Quote:
Originally Posted by CaptainMattJ.
oh well then. Wildcats didnt fare well enough against zeros. sorry about the mix up. the wildcat just didnt have the speed, maneuverability, range, or climbing a zero could get. however these problems were quite easily overcome in the F6F Hellcat. and it still had great armor.
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Actually, the F4F was a very close match to the Zero. The -3 was faster at sea level (just barely), and both the -3 and -4 were better armed and armored.
Regardless, the F4F fared very well vs the Zero in RL. As I said, Lundstrom's two "First Team" books go over every single air engagement during the first year of the war that the USN was involved in. His books are meticulous, and he usually manages to ID the specific japanese aircraft, pilots, even crew, and which attack was vs which aircraft. he compares US and Japanese records, and sorts out the overclaims from the actual kills.
The F4F was NEVER in the hole vs the Zero. never. From day one the USN pilots in the F4F held their own vs the Zero. So yes, on paper the Zero had several advantages as you mention, but in RL combat, it faired dead even to WORSE than the F4F.
Regarding Thatch, you need to remember that the first time USN pilots saw a Zero was the Coral Sea. The next time was Midway. The "learning curve" to figure out what NOT to do vs the zero was basically ONE combat (and they didn't do terribly at the Coral Sea).
Add up all the time involved, and it took the USN pilots what, 30 minutes to figure out how to counter the Zero?
The amazing thing is also that the F4U, and f6F—the two planes that WTF pwned the Zero—were both designed before the war started.