Allied Opinion of IJN vs. IJA Fighter Pilots

[bearoutwest]

Hi Guerra,

Don’t be too dismissive of the learning potential of the IJN air combat over China. In the air battles for Shanghai, formations of unescorted Japanese bombers were caught by the cream of the pre-war (and quaintly many were trained in Germany) Chinese AF fighter pilots flying Hawk II’s, III’s and Boeing 281s (export P-26s) and subsequently Gloster Gladiators. They caused sufficient losses for the Japanese Navy to replace the few squadrons of A4N biplanes with larger numbers of A5M monoplanes. Once the A5M “Claudes” arrived in numbers with better trained Navy pilots, the losses suffered by the Chinese fighter force was unsustainable, hence the temporary withdrawal to re-equip with Russian Polikarpovs. The Soviet volunteers also had reasonable numbers of Spanish Civil War veterans, including the Group and Squadron commanders.

You are quite correct in saying that even the arrival of the Soviet volunteers didn’t turn the tide, but it did mean the re-equipped Chinese fighters and the Soviet air groups were competitive. The air battles over Wuhan in 1938 were certainly not constantly one-sided Japanese victories. The Japanese Navy aircrews with similar quality aircraft and better average quality pilots did hold the upper hand. It is also reasonable to say they held local air superiority over the battle field most of the time, but it wasn’t until the arrival of the experimental Zero Squadron in 1940, that the IJN achieved dominance.

The bans against defending fighters from taking on attacking fighters is common sense. No one seems to blame the RAF in the Battle of Britain or the Luftwaffe over France in 1941/42 from refusing to be drawn into intercepting fighter sweeps. You will find that up until the appearance of the Zeros in 1940, escorted Japanese bombing raids over Nanking, Wuhan and Chungking were contested and the comparison of losses (you’re correct that losses better indicate comparison than claims) was not totally one sided.

Hakan Gustavsson’s website gives a good day-by-day account of the air battles over China from 1937-1945.
http://surfcity.kund.dalnet.se/sino-japanese.htm

By the way, I think the myth of the “Invincible Zero” was more a result of the successes the Navy Zeros and Army Ki-43s achieved over Malaya, Java and the Philippines. No one in the RAF and USAAF seemed to be paying attention to the happenings over China in 1940.

Regards,
...geoff