Midway Campaign - The Aircraft

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Japanese
A6M Zero/Zeke Fighter. One of the most successful fighters of the war. The Zero was most numerous Japanese fighter of the war, with over 10,000 built. The A6M was very fast, could climb to 13,000 feet in 4.3 minutes, and had exceptional range because of its light construction and correspondingly small engine. But this performance was not achieved without cost. While the A6M was fast and nimble, it was not as sturdy as American fighters. The large fuel supply was not protected by self-sealing fuel tanks , turning what for an American fighter would be a non-fatal hit into a fiery inferno for an A6M. American pilots soon learned how to avoid the A6M's advantages, and how to take advantage of its limitations, such as an inability to turn left as quickly as it could turn right, due to the enormous torque created by its propellor (all prop planes have torque problems, but the Zero�s were more extreme than usual), and reduced performance at certain altitudes. After the first year of the war, more maneuverable U.S. fighters appeared, and by 1943 the A6M was no longer a fearsome opponent. The Zero did undergo upgrades throughout the war, and the 1944 model was about 20 percent more capable than the 1941 version. "Zeke" was the initial American code name for the airplane. The designation "Zero" has nothing to do with American contempt for things Japanese, as has been suggested, but rather was the name the Japanese themselves gave the airplane, from its year of introduction, 1940, 2600 in the Imperial calendar.

D3A Val Dive Bomber. The primary Japanese carrier dive bomber for the first year of the war. While not particularly outstanding in the speed, bombload or range departments, in the hands of well trained crews the Val did an outstanding job, as at Pearl Harbor. The aircraft was quite maneuverable and the D3A could tangle with enemy fighters once its bombs had been dropped. Production of the D3A continued until January, 1944, with 816 being delivered. The D3A ended its career as a trainer and Kamikaze.

B5N Kate Torpedo Bomber. Japan's premier carrier torpedo bomber early in World War II. These were the aircraft that carried the torpedoes at Pearl Harbor. Although considered obsolete by 1941, they were superior to the U.S. TBD1 Devastator , but not nearly as good as the TBF Avenger. Entering service in 1937, with production continuing until 1942, some 1,100 were manufactured, and many were still in service in 1944.

U.S.
F4F Wildcat Fighter. Originally designed as a biplane, the Wildcat actually lost out to the hapless F2A Buffalo in a fly-off competition. Redesigned as a monoplane, the F4F was clearly superior to the F2A and production began immediately. Ironically, the F4F first entered combat in British colors. An order for France ended up in Britain after France fell to the Nazis in June, 1940. The Royal Navy put the aircraft into service as the "Martlet." In December of 1940, a Martlet shot down a German bomber, scoring the F4F's first kill. The British ultimately took delivery of 1,100 F4Fs. Meanwhile, the U.S. Navy was rapidly replacing all its older carrier fighters (bi-planes or F2As) with Wildcats. By the end of 1941, nearly all carrier fighters were F4Fs and by early 1942, all of the older fighters were gone. The Wildcat was not the best fighter in the world, but it was good enough. In particular, it was rugged, being able to take more punishment than its principal opponent, the Zero. By the end of 1942, Wildcats had downed 5.9 enemy aircraft for each F4F lost.

SBD Dauntless Dive Bomber. The SBD entered service in 1941 and was considered obsolete even then. The prewar experts were wrong, as the SBD proved one of the most effective carrier bombers of the war. It's long range (1,200 miles for bombing, 20 percent more for scouting) and reliable operation enabled the SBD to rack up a credible war record. SBDs sunk 300,000 tons of enemy shipping, as well as 18 warships of all sizes, including six carriers. It could defend itself, shooting down 138 Japanese aircraft, while losing only 80 to enemy fighters. Nearly 6,000 were delivered, including 1,000 for the U.S. Army as the A-24. Despite it's excellent record, a replacement, the Helldiver, was already in the works when the war broke out. Moreover, the TBF Avenger, the replacement for the hapless TBD1 Devastator torpedo bomber , proved to be a capable divebomber also. Torpedo bombing declined in importance as the war went on, and the TBF Avenger was used, quite successfully, as a regular bomber most of the time. What kept the SBD in service throughout the war was it's versatility and delays in getting the Helldiver into service. Even so, SBDs went from half of all carrier aircraft in mid 1942 to about six percent by mid 1944. Many SBDs were transferred to the Marines for land based operations. A testimony of the SBDs worth can be seen in its use into the 1950s by many foreign airforces. The French used SBDs during their early stages of their war in Vietnam.

TBD1 Devastator Torpedo Bomber. The standard U.S. Navy torpedo bomber at the start of the war, the TBD1 was markedly ill-equipped for its role. The fatal flaw was its slow speed and the low altitude from which it had to drop its torpedo. These characteristics caused TBDs to take very heavy losses from Japanese flak and interceptors. At Midway, all the attacking TBDs were shot down without scoring any hits. Because the TBF Avenger was just entering service in 1942, it wasn't until early 1944 that all the TBD-1's could be withdrawn from combat units

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