Shortround6
Major General
The Quality issue is important. I believe however that sometimes the quality vs quantity issue is sometimes finer that it is often made out to be.
The British may very well have been able to win the BoB using the Hurricane. It might have cost scores more pilots (or a few hundred?) and since the British were having trouble suppling pilots at the time this proposition is iffy. It also depends on the BoB ending in Sept and Oct of 1940 and not extending past that or restarting. At least the daylight part.
Part of the problem here is that some of the aircraft were not running on the same time schedule. The Hurricane I may have been able to defend Britain against 109E-3/4s but might have been in trouble against 109E-7s. Of course by the time the E-7 shows up in more than handful You have Hurricane IIs starting to trickle in and in the no Spitfire scenario. Hurricanes with Merlin XII starting to show up in July of 1940?
Now in the spring of 1941 when the 109Fs show up the Hurricane is toast and without the Spitfire it becomes a disaster.
It also not just the quality of the planes (or tanks or ships) and it is not just the training/tactics either. It was the ability to decide were the important battles were and concentrate accordingly. The British took too long to send enough "stuff" to Malta and Africa to handle the Italians before the Germans got involved. Understandable in part but we can't have it both ways. Either Germany could not stage a sea borne invasion of Britain after the BoB or it could. Either Germany could make a strong attack (air craft ) against Britain in 1941 after June of 1941 or it couldn't. If it couldn't then send some more 'Stuff' to Africa and a bit more further east.
The Ki-43 and the A6M2 were excellent, world class fighters were good in early 1942, but they faded fast, very fast. Here is where the Japanese stumbled.
They had identified the need to improve the Zero in early 1941 and started working on two prototypes in May and June, they didn't build a 3rd prototype until Jan 1942 and this was the one with the clipped wing. It took until Aug of 1942 to show up in a combat unit. It had the 100round magazines, it rolled better and had a higher dive speed (may not be saying much), it had the two speed supercharger. What it did not have was the fuel capacity of the earlier Zero and thus the range. It took until Dec of 1942 for the long wing A6M3 to leave the production lines with the extra fuel tanks in the wings to restore the fuel capacity.
Now on the world stage you had Spitfire IXs and XIIs by this time, you had Typhoons, FW 190s and BF 109Gs and bunch of Russian stuff.
In the Japanese's backyard you had F4U-1s going into combat in small number. And with the Japanese producing the first long wing A6M3 six months after the first P-38G rolled out?
The Japanese need the long wing A6M3 to start showing up in the summer of 1942 to "hold the line" for the A6M5 to show up in early 1943, not late 1943.
compare planes in squadron service (more than one squadron) and not first flights.
the 109 had problems as it's armament didn't keep up with "world" standards. You need armament average pilots can succeed with, not just experts. Needed two or more fighters to get an effective amount of fire power into the air is hardly efficient use of resources or pilots. This is even more telling against the Ki-43.
The British may very well have been able to win the BoB using the Hurricane. It might have cost scores more pilots (or a few hundred?) and since the British were having trouble suppling pilots at the time this proposition is iffy. It also depends on the BoB ending in Sept and Oct of 1940 and not extending past that or restarting. At least the daylight part.
Part of the problem here is that some of the aircraft were not running on the same time schedule. The Hurricane I may have been able to defend Britain against 109E-3/4s but might have been in trouble against 109E-7s. Of course by the time the E-7 shows up in more than handful You have Hurricane IIs starting to trickle in and in the no Spitfire scenario. Hurricanes with Merlin XII starting to show up in July of 1940?
Now in the spring of 1941 when the 109Fs show up the Hurricane is toast and without the Spitfire it becomes a disaster.
It also not just the quality of the planes (or tanks or ships) and it is not just the training/tactics either. It was the ability to decide were the important battles were and concentrate accordingly. The British took too long to send enough "stuff" to Malta and Africa to handle the Italians before the Germans got involved. Understandable in part but we can't have it both ways. Either Germany could not stage a sea borne invasion of Britain after the BoB or it could. Either Germany could make a strong attack (air craft ) against Britain in 1941 after June of 1941 or it couldn't. If it couldn't then send some more 'Stuff' to Africa and a bit more further east.
The Ki-43 and the A6M2 were excellent, world class fighters were good in early 1942, but they faded fast, very fast. Here is where the Japanese stumbled.
They had identified the need to improve the Zero in early 1941 and started working on two prototypes in May and June, they didn't build a 3rd prototype until Jan 1942 and this was the one with the clipped wing. It took until Aug of 1942 to show up in a combat unit. It had the 100round magazines, it rolled better and had a higher dive speed (may not be saying much), it had the two speed supercharger. What it did not have was the fuel capacity of the earlier Zero and thus the range. It took until Dec of 1942 for the long wing A6M3 to leave the production lines with the extra fuel tanks in the wings to restore the fuel capacity.
Now on the world stage you had Spitfire IXs and XIIs by this time, you had Typhoons, FW 190s and BF 109Gs and bunch of Russian stuff.
In the Japanese's backyard you had F4U-1s going into combat in small number. And with the Japanese producing the first long wing A6M3 six months after the first P-38G rolled out?
The Japanese need the long wing A6M3 to start showing up in the summer of 1942 to "hold the line" for the A6M5 to show up in early 1943, not late 1943.
compare planes in squadron service (more than one squadron) and not first flights.
the 109 had problems as it's armament didn't keep up with "world" standards. You need armament average pilots can succeed with, not just experts. Needed two or more fighters to get an effective amount of fire power into the air is hardly efficient use of resources or pilots. This is even more telling against the Ki-43.