Sakai Saburo Vs Sugita Sho-ichi (2 Viewers)

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I just remember my gliding instructor shouting 'Your not F--------ing Biggles' at me whenever I did a fast tight turn.
 
FWIW

A number of years ago I ran across a Japanese air combat tactics manual from the early-war period (ie China and the opening stages of WWII). In my opinion, the Japanese tactics were as advanced as those taught/used in the West - although they were a bit different in some areas. I do not remember all the details but there were various tactics and maneuvers that come to mind. Examples:

Gain a height advantage before the engagement if possible
Make initial attacks from up-sun if possible
High and Low Yo-Yo
Near stall turns
Diving attacks - ie boom & zoom - both as an individual maneuver and as a unit tactic
Dogfighting over extended periods was to be avoided if possible

The tactics were to be adjusted by the squadron leaders based on whether they were on the offensive or defensive. IIRC the description of offensive could be defined by the mission type and/or the tactical situation. Ie if you significantly outnumbered the enemy you would most likely use offensive tactics. Also position advantage (ie a useful height advantage, or when they enemy was unaware of your approach) would dictate what you would do next.

The 3-plane tactical unit (Shotai?) on the offense. When using the 3-plane formation the forward pilot was usually the most experienced and also the flight leader. The 2 other pilots were generally less experienced, and operated in a form of wandering trail - ie they tended to ~randomly weave back and forth and up and down at a significant distance behind the leader - often crossing each other's tail. The intent of the trailing aircraft was to make it harder for the enemy to sneak up on the flight, harder to get a surprise kill on the trailing aircraft, and harder to make a clean attack on the flight leader. In effect, this was a variant of the Thatch Weave being performed by the trailing pair at a tactically advantageous trailing distance, both in mutual support of each other and in support of the flight leader.

re

When on the offensive (as defined above) the 3-plane formation would tend to all attack the same enemy aircraft during the first diving or surprise attack - making firing passes one after the other over a very short interval of time. This would give a greater chance of scoring a hit and/or preventing the target aircraft from getting away, while thinning the herd (if successful) and give the attackers better odds during the continued encounter. Often this would result in multiple aircraft getting hits on the same target in very short order, making it difficult to determine who made the killing shot. In these cases - when it was not clear who made the killing shot - a full kill was often attributed to more than one pilot.
 
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Yeah I've read about this and seen it mentioned a lot. I've seen multiple pilots credited with individual aircraft not realising they attacked the same aircraft.

What about when the shot down enemy aircraft is credited to a group of pilots? For example if three pilots are credited with the same one aircraft destroyed, does that mean the Japanese Navy would assign the three pilots with 0.3 victories each? They can't credit all three with one aircraft each since it's acknowledged they all destroyed the same aircraft.
 


I would not say these Japanese Navy tactics are "Advanced". They were the same hit and run dogma everyone bought into during the early monoplane era of the 1930s (despite requiring, in practice, an unaware target and point-blank fire to make the guns effective at overtaking speeds: Turns in reality easily broke diving attacks); a dogma which took most of the War to moderate to its proper place in the Luftwaffe's case (or never, in the Japanese Navy's case).

To their credit, the USAAF in Europe was among the most intense users of prolonged low speed circle fighting (over multiple consecutive circles), which avoided attacks and trapped targets for a prolonged period at a constant range. This all you you'll you hear the P-47s do (especially the Razorback, despite the mushy initial turn of all P-47s), and similarly all you hear from P-51 pilots is the constant use of flaps in turns. They would even ask about each other's flap settings over the radio during turning combat!

I vaguely recall that the Japanese Navy used the vic throughout the War, and that this was contrasted to the Army using the finger four at some point.

As to the Sakai dispute, having suffered head wounds in combat does not make you immune to criticism.
 

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