed.
The Fleet Admirals would love to have had a carrier born P-40F, it was 40 mph faster than a Wildcat or a Hurricane, and was a much more lethal combat aircraft, but even in the unlikely event it could be made to handle carrier takeoffs and landings (they could take off from carriers but I don't think that landing gear could handle the landings) they couldn't for the same reason they stopped using the F4F-3, because the wings didn't fold.
A P-40F by the way, was a far cry from a Hurricane. As I've pointed out repeatedly, both types of fighters, along with all the other Anglo-American types, saw combat side by side in both the MTO and the Pacific. P-40F/L was used mostly in the MTO (equipping 5 US fighter wings, 2 RAF Sqns and 1 Free French) but it was also used in the Pacific, by the 49th Ftr Group. The P-40F/L units held their own quite well against both Luftwaffe and Japanese opponents, (unlike the Hurricane) but it was never going to be a carrier aircraft. That just shows you that the communiques from that particular moment in the war were not necessarily reflective of the reality or the position over time. For a brief time everybody wanted the P-40F, then newer generation of fighters started to arrive.
At the time that memo was sent, the full lessons of Midway hadn't sunk in, the main pertinent to this discussion and the F4F-4 being the success of Sqn leader and Lt Commander Jimmy Thach. While some Wildcat units got slaughtered at Midway, as we have already discussed, First Team shows us that Jimmy Thach did quite well during that same battle. His new combat tactic the soon to be universal Thach Weave, enabled his small flight of 6 x F4F-4 Wildcats to fend off a much larger flight of 20 x A6M and shoot down 3 A6M at the cost of 1 Wildcat.
I don't remember ever seeing a Hurricane unit fight off a numerically superior number of A6Ms (or Ki-43s) let alone manage a ratio like that.
Thach was the first to demonstrate that with the correct tactics the Wildcat could take advantage of it's flight characteristics relative to the A6M. As these tactics and other guidelines were systematically spread through the Navy fighter squadrons, they managed to achieve parity with the A6M and Ki-43 units they encountered. This cannot be said of the Hurricane, the Fulmar, or the Skua.
The Hurricane, compared to the Wildcat or Martlet, was not fully a carrier fighter. It was really only a CAP fighter. All it could be used for was defending the fleet, especially against the kind of strikes that the convoys often encountered - small numbers of unescorted and often obsolescent bombers or miscellaneous maritime patrol or sea planes - He 115, Ar 196, SM. 79, CANT 1007, Z.506, FW 200 and etc. Hurricanes could also contend with Ju 87s, and if they could catch them, Ju 88s. But by the time of Pedestal the Hurricane was hard pressed to hold it's own against a Bf 109F or G, an MC 202, or an A6M or Ki-43.
According to Armored Carriers.com, the main flaw of the Sea Hurricane was it's poor range and endurance:
The Sea Hurricane's range was recorded as about 450 miles. But it was loiter time that meant the most for carrier operations.
Sea Hurricanes carried only enough fuel to sustain themselves for 1 hour at combat power, and 4.5 hours at full-economical settings. The Fulmar and Martlet could stay aloft for 2 hours and 2 hours 45 minutes under combat power, and 6 hours economical.
The consequence of this was carriers being forced to turn into the wind far more often to take-off and land Sea Hurricanes. So they were often held as 'alert' aircraft on the deck while their longer-legged stablemates maintained the CAP.
This is just another example of why range is so important in carrier operations. Now the Fulmar had decent range (Wildcat was significantly better), but the Fulmar didn't have much of a chance against any modern fighters, especially Zeros, while the Wildcat certainly did as the historical record shows us.
The Fleet Admirals would love to have had a carrier born P-40F, it was 40 mph faster than a Wildcat or a Hurricane, and was a much more lethal combat aircraft, but even in the unlikely event it could be made to handle carrier takeoffs and landings (they could take off from carriers but I don't think that landing gear could handle the landings) they couldn't for the same reason they stopped using the F4F-3, because the wings didn't fold.
A P-40F by the way, was a far cry from a Hurricane. As I've pointed out repeatedly, both types of fighters, along with all the other Anglo-American types, saw combat side by side in both the MTO and the Pacific. P-40F/L was used mostly in the MTO (equipping 5 US fighter wings, 2 RAF Sqns and 1 Free French) but it was also used in the Pacific, by the 49th Ftr Group. The P-40F/L units held their own quite well against both Luftwaffe and Japanese opponents, (unlike the Hurricane) but it was never going to be a carrier aircraft. That just shows you that the communiques from that particular moment in the war were not necessarily reflective of the reality or the position over time. For a brief time everybody wanted the P-40F, then newer generation of fighters started to arrive.
At the time that memo was sent, the full lessons of Midway hadn't sunk in, the main pertinent to this discussion and the F4F-4 being the success of Sqn leader and Lt Commander Jimmy Thach. While some Wildcat units got slaughtered at Midway, as we have already discussed, First Team shows us that Jimmy Thach did quite well during that same battle. His new combat tactic the soon to be universal Thach Weave, enabled his small flight of 6 x F4F-4 Wildcats to fend off a much larger flight of 20 x A6M and shoot down 3 A6M at the cost of 1 Wildcat.
I don't remember ever seeing a Hurricane unit fight off a numerically superior number of A6Ms (or Ki-43s) let alone manage a ratio like that.
Thach was the first to demonstrate that with the correct tactics the Wildcat could take advantage of it's flight characteristics relative to the A6M. As these tactics and other guidelines were systematically spread through the Navy fighter squadrons, they managed to achieve parity with the A6M and Ki-43 units they encountered. This cannot be said of the Hurricane, the Fulmar, or the Skua.
The Hurricane, compared to the Wildcat or Martlet, was not fully a carrier fighter. It was really only a CAP fighter. All it could be used for was defending the fleet, especially against the kind of strikes that the convoys often encountered - small numbers of unescorted and often obsolescent bombers or miscellaneous maritime patrol or sea planes - He 115, Ar 196, SM. 79, CANT 1007, Z.506, FW 200 and etc. Hurricanes could also contend with Ju 87s, and if they could catch them, Ju 88s. But by the time of Pedestal the Hurricane was hard pressed to hold it's own against a Bf 109F or G, an MC 202, or an A6M or Ki-43.
According to Armored Carriers.com, the main flaw of the Sea Hurricane was it's poor range and endurance:
The Sea Hurricane's range was recorded as about 450 miles. But it was loiter time that meant the most for carrier operations.
Sea Hurricanes carried only enough fuel to sustain themselves for 1 hour at combat power, and 4.5 hours at full-economical settings. The Fulmar and Martlet could stay aloft for 2 hours and 2 hours 45 minutes under combat power, and 6 hours economical.
The consequence of this was carriers being forced to turn into the wind far more often to take-off and land Sea Hurricanes. So they were often held as 'alert' aircraft on the deck while their longer-legged stablemates maintained the CAP.
This is just another example of why range is so important in carrier operations. Now the Fulmar had decent range (Wildcat was significantly better), but the Fulmar didn't have much of a chance against any modern fighters, especially Zeros, while the Wildcat certainly did as the historical record shows us.
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