Haven't seen any episodes of "The War" but got to thinking about the history of the F6F and it's design and production. It was asked of Grumman to design a fighter to back up the Corsair program in June of 1941. The first production models were delivered in December 1942. It's first combat was in August, 1943. It went on to become a major player in the Pacific war with an enviable kill loss ratio and was also used by the British in Europe. A total of 12275 Hellcats were delivered by 1945 including more than 1600 night fighters. Can any other warplane match that design, development and service record? Which brings me to the next point. In 1939, when Hitler invaded Poland, the US Army was one of the smaller and more poorly equipped armies in the world. The US Army air corps was about the same. The US Navy was somewhat better off but at best ran a distant second to the RN. In 1940, the US began to spool up it's industry but the Army still had to rely on dummy weapons during the famous(infamous) Louisiana maneuvers. On December 7, 1941, the USN had 7 CVs and 1 CVE in commission, 16 BBs some of which would soon be on the bottom and a number of cruisers. Neither the Army Air Corps or USN had many planes or pilots and the Army had few if any divisions combat ready, none of them proven in combat. In June of 1942 the USN engaged the IJN with only 3 carriers, one of which with an inexperienced air group and gave the IJN the worst defeat ever suffered in the history of Japan. In November of 1942, the US forces along with the British attempted and succeeded in a landing on the Atlantic and Mediterranean beaches of North Africa. Some of those forces sailed all the way across the Atlantic to make the landings. By the end of the war, in 1945, the USN had the largest and best equipped Navy in the world. The US air forces were the largest and best equipped in the world. The US Army was as well equipped as any in the world and was second in size only to the Soviet Union. The US had manufactured almost all the equipment for these forces as well as much equipment for the Allies, Britain and it's dominions, France and the Soviet Union. Much of this equipment and materiel including the oil which the US(Texas) supplied most of was carried in ships built in the US which did not even exist in 1940. This is not to say the US won the war on it's on. Far from it. But what a prodigous effort!