The A6M Naval Carrier Fighter

[Sid327]

 

[Gnomey]

Good one!

 

[MiTasol]

Has anyone read the book referenced in the video called Exploding fuel tanks by Richard Dunn? I did a quick search and at over $200 it is too rich for my wallet but I will keep an eye out if it has a good reputation.

Did a second search and it is USD30 on Amazon. Would still like to know if it is worth getting

 

[Zipper730]

This was actually quite informative and explains quite a lot of things

1. Technological
   • A5M: It probably a greater technological development for its time than the A6M: It was a monoplane aircraft that could operate off a carrier and possessed shocking maneuverability
   • Radios: The fact that they weren't grounded right was kind of interesting, as well as issues with failures to resolve the issues.
     • The environment played a surprising role due to the solar cycles: Low solar output often means a lot of sunspots. The areas where the Earth was most affected was over Africa, Brazil, and areas of the Pacific. The first two were probably inconsequential from the wartime standpoint, but some areas of the Pacific ended up rendering radios highly ineffective, particularly if they were not designed well.
     • There was also a fixation among the Japanese with weight reduction to maximize performance.
   • Armor & Self Sealing Tanks
     • When the plane was conceptualized, armor and self-sealing tanks were not the norm: The Germans & Russians were the first to adopt these systems.
     • Self-sealing tanks early on weren't entirely effective in some configurations; when they did work: They often took up volume and added weight.
     • The problem was as time went on that the Japanese didn't develop and add this capability into their airplanes quickly enough to do them good: That said, they did eventually include fire-suppression systems, and armor for their aircraft, though performance took a hit.
   • Technical Successors: Mitsubishi was pushed to it's limit, there were issues with getting powerful enough engines, and there'd also be issues of the ability to field them on some carriers.
2. Tactics & Training
   • Speed & Maneuverability: There was actually a running debate during the time, with people seeing different conclusions
   • While the Japanese Army was obsessed with turning tactics, the Japanese Navy was quite proficient with vertical maneuvering, as well as dogfighting.
   • The USN & USMC were pretty much masters, as a general rule, for high deflection shooting: There were almost certainly exceptions with some aces (George Beurling was fucking amazing).
3. Japanese Losses
   • They weren't all caused by carrier battles: The CBI helped bleed them dry, for instance

 

[FLYBOYJ]

1. Japanese Losses
   • They weren't all caused by carrier battles: The CBI helped bleed them dry, for instance

Carrier/ CBI? you're not referring to A6M losses?

 

[Zipper730]

Carrier/ CBI? you're not referring to A6M losses?

From what was said in the documentary, it was basically stated that, while the A6M took a lot of losses in carrier battles. They weren't all lost in carrier battles, and some were lost all around the CBI theater. There was a comment that the Japanese were bled white as a result. I assumed this meant the A6M's, since the article was on the A6M.

 

[FLYBOYJ]

From what was said in the documentary, it was basically stated that, while the A6M took a lot of losses in carrier battles. They weren't all lost in carrier battles, and some were lost all around the CBI theater. There was a comment that the Japanese were bled white as a result. I assumed this meant the A6M's, since the article was on the A6M.

The A6M was not present in the CBI until after the "Flying Tigers" era, as a matter of fact the AVG never fought the Zero in their short existence. IIRC the Japanese moved all their A6M units out of Southeast Asia just before Pearl Harbor and were not a presence until mid 1942.

 

[michael rauls]

I took it to mean the Japanese pilot core was bled dry by attrition since they said that there " was not one turning point or set of turning points like Midway as many claim".
I think I got that quote right. If not it's pretty close.

 

[FLYBOYJ]

Somewhere on here there was a discussion about the loss of IJN fighter pilots at Midway. Because of the lengthy and rigid pre-war training (that produced excellent pilots) the IJN could have never kept up with the same quality of pilots throughout the war, Midway was the nail in the coffin.

 

[taly01]

The video in the first post is great (although 2hr+ is a stretch even for one interested) and contains lots of good info, the global radio interference areas was new to me!

Midway was the nail in the coffin.

Midway was maybe the first nail....the attritional battle in the Solomon Islands to Rabaul prevented the IJNAF from building up numbers of skilled pilots (both fighter and bomber).

The lack of pilot armour in Zero to save weight for performance was over cautious, the Ki-43 (same basic technology as Zero) got pilot rear armour in middle-1943 and did NOT suffer a large performance drop, and some pictures in the first video (1:37:44) show Ki-43 seat armour with 0.50 cal hits, without that plate the 0.50 cal would have gone in pilots back! Maybe the plane would still get shot down but saving the pilot was worth alot.