Info on Fighter Tactics Pacific/ WWII??

[middleton7339]

I'm new to the board.

I'm an active duty Army Officer. Writing a paper on evolution of fighter tactics specifically in the Pacific during WWII.

Any information/insights/opinions would be greatly appreciated.

I'll be happy to cite you in my work.

Thanks!

 

[Henk]

Wow you are lucky to be able to use the net. When I was at school you had to use books and you may only quote not copy the words the rest of the paper must be in your own words.

Here you will find more stuff over Europe than the Pacific.

 

[FLYBOYJ]

Try this, good luck!

http://www.enter.net/~rocketeer/13thtactics.html

http://webpages.charter.net/jimdoss/12to1/index.htm#toc

 

[wmaxt]

Try Ring's P.R.O. Doc's Research Page They have a copy of Tom Lynch's paper of prefered tactics for P-38s.

wmaxt

 

[oldcrowcv63]

Lundstrom's First Team pair deals a bit with PAC Theater fighter tactics as they evolved during the first year of the war. It's mainly a historical account of the USN & USMC VF and VMF (Navy and Marine Fighter) squadrons, pilots and associated ships and operations during that period, but Lundstrom, not a aviator or an expert on tactics by any means, does touch on the topic with three appendices devoted to fighter tactical considerations (with diagrams) for both US and IJN pilots. Robert L. Shaw's Fighter Combat: Tactics and Maneuvering, mainly an account of more current fighter combat does give some reference to historical matters in no real systematic way by sprinkling anecdotes throughout his long and detailed treatise on the subject. Shaw was a USN VF pilot and aero engineer but not a particularly effective historian giving short to no homage to his own USN fighter combat heritage.

 

[parsifal]

The original question is more than ten years old, but its an interesting topic just the same. Debates about fighter tactics in the Pacific for that first year must revolve around the allied efforts to bring the Zero to heel . at the beginning Zeroes were achieving exchange rates well in excess of 20:1 and contrary to many claims made, the f4f could not really cope with a properly trained pilot in a Zero. The poor replacement rates for Zero pilots and the declining proficiency standards as attrition took its toll gradually turned this around. the use of Thach Weave then boom and zoom tactics, the capture of a fully intact Zeke at Akutan (Kogas Zero), the introduction of higher performance types, but most important of all, the sheer numbers of Allied fighters ranged against the Japanese made it all but impossible for the Japanese to compete. As time progressed, the exchange rates tipped further and further in favour of the allies.
If there was a critical tipping point for airpower generally in the Pacific, I would have to put guadacanal and the battles fought around it as the climactic battle. The losses were such over guadacanal, that japan never recovered from those losses

 

[oldcrowcv63]

I didn't notice the age of this string and now am not sure how it ended up on my radar... Must be some feature of this infernal new format.. Curse you web-page designer.... I am old with only a few unused brain cells left.. And there weren't that many to begin with. If only this were the only new confounded thing I had to learn... iPhones, New computers, TV remotes, G1000 navigation, Glass cockpits... Bring back my old steam gauges, rotary dial phones with party lines and leave me alone!

And I think Pars is correct about the canal being the place and time of the climactic battle..