The A6M Naval Carrier Fighter

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

Zipper730 said:

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

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FLYBOYJ said:

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

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Zipper730 said:

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.

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Midway was the nail in the coffin.

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