“I love all the laughter directed at the Chi-Coms. Sounds frighteningly similar to the derision directed at the “buck-toothed, glasses-wearing Japs” and their cheap antiquated aircraft prior to Dec. 7, 1941.
Lots of young Americans died because we failed to recognize a real threat when it existed.”
Indeed, the Jap Zero was arguably the finest fighter plane on the planet for a long time. Its drawback was what made it able to climb so fast and maneuver so well -— lack of armor. They also had superb, but too few, pilots.
Additionally, when the war broke out, American torpedoes were virtually worthless, going too deeply under the target to hit anything. Sub commanders would return from patrol having hit nothing. Washington blamed the skippers before doing anything about it after the war had been going on for a year or two.
If you read the history of the Battle of Midway, it’s largely an embarrassing litany of wasting men and material against an enemy who suffered not a scratch until late in the game.
Would you agree that our arrogance and short-sightedness contributed to our unpreparedness?
Once hit over the head with a 2x4, the Grumman boys went back to the slide rulers and quickly came back with the Hellcat, designed specifically to be a Zero killer. They succeeded way beyond what could be expected under the circumstances. Not a very handsome airplane, but effective at its task.
(I had a good friend that flew them in WWII. He liked the Hellcat much better than the Corsair, which he also flew in combat. Interestingly, he said the Corsair wasn’t significantly faster in actual service.”)
Oldplayer