Japanese thought on the P-38 vs. the Zero
Erik Shilling
C.C. Jordan
>Japanese thoughts on the p38.
>
>According to Saburo Sakai, a Japanese ACE with 64 victories wrote,
>"The P-38 first used in combat against the Zeros appeared to lack
>any distinctive features other than speed at great altitudes and
>very high diving speed.
>The strange Lightnings made their combat debut in the Solomon
>Islands during the fall of 1942.
Actually, the Japanese ran into the P-38's for the first time in June
of 1942 over the Aleutians. I suspect that Sakai is referring to his first
encounters.
The first P-38's to arrive in the SWPA were those of the 9th FS,
49th FG during the first week of October, 1942. The P-38's deployed
to Guadalcanal did not arrive until mid November. The 5th AF had 'em first.
>Soon they were appearing in ever-
>increasing numbers, often challenging our Zero fighters. To the
>great delight of our pilots the P-38 pilots would attempt to
>dogfight with the Zeros, which managed to shoot down many of the
>enemy fighters.
Once again Sakai has been hitting the sake too much. The first air to
air encounter between the Japanese and the P-38 resulted in 15
Japanese shot down to only one P-38. In fact, total P-38 losses to
Japanese fighters from 1 Oct. 1942 thru 1 Jan. 1943 were exactly two!
Losses to the Japanese at the hands of the P-38 are estimated at
between 23 and 28 during that same time period. Why were they so
successful? The pilots flying the P-38's had been fighting and defeating the
Japs for the past 8 months flying P-40's. They had already learned the hard
way not to turn with Zero's and Oscars. Back in the Spring of '42, the 5th
AF rookies went into combat trying to dogfight with the Zeros. They took a
beating until experience and the veterans of Java taught them what Chennault
tried to teach the USAAC a year earlier.
I don't know what twin engine aircraft Sakai & Co. thought they were shooting
down, but they weren't P-38's. There was not even 100 P-38's in the whole SWPA
until mid 1943. North Africa got most of them and Kenney had to beg, borrow and
steal the few he did get.
>(Comment: This indicate that the Zero's performance had not been
>passed on to these pilots or it wasn't headed.)
The few surviving veterans that I have spoken with, who flew P-40's
early in 1942 in the SWPA were not informed of the Zero's performance
until they arrived in theater. There, they were drilled on the Zero's ability
in a turning fight by the veteran pilots. Still, as one said, "we still didn't
believe it until we saw it with our own eyes. The Japs knocked the cockiness
out of us and quick too."
I doubt if the P-38's were engaging in turning fights. Most of the few
Lightnings sent to the SWPA went to combat experienced veteran squadrons.
However, you are otherwise correct. Not until the veteran pilots rotated home
to staff RTU squadrons, were pilots being properly instructed on how to
effectively combat the Zero and its ilk. I certainly believe that Chennault was
ignored. As do most of those writing the history of the war. I doubt anyone can
produce a document that shows that Chennault's warnings were heeded prior
to mid 1942 when experience was the teacher.
>
>I claimed that Chennault's report had *apparently* been ignored.
>Ford Says that it hadn't. Who do you think is right?
According to Walter Boyne, Charles W. King, S.W. Ferguson, Bill Pascalis,
John Makey, John Stanaway and a host of others, the USAAC did not
give Chennault's report any credence except in hindsight.
According to Boyne, "Even when the facts came from highly reputable
sources like Claire Chennault, then supervising the Chinese Air Force,
the reports were discounted." Page 96 of Clash of Wings. Boyne, by the
way is a retired USAF Col. and the former Director of the National Air and
Space Museum. He is the author of 11 non-fiction aviation history books.
My best regards,
C.C. Jordan
The Planes and Pilots of WWII online magazine
http://home.att.net/~C.C.Jordan/
http://www.geocities.com/pentagon/quarters/9485/
A member of the WWII Web-ring.
Honor and remember the WWII veterans.
"In reality, there exists only fact and fiction. Opinions result from
a lack of the former and a reliance on the latter."
Emmanuel Gustin
>Their great speed at high altitudes allowed them to MANEUVER into
>the most advantageous positions: then the big fighters would plunge
>from the sky to smash into the hapless Zero Fighters.
>(Comment: Note Sakai's use of the word maneuver. If the Zero was
>more maneuverable, how could this happen?)
Erik, that's a silly word game. One could replace "maneuver"
by "position themselves", and the sentence would still be entirely
correct --- probably more so. AFAIK Sakai doesn't even speak
English, so what's the point?
>(Comment: It was not long ago, that I said Chennault had sent the
>Zero's performance figures to the War Department, which cautioned
>against dogfighting. I also said that his report was ignored. A
>frequent poster to this NG says I was wrong that it had been
>disseminated to those concerned. If this was true, WHY did the P-38
>pilots initially tried to dogfight the Zero? Also if true, why did
>it take American pilots almost one year after Pearl Harbor to find
>out the hard way, how to combat the ZERO?
I said that good information on the A6M was available in
Washington, entered in the official information sources, and
distributed to the pilots. I did not say that the correct
conclusions were drawn --- on the contrary.
US information about the A6M was not only from Chennault's
report: According to John Prados in "Combined Fleet Decoded",
a naval attache in Japan even managed to climb into the cockpit
of one during an airshow! (No, he did not fly it.) There were
also Chinese reports on the Chendu Zero and on the interrogation
of captured Japanese pilots. By December 1941 the US military
had fairly accurate performance specs and outline drawings.
The problem was that many people couldn't believe that the
Japanese would build an aircraft like that. For example, an
USMC report on the A6M praised the type's performance,
but said that it had poor manoeuvrability.
It is often assumed that Western sources were prejudiced against
the Japanese and assumed that all their technology was inferior.
This is often true, but there were exceptions. For example, "Hap"
Arnold rated the Japanese air force as first-class already in 1937...
The US military was confused, but not entirely blind.
Emmanuel Gustin <gus...@NoSpam.uia.ac.be>
(Delete NoSpam. from my address. If you can't reach me, your host
may be on our spam filter list. Check http://hipe.uia.ac.be/cc/.)
Erik Shilling
Tamela R. Germano
Shilling) wrote:
.................BIG SNIP.............................
> This is Odd since we had a fighter that was superior to the Zero in
> every way. The higher ups must have had their heads up and locked.
>
> What was so unbelievable about the Zero. The CW 21 excelled over
> the A6M2-21 in every attribute, including climb (5200 ft/min, dive
> 450 IAS, and the ability to turn in a smaller circle. The CW-21's
> empty weight was 3150 pound with a one thousand horse power engine.
> Now compare this to the Zero.
Erik,
I know you flew the CW 21, and the early Curtis Hawks. What I would like
to know is how they "felt" in flight, the sort of thing that I can not
find in a spec-sheet. As a favor to me and the others who want a better
understanding of pre-war early-war aircraft, could you please give us a
short post on what it was like in them.
>
> Regards,
> Erik Shilling
My thanks,
Dino Germano.
Dino in Reno
Yama
>
> In <799at2$g7h$1...@fu-berlin.de> "Emmanuel Gustin"
> <NoSpam...@uia.ua.ac.be> writes:
>
> >Erik, that's a silly word game. One could replace "maneuver"
> >by "position themselves", and the sentence would still be entirely
> >correct --- probably more so.
> snip
> Okay Emmanuel if you prefer, lets use the term "position
> themselves," in this application, and IMO the two are synonymous.
> What's your problem?
Sakai was clearly referring to tactical manouvering, ie. using speed
and climb advantage to get to favourable position. Exactly same
phrase and tactic was used by Finnish Bf-109G pilots to beat P-39's
and Yaks which both could outturn and outroll Gustav.
I agree with you that turn radius is not only measurement of
maneuverability, but with this sort of 'silly word games' as
Emmanuel put's it, you're only hurting your cause.
Curiously, almost all references claim that La-5 was more
maneuverable than 109G, yet Gustav had smaller turning radius. And
to follow same theme, RAF comparison report between FW-190 and
Spitfire V mentions "FW-190 is more maneuverable than Spitfire V
except in turning circles where it is outturned without difficulty".
jrbrad...@gmail.com
regards...
Daryl
> Greetings. I am very interested in the topic of P-38 vs the Zero. Allegedly, the "hit squad" that took out Admiral Yamamoto in 1943 was comprised exclusively of P-38's. I find the account of the attack implausible because the six zero's escorting Yamamoto's duel T1-323 transports were certainly not being flown by rookie pilots. They would have known to evade the initial dive of the P-38's and then prevent them from harassing the transports, unless there would have been an overwhelming number of P-38's diving. I had no idea the P-38 was so similar to the P-40. Obviously in a dogfight the P-38 is no match for the more manoueverable Zero. Can you enlighten further?
> regards...
>
P-38. Along with the introduction of the P-38, the fighter doctrine for
the Pacific changed. The Flying Tigers learned using the P-40 that as
long as they kept their speed up above 300mph then the Zero had a very
bad day. While the P-40 had to be flown nearly maxed out to do this,
the P-38 had a cruise as fast as the Zero had flat out (275mph) so it
was easy to keep the fight above 300 mph (closer to 350). Later Zeroes
were a bit faster but so was the later P-38s.
The model used was the P-38G which had more than enough range. 600 out,
do the fight and 400 back. Each one carried two tanks, one 165 gal and
one 330 gal tank) The fight lasted a matter of seconds. If a P-38 hits
with even one 20mm round, the Zero was a fireball. With the Bettys going
in, I doubt the remaining Zero Pilots had much incentive to stick around
and the P-38s didn't really have the luxury of running them down.
The birds used were the P-38Gs which had the fowler flaps enabling it to
manuever with the Zero and sometimes turn inside of them. Beware, if
you out turned a Zero the Air Speed of the Lightning will be bled off.
Not something any sane pilot wishes. By picking the Fight, the 38 could
turn with the Zero and use it's more powerful engines to latch onto
them. Again, one hit from the 38 (whether from the 20 or the 50 cal
usually took out the zero. Plus the 20mm on the P-38 had marked range
over the 20mm on the zeroes. By this time, the P-38 Pilots were high
time flyers and flew the P-38s to it's maximum. It wasn't much of a
fair fight with the P-38 drawing first blood. The zero was too busy
trying to stay alive than keeping the Betty alive.
There were 4 birds chosen as killers and 8 chosen as top cover. The
Betty's never stood a chance since the P-38 was originally designed as a
bomber interceptor. And it did it's job better than anything else. It
wasn't usually used in that role because it was so versatile.
a425couple
- Greetings. I am very interested in the topic of P-38 vs the Zero.
- Allegedly,
What about this is "Alleged" ?
- the "hit squad" that took out Admiral Yamamoto in 1943 was comprised
- exclusively of P-38's.
Yes. The P-38s had the range. There were 18 assigned to the mission.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Vengeance
- I find the account of the attack implausible because the six zero's
- escorting Yamamoto's duel T1-323 transports were certainly not being
- flown by rookie pilots. They would have known to evade the initial
- dive of the P-38's and then prevent them from harassing the transports,
- unless there would have been an overwhelming number of P-38's diving.
- I had no idea the P-38 was so similar to the P-40. Obviously in a
dogfight
- the P-38 is no match for the more manoueverable Zero.
- Can you enlighten further? regards...
If the account given at the wikipedia site is "implausible",
and you do not like what Daryl explained, what do you
suggest happened?
Meanwhile, here is a great chapter from a good book.
It is about Yamamoto, and includes the shoot down.
> > Did anyone here read Neal Stephenson's "Cryptonomicon" ?
> > This is the battle when Goto Dengo 'loses the war' on page 320
> > titled "Skipping". Cowardly Americans have no honor and are
> > flexable and willing to change!!!!!
>
> Here you go!!!
> Try this:
> http://m.litread.in/read/117090/99340-101013?page=169
> Does that work for others to read this chapter?
- Yep, thanks. Cryptonomicon's a favorite novel here. Having it on-line
- is sort of redundant here, since I've still got two copies of it. -----
- I found his description of Yamamoto's death especially memorable.
Yes Jim, I totally agree that the Chapter 39 "Yamamoto"
is a very great read.
Here is a 'lead' for it and partial read for others to enjoy:
http://m.litread.in/read/117090/99340-101013?page=176
Perhaps this might lead others to buy and enjoy it.
"Chapter 39 YAMAMOTO
Tojo and his claque of imperial army boneheads said to him, in effect: Why
don't you go out and secure the Pacific Ocean for us, because we'll need a
convenient shipping lane, say, oh, about ten thousand miles wide, in order
to carry out our little plan to conquer South America, Alaska, and all of
North America west of the Rockies. In the meantime we'll finish mopping up
China. Please attend to this ASAP.
By then they were running the country. They had assassinated anyone in their
way, they had the emperor's ear, and it was hard to tell them that their
plan was full of shit and that the Americans were just going to get really
pissed off and annihilate them. So, Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, a dutiful
servant of the emperor, put a bit of thought into the problem, sketched out
a little plan, sent out one or two boats on a small jaunt halfway across the
fucking planet, and blew Pearl Harbor off the map. He timed it perfectly,
right after the formal declaration of war. It was not half bad. He did his
job.
One of his aides later crawled into his office--in the nauseatingly craven
posture that minions adopt when they are about to make you really, really
unhappy--and told him that there had been a mix-up in the embassy in
Washington and that the diplomats there had not gotten around to delivering
the declaration of war until well after the American Pacific Fleet had gone
to the bottom.
To those Army fuckheads, this is nothing--just a typo, happens all the time.
Isoroku Yamamoto has given up on trying to make them understand that the
Americans are grudge-holders on a level that is inconceivable to the
Nipponese, who learn to swallow their pride before they learn to swallow
solid food. Even if he could get Tojo and his mob of shabby, ignorant thugs
to comprehend how pissed off the Americans are, they'd laugh it off. What're
they going to do about it? Throw a pie in your face, like the Three Stooges?
Ha, ha, ha! Pass the sake and bring me another comfort girl!
Isoroku Yamamoto spent a lot of time playing poker with Yanks during his
years in the States, smoking like a chimney to deaden the scent of their
appalling aftershave. The Yanks are laughably rude and uncultured, of
course; this hardly constitutes a sharp observation. Yamamoto, by contrast,
attained some genuine insight as a side-effect of being robbed blind by
Yanks at the poker table, realizing that the big freckled louts could be
dreadfully cunning. Crude and stupid would be okay--perfectly
understandable, in fact.
But crude and clever is intolerable; this is what makes those red headed
ape-men extra double super loathsome. Yamamoto is still trying to drill the
notion into the heads of his partners in the big Nipponese scheme to conquer
everything between Karachi and Denver. He wishes that they would get the
message. A lot of the Navy men have been around the world a few times
and seen it for themselves, but those Army guys have spent their careers
mowing down Chinamen and raping their women and they honestly believe that
the Americans are just the same except taller and smellier. Come on
guys,Yamamoto keeps telling them, the world is not just a big Nanjing.But
they don't get it. If Yamamoto were running things, he'd make a rule: each
Army officer would have to take some time out from bayoneting Neolithic
savages in the jungle, go out on the wide Pacific in a ship, and swap
16-inch shells with an American task force for a while. Then maybe, they'd
understand they're in a real scrap here.
This is what Yamamoto thinks about, shortly before sunrise, as he clambers
onto his Mitsubishi G4M bomber in Rabaul, the scabbard of his sword whacking
against the frame of the narrow door. The Yanks call this type of plane
"Betty," an effeminatizing gesture that really irks him. Then again, the
Yanks name even their ownplanes after women, and paint naked ladies on their
sacred instruments of war! If they had samurai swords, Americans would
probably decorate the blades with nail polish.
Because the plane's a bomber, the pilot and copilot are crammed into a
cockpit above the main tube of the fuselage. The nose of the plane, then, is
a blunt dome of curving struts, like the meridians and parallels of a globe,
the trapezoids between them filled with sturdy panes of glass. The plane has
been parked pointing east, so the glass nose is radiant with streaky dawn,
the unreal hues of chemicals igniting in a lab. In Nippon nothing happens by
accident, so he has to assume that this is a deliberate morale-building tip
o' the helmet to the Rising Sun. Making his way up to the greenhouse, he
straps himself in where he can stare out the windows as this Betty, and
Admiral Ugaki's, take off.
In one direction is Simpson's Harbor, one of the best anchorages in the
Pacific, an asymmetrical U wrapped in a neat grid of streets, conspicuously
blighted by a fucking British cricket oval! In the other direction, over the
ridge, lies the Bismarck Sea. Somewhere down there, the corpses of a few
thousand Nipponese troops lie pickled in the wrinkled hulls of their
transport ships. A few thousand more escaped to life rafts, but all of their
weapons and supplies went to the bottom, so the men are just useless mouths
now.
It's been like this for almost a year, ever since Midway, when the Americans
refused to bite on Yamamoto's carefully designed feints and ruses up Alaska
way, and just happened to send all of their surviving carriers directly into
the path of his Midway invasion force. Shit. Shit Shit. Shit. Slit. Shit.
Shit. Yamamoto's chewing on a thumbnail, right through his glove.
Now those clumsy, reeking farmhands are sinking every transport ship that
the Army sends to New Guinea. Double shit! Their observation planes are
everywhere--always showing up in the right place at the right
time--tally-hoing the emperor's furtive convoys in the sawing twang of
bloody-gummed Confederates. Their coast-watchers infest the mountains of all
these godforsaken islands, despite the Army's efforts to hunt them down and
flush them out. All of their movements are known.
The two planes fly southeastwards across the tip of New Ireland and enter
the Solomon Sea. The Solomon Islands spread out before them, fuzzy jade
humps rising from a steaming ocean, 6,500 feet below. A couple of small
humps and then a much bigger one, today's destination: Bougainville.
Have to show the flag, go out on these inspection tours, give the frontline
troops a glimpse of glory, build morale. Yamamoto frankly has better things
to do with his time, so he tries to pack as many of these obligatory junkets
into a single day as possible. He left his naval citadel at Truk and flew to
Rabaul last week so that he could supervise his latest big operation: a wave
of massed air attacks on American bases from New Guinea to Guadalcanal.
The air raids were purportedly successful; kind of. The surviving pilots
reported vast numbers of sinkings, whole fleets of American aircraft
destroyed on their mucky airstrips. Yamamoto knows perfectly well that these
reports will turn out to be wildly exaggerated. More than half of his planes
never came back--the Americans, and their almost equally offensive cousins,
the Australians, were ready for them. But the Army and the Navy alike are
full of ambitious men who will do everything they can to channel good news
the emperor's way, even if it's not exactly the truth. Accordingly, Yamamoto
has received a personal telegram of congratulations from none other than the
sovereign himself. It is his duty, now, to fly round to his various
outposts, hop out of his Betty, wave the sacred telegram in the air, and
pass on the blessings of the emperor.
Yamamoto's feet hurt like hell. Like everyone else within a thousand miles,
he has
a tropical disease; in his case, beriberi. It is the scourge of the
Nipponese and especially of the Navy, because they eat too much polished
rice, not enough fish and vegetables. His long nerves have been corroded by
lactic acid, so his hands quiver. His failing heart can't shove fluid
through his extremities, so his feet swell. He needs to change his shoes
several times a day, but he doesn't have room here; he is encumbered not
only by the curvature of the plane's greenhouse, but also by his sword.
They are approaching the Imperial Navy airbase at Bougainville, right on
schedule, at 9:35. A shadow passes overhead and Yamamoto glances up to see
the silhouette of an escort, way out of position, dangerously close to them.
Who is that idiot? Then the green island and the blue ocean rotate into view
as his pilot puts the Betty into a power dive. Another plane flashes
overhead with a roar that cuts through the noise of the Betty's engines, and
although it is nothing more than a black flash, its odd forktailed
silhouette registers in his mind. It was a P-38 Lightning, and the last time
Admiral Yamamoto checked, the Nipponese Air Force wasn't flying any of
those.
The voice of Admiral Ugaki comes through on the radio from the other Betty,
right behind Yamamoto's, ordering Yamamoto's pilot to stay in formation.
Yamamoto cannot see anything in front of them except for the surf washing
ashore on Bougainville, and the wall of trees, seeming to grow higher and
higher, as the plane descends--the tropical canopy now actually above them.
He is Navy, not an Air Force man, but even he knows that when you can't see
any planes in front of you in a dogfight, you have problems. Red streaks
flash past from behind, burying themselves in the steaming jungle ahead, and
the Betty begins to shake violently. Then yellow light fills the corners of
both of his eyes: the engines are on fire. The pilot is heading directly for
the jungle now; either the plane is out of control, or the pilot is already
dead, or it is a move of atavistic desperation: run, run into the trees!
They enter the jungle in level flight, and Yamamoto is astonished how far
they go before hitting anything big. Then the plane is bludgeoned wide open
by mahogany trunks, like baseball bats striking a wounded sparrow, and he
knows it's over. The greenhouse disintegrates around him, the meridians and
parallels crumpling and rending which isn't quite as bad as it sounds since
the body of the plane is suddenly filled with flames. As his seat tears
loose from the broken dome and launches into space, he grips his sword,
unwilling to disgrace himself by dropping his sacred weapon, blessed by the
emperor, even in this last instant of his life. His clothes and hair are on
fire as he tumbles like a meteor through the jungle, clenching his ancestral
blade.
He realizes something: The Americans must have done the impossible: broken
all of their codes. That explains Midway, it explains the Bismarck Sea,
Hollandia, everything. It especially explains why Yamamoto--who ought to be
sipping green tea and practicing calligraphy in a misty garden--is, in point
of fact, on fire and hurtling through the jungle at a hundred miles per hour
in a chair, closely pursued by tons of flaming junk. He must get word out!
The codes must all be changed! This is what he is thinking when he flies
head-on into a hundred-foot-tall Octomelis sumatrana. "
(the above starts on page 334 in my book.)
a425couple
- the "hit squad" that took out Admiral Yamamoto in 1943 was comprised
- exclusively of P-38's. I find the account of the attack implausible
because
- the six zero's escorting Yamamoto's duel T1-323 transports were certainly
- not being flown by rookie pilots.
Already by April 1943, the grim for Japan, realities of
them being unable to adequately replace war losses
in materials and skill were being seen.
One pilot from Yamamoto's Zero escort, Kenji Yanagiya,
was not even selected for flight training until March 1942.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenji_Yanagiya
Most USN pilots had been flying for over a year
before going into combat areas.
- They would have known to evade the initial dive of the P-38's and then
- prevent them from harassing the transports, unless there would have been
- an overwhelming number of P-38's diving.
Included in
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenji_Yanagiya
is the story told by the IJN witness pilot who survived the war.
Do you think he tells a "plausable" account?
Jim Wilkins
news:ocg8j...@news3.newsguy.com...
> Meanwhile, here is a great chapter from a good book.
> It is about Yamamoto, and includes the shoot down.
>
Peter Stickney
> <jrbrad...@gmail.com> wrote in message...
> - the "hit squad" that took out Admiral Yamamoto in 1943 was comprised
> - exclusively of P-38's. I find the account of the attack implausible
> because
> - the six zero's escorting Yamamoto's duel T1-323 transports were
> certainly - not being flown by rookie pilots.
>
> Already by April 1943, the grim for Japan, realities of
> them being unable to adequately replace war losses
> in materials and skill were being seen.
> One pilot from Yamamoto's Zero escort, Kenji Yanagiya,
> was not even selected for flight training until March 1942.
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenji_Yanagiya
> Most USN pilots had been flying for over a year
> before going into combat areas.
>
> - They would have known to evade the initial dive of the P-38's and then
> - prevent them from harassing the transports, unless there would have been
> - an overwhelming number of P-38's diving.
The P-38s, with their higher energy state - speed and altitude (Which are
convertible from one to the other - speed allows you to gain altitude,
altitude allows you to gain speed - hold the initiative throughout, if
handled correctly - teh escorting Zeros are at a low energy state - they've
slowed down to stay with the bombers, and they don't have the time or the
power to gain enough energy to be able to do anything but react to the
P-38s. While a P-38 doesn't turn with a Zero at low speeds, that's a very
small factor in deciding the results of air combat - being able to blow
though the escorts and go straight for the bombers, engaging, making
slashing passes, disengaging, and repositioning for another attack, that's
what decides the issue.
While some of the Zero pilots may have been very skilled, it doesn't matter
if the enemy doesn't fight your fight, and is flying his airplane in areas
of performance that you can't reach. At that point, the best outcome is to
not get shot down.
>
> Included in
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenji_Yanagiya
> is the story told by the IJN witness pilot who survived the war.
> Do you think he tells a "plausable" account?
not really 6 airplanes - it's 2 flights of 3. The Japanese used a 3 airplane
flight as their basic fighter unit. This has severe disadvantages in combat
- a 3 airplane flight has a difficult time maintiaining mutual support and
situational awareness - there's too much time and attention needed to keep
the formation together. Stragglers get picked off, as does, often the
lagging airplane in a Vic, once the turning starts.
The American fighters fought as pairs - lead and wingman, as the basic
element, and in flights of 4 - 2 mutually supporting elements. This allowed
the fighters the maximum maneuverability and responsiveness to the tactical
situation. - So, the P-38s are in 8 Elements of 2, or 4 flights of 2 pairs
each. After their low altitude approach, the Killer Flight has climbed to
5,000, punched off their tanks, and accelerated to fighting speed. At this
point they are spotted by the escorts, but it's already too late. Note that
PO Yanagia did not observe the other 12 P-38s (Having climbed to a superior
altitude and also getting their speed up) which dropped on and engaged the 6
Zeros.
His report of attacking the returning P-38 is plausible, and, again,
illustrates the importance of maintaining energy - He observed the P-38
cruising slowly, (Which, if it were the sole American loss makes sense -
he'd had problems with his long range tanks) achieved a position where he
could turn an altitude advantage into speed, and made a single slashing
pass.
Keep in mind that, in addition to the tactical disadvantages that the
Japanese were under, that the fighters weren't the targets - the two bombers
were. It was only necessary to keep the fighters from attempting to engage
the killer flight.
--
Pete Stickney
Always remember to close all parentheses.
We're not paying to air-condition the entire paragraph.