In the early days of World War II the war in the Pacific might have seemed hopeless. After the Pearl Harbor disaster a string of well-coordinated victories over the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, Wake Island, and Guam along with the destruction of the European Allied fleets seemed to spell an early triumph for the Japanese. All the US had left was a force of 3 aircraft groups and one of those would soon be nearly be sunk and sent to San Diego for repair. Things appeared bleak.

Poorly prepared

To make matters worse, the only front line fighters America had were the F-4 Wildcat for the US Navy, the Brewster Buffalo, and the P-40 Warhawk.  The Warhawk and Wildcat were both formidable fighters but they were not flown in accordance to their own strengths they fell victim to the slow speed tight turning dog fighter tactics of the Japanese. Both American and British pilots suffered high loss rates due to Claire Chennault’s valuable observations of the Japanese air to air tactics and how to counter act them being somehow ignored! Bird commanders insisted upon the bravado of fighting the Japanese on their own terms and Allied pilots paid the price with their lives!

Taking down a giant

Until 1943 the Mitsubishi Zero was held in awe as the most maneuverable and feared enemy fighter in the Pacific. Armed with a 20 millimeter cannon gave it deadly knockout power. It also had the longest range of any fighter at 2,100 miles making it even more effective. Grumman Aircraft was given the task of developing an aircraft that would specifically address the Japanese Zero and outperform it in every possible regime! In order to wrestle the air superiority of the skies from the Japanese Imperial forces CINCPAC needed an air superiority fighter that would outmatch the Zero. In record time, Grumman engineers would redesign the old F-4 Wildcat making it faster, more rugged, better armed, and more agile than before. The F6-F Hellcat was born.

To the rescue

No fighter in World War II racked up more kills than the Grumman Wildcat! As soon as they were being delivered on Pacific Fleet carriers decks they immediately made a difference. The Japanese used to having the performance edge in dogfights were soon shocked to be having to engage the voracious Hellcat in air to air combat. They were out flown, out gunned, and no match for the new Grumman fighter that would be feared by the Japanese until the war’s end. At last, the US Navy had a worthy opponent for the Zero and all its variants. Soon the loss rate of the Mitsubishi fighter caused not only the attrition rate of its hardware but the experienced pilots so needed by the Japanese to carry on the war effort.

Devastating kill ratio

In one historic air battle known as the “Marianna’s Turkey Shoot” in 1944, the Japanese lost 400 aircraft in one afternoon. This crippling loss of pilots and machines could never be made up for and the overwhelming industrial might of the US continued to turn out more fighter aircraft, warships, and aircraft carriers that would push the Japanese further and further toward their own mainland as the US Marine landings at islands such as Guadalcanal, Tarawa, Iwo Jima, Saipan, and Okinawa marked the end of Japanese occupation and to the day of surrender.

Multiple deadly models of fighters at their disposal

The P-40 and F-4 when flown correctly using “Boom and Zoom” tactics could win victories over the Zero when not engaging in turning contests which favored the Mitsubishi. To be fair there were other aircraft by the Americans that outperformed the Zero as well and did fight in the Pacific as land based planes or carrier launched and they were the P-38 Lightning also feared by the Japanese and on the front line by 1942. It was a squadron of P-38’s that intercepted and shot down Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, whose flight plan had been intercepted and decoded by US Naval intelligence. The mastermind of the Pearl Harbor attack died by the sword of his own making The P-51 Mustang and the P-47 Thunderbolt also saw action in the Pacific and served as two more ugly surprises for the Japanese Imperial Fleet fighter pilots to contend with.

More deadly planes to accompany the F-6F

Another swift and feared US Fighter was the famous gull winged F-4U Corsair which was faster than even the F-6F Hellcat and shot down its share of Japanese aircraft but the Hellcat reigned supreme as the ultimate Japanese Zero killer! The F-6F was the first purpose built combat aircraft to be designed solely to counter a specific enemy aircraft. Having far more kills than any fighter aircraft in the World War II US inventory, the F-6F Hellcat simply outclassed the most feared enemy warplane in the Pacific theater of war. Total figures of the Hellcat’s victories over the Japanese Zero and even its deployment across the Atlantic vary from 5299 enemy planes destroyed to up to 6,000 enemy shot down, but these might include Japanese planes destroyed during ground attack missions.

The undefeatable industrial giant

The importance of the numerous manufacturers and their unique designs formed an offensive strength that the Japanese Imperial Fleet could never overcome. Even in the dark early days of the war, the Pacific Fleet was effective at carrying out hit and run battles that prevented Japanese forces from walking over Pearl Harbor, Port Moresby in Australia, or invading the California coastline as they still feared American carrier flotillas and the their fast operations. The fighter then as today is a potent weapon that projects manned power in a way no other device can and is literally the tip of the spear in warfare. Luckily, for America highly talented engineers and aircraft manufacturers were able to meet the demands of supplying a war theater that stretched across the entire Pacific, millions of square miles, in order to liberate captured islands and fortified bases.