Allied Opinion of IJN vs. IJA Fighter Pilots

[Leo Etgen]

Hi guys

To be honest I have no idea why the USAAF did not attempt as far as is known to me to develop any specific tactics to deal with the known capabilities of the Japanese. It should be pointed out that the development of the Thach Weave was an individual initiative of John Thach and not an official affair. It also should be pointed out that contrary to popular opinion, IJNAF training emphasized teamwork and hit and run tactics rather than dogfighting. They also made use of deflection shooting although problems arose with the fact that the Zeke was an inferior gunnery platform compared to the Wildcat. Visibility over the engine was not as good making full deflection shots difficult and poor aileron control at high speed made aiming in diving attacks difficult. It is true that the IJNAF pilots faced great difficulties in the Guadalcanal campaign but the same can be said for the USN/USMC pilots based on the island. Conditions were primitive in the extreme, sickness was rampant, supplies and spares in very short supply and let us not forget that Henderson Field was routinely bombarded by the IJNAF, the IJN and the IJA, not to mention a number of ground offensives designed to retake the airfield. Anecdotes are interesting but it should be always kept in mind that these are highly subjective personal accounts and may or may not be reflective of the general situation. I have come across comments by Japanese pilots that engaged the enemy over Guadalcanal that make reference to the excellent teamwork and shooting of their opponents so one can find any number of personal accounts that support this or that point of view. Finally, some numbers. According to John Lundstrom, the IJNAF lost 14 Zeke and three Claude fighters while the USN lost 10 Wildcat fighters in aerial combat up through Midway. He states that the IJNAF lost 25 Zeke fighters whereas the USN lost 31 Wildcat fighters in aerial combat over Guadalcanal. According to Richard Frank, the IJNAF lost approximately 70 Zeke fighters versus 70 USMC Wildcat fighters in aerial combat over Guadalcanal. These figures are based on the losses, not claims, of both sides so should give us a quite accurate idea of the state of fighter versus fighter combat between the IJNAF and US/USMC in 1942.

Horrido!

Leo

[GuerraCivil]

To conclude it was about equal between Japanese Navy and US Navy pilots and their machines in 1942. By the late 1942/early 1943 the war of attrition started to show their toll on Japanese and the balance turned decisively in favour of US and other Allies.

Japanese had also much greater difficulties to maintain their supply lines, fuel reserves and spare part services than Americans and Allied (and not least because of US uboats sinking Japanese supply vessels).

At the late stage of Pacific war even the technical reliability of Japanese planes was questionable while Allied in general flew with more reliable new planes. One IJA pilot commented that his Ki-84 was excellent fighter if one forgets such little things like take off and flying.

The Guadalcanal air combat 1942/1943 was in my opinion advantegous for US as there was clear homebase advantage - perhaps even more clear than the one which RAF enjoyed in Battle of Britain. There were also some USAAF units with P-39´s, so all the fighting was not left solely to the resources of Wildcat pilots. As a war of attrition it was the US which had more resources and therefore better chances to win.

For what I have read the USAAF pilots did not make it so bad with much maligned Airacobra P-39 in 1942. It may well be that Airacobra pilots managed to shoot at least as many Japanese planes as they lost themselves in combat. To tell the difference against IJA or IJN units may be difficult as Oscars were so often misidentified as Zeros.

However Japanese accounts (both personal and official) considered P-39 units to be easy opponents as well as those flying with P-40. After the war some P-40 pilot veterans studied Japanese records and found it strange how low Japanese combat reports valuated Warhawk units when compared to their own experience. They were not wiped out of sky and managed to inflict losses to Japanese.

The stats study of USAAF/Allied P-40/P-39 units vs. IJN/IJA units may give more balanced view in future. The little that I have read about this subject shows both sides to have shot down more planes than they lost themselves!

[Leo Etgen]

Hi guys

I think that the crucial difference was that the Americans utilized their resources to better advantage than the Japanese did. At that stage of the war the IJN actually outnumbered the USN in the south Pacific yet it was the Japanese failure to develop forward air bases that ultimately cost them the campaign. Pre-war doctrine held that the Japanese were to hold their conquests through a series of bases supported by the fleet and at Guadalcanal they were to see this policy vindicated but at their expense by the Americans who used their land- and carrier-based air power to neutralize the IJN. It is true that there was one P-400 unit, the 67th Fighter Squadron (aka the Jagdstaffel), but after a disastrous aerial combat on 30 August 1942 where four were shot down and another five written off these were utilized in the ground-attack and anti-shipping role with considerable success as they were considered to be completely unsuitable for engaging enemy fighters.

Horrido!

Leo

[Graham Boak]

There's a couple of points here. One is that the Japanese did not have the resources that the US did. They didn't develop more forward bases because they couldn't. The other is that the Russians found the P-400/P-39 perfectly capable of dealing with enemy fighters, so this kind of sweeping generalisation just isn't right. The important point being perhaps that they were not dealing with the same fighters.