Japanese Pilots Laughed At F4U Corsairs, Until They Shattered Their Zero Squadrons

Video from the channel WW2 Air Stories about Vought F4U Corsair, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 47:44. Language: English. Video type: Documentary.

Narrated documentary about how the Vought F4U Corsair went from being a carrier fighter rejected by the Navy to dominating the skies of the Pacific between 1943 and 1944. It follows, in parallel, Marine pilot Kenneth Walsh, the first Corsair ace, and Japanese ace Tetsuzo Iwamoto, and covers the Solomons campaign through to the neutralization of Rabaul.

Jiro Horikoshi's Zero dominated the Pacific in 1941 and 1942 thanks to its lightness, at the cost of lacking armor and self-sealing fuel tanks. In February 1938 the Navy requested a new carrier fighter, and the Chance Vought team, led by Rex Beisel, paired the Pratt & Whitney R-2800 Double Wasp engine with a compact airframe; the inverted gull wing allowed a shorter landing gear with a propeller of more than 13 feet. On October 1, 1940, the XF4U-1 prototype exceeded 400 mph. The rearward cockpit, bouncing landings, and the loss of the left wing caused the September 1942 trials aboard the USS Sangamon to fail, and the aircraft was handed over to the Marines. The VMF-124 squadron arrived at Guadalcanal on February 12, 1943, and two days later, over Kahili, lost two Corsairs in what became known as the Valentine's Day Massacre.

Pilots adopted high-speed diving attacks, in pairs and avoiding tight turns, exploiting the Corsair's speed, armor, and six .50-caliber machine guns. Walsh scored his first victories on April 1, 1943, and became an ace on May 13, the day his squadron commander, Major William Gise, disappeared. On August 30, alone against about 50 Zeros, he shot down four before ditching near Vella Lavella. He amassed 20 victories in the Solomons and received the Medal of Honor from Roosevelt on February 8, 1944. Gregory Boyington's VMF-214 challenged the Japanese over Kahili and led the sweeps over Rabaul, where Boyington was shot down and captured on January 3, 1944. After the attack on Truk in February 1944, Japan withdrew its naval aviation from Rabaul. The Corsair returned to carriers in December 1944 aboard the USS Essex, and American records credit it with more than 2,000 victories against fewer than 200 air-combat losses, figures the video itself considers inflated.