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Originally Posted by Jim Oxley
There isn't much written material out there on either the FAA or the BPF's involvement in the Pacific War.
He is very critical of the tactics employed by the BSP commanders, in particular Admiral Vain (of Cossack fame) who was Carrier Fleet Commander. His descriptions of combat against the Japanese is rivetting.
Interestingly Hadley too is very critical of the use Britiah Admirals made of the FAA in the Theatre, and draws several cutting comparisons between how the FAA was utilised and how the USN applied their aircraft.
..after reading this book you will be far to amazed and frustrated by how inept the planning staff and admirals were in trying to conduct an offensive war against the Japanese, and their total lack of understanding on the proper utilisation of air power (FAA).
The history of the RN in the Med and Atlantic is rich and glorious. But in the Pacific in the late war years it was plagued by poor leadership, outmoded planning, political manoeuvering and downright ego posturing.
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I'll have to add those books to the list. But it seems the criticisms you mention tend to be on the level of strategic/operational employment of the FAA, perhaps the fact that by any account it had a minor role in the Pac War when perhaps it could have played a bigger one. But I assumed from the opening post a USN vet would be criticizing on a more tactical level (but maybe a well read vet criticizing on a higher level). For example "poor leadership" I took to mean perhaps sdn CO's or even division leaders as opposed to admirals. Here's where it seemed to me the limited action the FAA saw, which itself might be criticized in terms of its potential, especially in offensive fighter ops (the truly devastating forte of the USN air groups v. the Japanese), would make it hard to assess that. Beside the obvious disparity in cumulative experience in that regard by 1945. As mentioned the FAA had glorious achievements in Europe but relatively little offensive fighter or really much of any fighter v fighter action in WWII (some incidents but tiny fraction as many as USN, carrier war in ETO/MTO a very different one than PTO).
Unless he was commenting on defensive actions against air attacks on the carriers, where as I said I've never seen a comparison. Ca. 1942 Med convoys the RN was ahead of the USN in fighter/ship radar intercept, in 1945 the USN generally had better radars and a lot more cumulative volume of experience, perhaps this reversed.
Again maybe I'm jumping to a narrow conclusion what the F6F pilot meant.
Joe