Hellcat vs Shiden/Shiden-Kai PDF Download

Author: Tony Holmes
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1472829735
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 81

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Book Description
By the early months of 1944 in the Pacific, the US Navy's burgeoning force of carrier-based F6F-3/5 Hellcats had pretty much wiped the skies clear of Japanese fighters during a series of one-sided aerial engagements. However, starting in October they faced the superb Kawanishi N1K1/2 Shiden/Shiden-Kai, a formidable fighter with improved armament, a powerful engine and excellent manoeuvrability that in contrast to earlier Japanese fighters had the ability to withstand a greater degree of battle damage. Japanese pilots using this aircraft would claim more than 170 aerial victories over Kyushu and whilst escorting Kamikazes attacking Allied ships off Okinawa. US Navy Hellcat pilots in turn were credited with many of the scores of Shiden-Kais that were downed attempting to defend Japan. This fully illustrated book compares these two fascinating aircraft, using specially commissioned artwork, first-hand accounts and a thorough technical analysis.

Author: Edward M. Young
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1472852494
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 134

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Book Description
An illustrated exploration of the dramatic aerial combats between the US Navy's long-range bomber and Japanese flying boats in the Pacific War. Edward Young explores these rarely written about combats, examining the aggressive and strategic tactics deployed by both US Navy and Imperial Japanese Navy Air Force and analyzing the technical improvements installed throughout the war. The PB4Y-1/2 Liberator/Privateer was the US Navy's first four-engined, land-based bomber, adapted and allocated to fight the U-boat menace in the Atlantic and protect the vast reaches of the Pacific Ocean. The long range, speed, armament and bomb load of the PB4Y-1 enabled the US Navy's Pacific squadrons to adopt more aggressive tactics. The PB4Y-1, and its follow-on PB4Y-2, engaged in dangerous bombing missions against Japanese installations, shipping strikes, and air combat. On the other side, with its doctrine of making the first strike against an enemy fleet, the Imperial Japanese Navy recognized the vital importance of maritime reconnaissance, relying on carrier-based reconnaissance aircraft, ship-borne floatplanes and, for long-range maritime patrol, flying boats. The Japanese would continue to develop their aircraft throughout the war, resulting, among others, in the H6K 'Mavis' and the H8K2 'Emily', which despite never achieving a victory, was regarded by the Allied pilots as the most difficult Japanese aircraft to destroy. Enriched with specially commissioned artwork, including armament and cockpit views, battlescenes and technical diagrams, this title analyses technical specifications in detail. By including first-hand accounts, aviation expert Edward Young provides a detailed account of these one-sided yet dramatic and aggressive combats.

Author: Tony Holmes
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1472829751
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 81

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Book Description
By the early months of 1944 in the Pacific, the US Navy's burgeoning force of carrier-based F6F-3/5 Hellcats had pretty much wiped the skies clear of Japanese fighters during a series of one-sided aerial engagements. However, starting in October they faced the superb Kawanishi N1K1/2 Shiden/Shiden-Kai, a formidable fighter with improved armament, a powerful engine and excellent manoeuvrability that in contrast to earlier Japanese fighters had the ability to withstand a greater degree of battle damage. Japanese pilots using this aircraft would claim more than 170 aerial victories over Kyushu and whilst escorting Kamikazes attacking Allied ships off Okinawa. US Navy Hellcat pilots in turn were credited with many of the scores of Shiden-Kais that were downed attempting to defend Japan. This fully illustrated book compares these two fascinating aircraft, using specially commissioned artwork, first-hand accounts and a thorough technical analysis.

Author: Yasuho Izawa
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1472812638
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 225

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Book Description
Although seen as a replacement for the A6M Zero-sen carrier-based fighter, the Mitsubishi J2M Raiden was actually designed as a land-based naval interceptor optimised for speed rather than manoeuvrability. Engine cooling problems for its Mitsubishi Kasai 23 engine, airflow and flight control issues plagued the Raiden's development, but despite these production delays, aces Sadaaki Akamatsu Yoshihiro Aoki, Susumu Ito and Susumu Ishihara all claimed significant scores in the Raiden. Kawanishi's N1K family of fighters were privately developed by the manufacturer from the N1K Kyofu floatplane fighter. Again plagued by structural and engine maladies, the N1K1-J Shiden eventually entered frontline service in time to see considerable action in the doomed defence of the Philippines in October 1944. Despite suffering heavy losses, the units equipped with new fighter proved that the N1K could more than hold its own against P-38s and F6Fs. The improved N1K2-J Shiden-KAI started to reach the frontline by late 1944 – in time for defence of the Home Islands. Here, it proved to be the best IJN fighter of the war.

Author: Donald Nijboer
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1472846346
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 81

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Book Description
The SBD Dauntless dive-bomber was a key cog in the US Navy's aerial arsenal throughout the Pacific War. Although a product of aviation design in the mid to late 1930s, the type soldiered on even as more advanced aircraft were appearing from American factories as the war progressed. Despite its classification as a dive-bomber and rather dated appearance, the SBD Dauntless could more than handle its own against the feared A6M Zero-sen – a regular opponent, especially during the first 18 months of the campaign in the Pacific. The SBD was credited with 138 victories in aerial combat (principally in 1942), 107 of which were fighters and the rest bombers. Seven SBD units claimed five or more aerial victories, with future ace Lt(jg) John Leppla of VS-2 being credited with four victories while flying from the carrier USS Lexington during the Battle of the Coral Sea in May 1942. The Zero-sen came to symbolise Japan's military prowess during the early stages of the war in the Pacific, and it quickly became the world's premier carrier-based fighter – a title it would hold well into 1943. The psychological impact of the Zero-sen was so great that all Allied fighters were judged by the standards set by it. The aviators flying the A6M in 1941-42 were amongst the most experienced fighter pilots in the world, and they claimed a significant number of the SBDs destroyed while trying to defend their carriers from attack during the Battles of Coral Sea, Midway and Santa Cruz in 1942. While one was a dive-bomber and the other a nimble fighter, both met in combat many times, with the Dauntless proving an elusive and deadly target thanks to the tenacity and skill of the pilots and gunners manning the Douglas aircraft. While the Zero-sen was credited with shooting down many SBDs, the rugged dive-bomber gave as good as it got and emerged, not surprisingly, victorious on many occasions. This book examines these aircraft in detail, exploring their history and development and contains accurate descriptions of the combats between the SBD Dauntless and Zero-sen throughout the first four carrier battles of 1942 and the Solomons Campaign.

Author: Brian Lane Herder
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1472840348
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 97

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Book Description
The final months of Allied naval bombardments on the Home Islands during World War II have, for whatever reason, frequently been overlooked by historians. Yet the Allies' final naval campaign against Japan involved the largest and arguably most successful wartime naval fleet ever assembled, and was the climax to the greatest naval war in history. Though suffering grievous losses during its early attacks, by July 1945 the United States Third Fleet wielded 1,400 aircraft just off the coast of Japan, while Task Force 37, the British Pacific Fleet's carrier and battleship striking force, was the most powerful single formation ever assembled by the Royal Navy. In the final months of the war the Third Fleet's 20 American and British aircraft carriers would hurl over 10,000 aerial sorties against the Home Islands, whilst another ten Allied battleships would inflict numerous morale-destroying shellings on Japanese coastal cities. In this illustrated study, historian Brian Lane Herder draws on primary sources and expert analysis to chronicle the full story of the Allies' Navy Siege of Japan from February 1945 to the very last days of World War II.

Author: Mark Chambers
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 147281875X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 99

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Book Description
Entering service during the Sino-Japanese War, the Nakajima B5N (code-named 'Kate') excelled and went on to achieve surprising and dramatic successes in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. It also contributed to the sinking of the US aircraft carriers USS Lexington at the Battle of the Coral Sea, USS Yorktown at the Battle of Midway, and USS Hornet at the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands. Its replacement, the Nakajima B6N 'Jill', while a marked improvement over its illustrious predecessor, was never able to achieve its full potential in combat due to advances in Allied aircraft, finding itself relegated to the dreaded Kamikaze strikes in the latter part of the war. Using previously unpublished photographs as well as colour illustrations, this book will cover the history of the 'Kate' and 'Jill' torpedo/attack bombers, including their design and development, as well as the combat highs and lows of the Imperial Japanese Navy's premier torpedo-bombers.

Author: Edward M. Young
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1849087466
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 96

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Book Description
This illustrated history describes the clashes between the US against the hastily created Kamikaze units of the Imperial Japanese Army and Navy Air Forces, some of the last large scale aerial engagements of the Pacific War. The Japanese High Command realised that the loss of Okinawa would give the Americans a base for the invasion of Japan. Its desperate response was to unleash the full force of the Special Attack Units, known in the west as the Kamikaze ('Divine Wind'). In a series of mass attacks in between April and June 1945, more than 900 Kamikaze aeroplanes were shot down. Conventional fighters and bombers accompanied the Special Attack Units as escorts, and to add their own weight to the attacks on the US fleet. In the air battles leading up to the invasion of Okinawa, as well as those that raged over the island in the three months that followed, the Japanese lost more than 7,000 aircraft both in the air and on the ground. In the course of the fighting, 67 Navy, 21 Marine, and three USAAF pilots became aces. As Edward M Young shows, in many ways it was an uneven combat and on numerous occasions following these uneven contests, American fighter pilots would return from combat having shot down up to six Japanese aeroplanes during a single mission.

Author: Mantelli - Brown - Kittel - Graf
Publisher: Edizioni R.E.I.
ISBN: 2372972251
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 44

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Book Description
This famous US fighter produced by the United Aircraft Corporation, was used primarily in World War II and during the Korean War. It was the best fighter aircraft carrier embarked on the war, even if proved extraordinarily effective even ground-based and unbeatable in the attack on the ground. The Vought F4U Corsair was without doubt the best fighter of World War II based on aircraft carriers. It was extremely powerful and as fighter-bomber was so effective against the Japanese that they nicknamed him the "whistling death". As tactical air support, he was afraid even to "hear" his wing radiators produced a hissing sound worthy of a Stuka, and the Japanese soon became very respectful of their presence. The Vought F4U Corsair was a US fighter produced by Chance Vought Corporation (a company which later became the United Aircraft Corporation). It was mainly used in World War II and during the Korean War. It was the best fighters boarded the aircraft carrier of World War II, although it proved extraordinarily effective even ground-based and unbeatable in the attack on the ground, in many respects superior even to the P-51 Mustang. Despite its qualities, he spent half of his career working on bases on the ground, because, initially, the Navy considered it unsuitable for use on aircraft carriers. Nevertheless, he recorded an extraordinary amount of aerial victories.

Author: David Doyle
Publisher: MMD-Squadron Signal
ISBN: 9780897478021
Category : B-58 bomber
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Sleek, sporting a delta wing, four big engines, and an external payload, the Convair B-58 was the first operational bomber capable of Mach 2. In service for only a decade, the supersonic bomber was dubbed the "Hustler"--a tribute to its impressive performance. The effort that resulted in the B-58, which saw its heyday in the 1960s, began back in February 1949 the Air Research and Development Command at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base initiated the second Generalized Bomber Study (GEBO II). While a number of manufacturers responded, Convair's design, which drew heavily on that firm's previous delta-wing fighter stylings, was favored. During its career, the B-58 equipped two Strategic Air Command (SAC) bomb wings. The first of these, the 43d Bomb Wing, was based from 1960 into 1964 at Carswell Air Force Base in Fort Worth, Texas, adjacent to the factory where the B-58s were built, then moved in 1964 to Little Rock Air Force Base in Arkansas, where it remained until the Hustler's retirement in 1970. The second unit was the 305th Bomb Wing, based at Bunker Hill Air Force Base (later known as Grissom AFB), Indiana from 1961 through 1970. While the initial operational use of the B-58 was beset with delays, and in fact at one time SAC outright opposed the aircraft, as the decade of the 1960s began the B-58 brought SAC much desired prestige as it set a successive number of records involving speed and altitude. Among these were the 1961 Thompson Trophy, the Mackay Trophy, the Harmon Trophy, and the Bleriot Trophy. Despite its impressive performance, the B-58 was not without shortcomings. For one thing, its 1,740-mile unrefueled range was relatively modest. For another, the Soviets developed the SA-2 Guideline surface-to-air missile that could strike the Hustler at its 63,400 foot ceiling. Finally, the operational cost of the bomber was extremely high. Accordingly, in 1965, Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara ordered the B-58 phased out by 1974. Then, as the Nixon Administration made one last attempt to bring the Vietnam War to a successful end, Defense Secretary Melvin Laird advanced this phase-out to Fiscal Year 1970 to cut defense expenditures. Accordingly, the aircraft were, except for a few display specimens, shuttled off to Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, where they lingered in storage until 1977, at which time they were sold for scrap to Southwestern Alloys.