Wildcat (Grumman F4F/General Motors FM-1) victories

[Buckeye30]

Hi Michael. Both FM-1s and FM-2s were in the anti-submarine groups on CVEs in the ATLANTIC 1943-45; so few air claims. The PACIFIC escort and A/S air groups only had FM-2s so it's almost certain that all their victories were Japanese. The squadrons were VCs ( Composite with TBMs) and in the Atlantic they had A/S camouflage schemes 1 and 2.
In the ATLANTIC the A/S escort carriers March-Dec. 1943 were Bogue, Croatan, Santee, Core, Card and Block Island.
From Jan. - Oct. 1944 they were Block Is., Bogue, Guadalcanal, Croatan, Solomons, Wake Is., Card, Tripoli and Mission Bay.
From March - May 1945 they were Mission Bay, Core, Bogue and Croatan; the gap in operations was because the Biscay U-boat ports had been captured after D-Day.
This is Steve Sherman's victory list consolidated; this is only PACIFIC so presumably doesn't include the Atlantic FM-1 claims.
I doubt the exact figures will ever be known.
Nick
http://acepilots.com/planes/air_wins.html

[knusel]

Good morning Nick,

the Robert Allen list indicates:

• 986 PTO kills for the F4F/FM-1, no CBI kills
• 26 MTO kills for the F4F/FM-1, no ETO kills
• 422 PTO kills for the FM-2, no CBI/ETO/MTO kills

Where do you think do the 10 presumed FM-1 kills fit in ?

I wish you a good weekend,

Michael

[twocee]

The FM-1 entered squadron service in January 1943 and operated interchangeably with the F4F-4 within those squadrons. I don't really see the point in trying to identify FM-1 claims separately.