Грумман F4F «Уайлдкэт»: Американский истребитель Второй мировой войны

United States Navy World War II era fighter plane

The Grumman F4F Wildcat is an American carrier based fighter aircraft that entered service in 1940 with the United States Navy, and the British Royal Navy where it was initially known as the Martlet. First used by the British in the North Atlantic, the Wildcat was the only effective fighter available to the United States Navy and Marine Corps in the Pacific Theater during the early part of the Second World War. The disappointing Brewster Buffalo was withdrawn in favor of the Wildcat and replaced as aircraft became available. With a top speed of , the Wildcat was outperformed by the faster , more maneuverable, and longer ranged Mitsubishi A6M Zero. US Navy pilots, including John "Jimmy" Thach, a pioneer of fighter tactics to deal with the A6M Zero, were greatly dissatisfied with the Wildcat's inferior performance against the Zero in the battles of the Coral Sea and Midway. The Wildcat has a claimed air combat kill to loss ratio of 5.9:1 in 1942 and 6.9:1 for the entire war. Lessons learned from the Wildcat were later applied to the faster F6F Hellcat. While the Wildcat had better range and maneuverability at low speed, the Hellcat could rely on superior power and high speed performance to outperform the Zero. Wildcat production continued throughout the remainder of the war, with Wildcats serving on escort carriers, where the larger and much heavier Hellcat could not be used.

Grumman fighter development began with the two seat Grumman FF biplane. The FF was the first U. S. naval fighter with a retractable landing gear. The wheels retracted into the fuselage, leaving the tires visibly exposed, flush with the sides of the fuselage. Two single seat biplane designs followed, the F2F and F3F, which established the general fuselage outlines of what would become the F4F Wildcat. In 1935, while the F3F was still undergoing flight testing, Grumman started work on its next biplane fighter, the G 16. At the time, the U. S. Navy favored a monoplane design, the Brewster F2A 1, ordering production early in 1936. However, an order was also placed for Grumman's G 16 (given the navy designation XF4F 1) as a backup in case the Brewster monoplane proved to be unsatisfactory. It was clear to Grumman that the XF4F 1 would be inferior to the Brewster monoplane, so Grumman abandoned the XF4F 1, designing instead a new monoplane fighter, the XF4F 2. The XF4F 2 would retain the same, fuselage mounted, hand cranked main landing gear as the F3F, with its relatively narrow track. The unusual manually retractable main landing gear design for all of Grumman's U. S. Navy fighters up to and through the F4F, as well as for the amphibious Grumman J2F utility biplane, was originally created in the 1920s by Leroy Grumman for Grover Loening. Landing accidents caused by failure of the main gear to fully lock into place were distressingly common. The overall performance of Grumman's new monoplane was felt to be inferior to that of the Brewster Buffalo. The XF4F 2 was marginally faster, but the Buffalo was more maneuverable. The Buffalo was judged superior and was chosen for production. Testing of the new XF4F 3 led to an order for F4F 3 production models, the first of which was completed in February 1940. France also ordered the type, powered by a Wright R 1820 "Cyclone 9" radial engine, but France fell to the Axis powers before they could be delivered and the aircraft went instead to the British Royal Navy, who christened the new fighter the Martlet. The U. S. Navy officially adopted the aircraft type on 1 October 1941 as the Wildcat. The Royal Navy's and U. S. Navy's F4F 3s, armed with four .50 in (12.7 mm) Browning machine guns, joined active units in 1940.

Even before the Wildcat had been purchased by the U. S. Navy, the French Navy and the Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm (FAA) had ordered the Wildcat, with their own configurations, via the Anglo French Purchasing Board.

U. S. Navy Wildcats participated in Operation Torch. USN escort carriers in the Atlantic used Wildcats until the end of the war. In October 1943 F4Fs participated in Operation Leader, an anti shipping strike on Norway.

In all, 7,860 Wildcats were built. ), destroying a claimed figure of 1,327 enemy aircraft at a cost of 178 aerial losses, 24 to ground/shipboard fire, and 49 to operational causes (an overall claimed kill to loss ratio of 6.9:1). True to their escort fighter role, Wildcats dropped only 154 tons of bombs during the war.

U. S. Navy orders followed as did some (with Wright Cyclone engines) from France; these ended up with the Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm after the fall of France and entered service on 8 September 1940. These aircraft, designated by Grumman as G 36A, had a different cowling from other earlier F4Fs and fixed wings, and were intended to be fitted with French armament and avionics following delivery. In British service initially, the aircraft were known as the Martlet I, but not all Martlets would be to exactly the same specifications as U. S. Navy aircraft. All Martlet Is featured the four .50 in (12.7 mm) M2 Browning machine guns of the F4F 3 with 450 rpg. The British directly ordered and received a version with the original Twin Wasp, but again with a modified cowling, under the manufacturer designation G 36B. These aircraft were given the designation Martlet II by the British. The first 10 G 36Bs were fitted with non folding wings and were given the designation Martlet III. These were followed by 30 folding wing aircraft (F4F 3As) which were originally destined for the Hellenic Air Force, which were also designated Martlet IIIs. On paper, the designation changed to Martlet III(A) when the second series of Martlet III was introduced. Poor design of the armament installation on early F4Fs caused these otherwise reliable machine guns to frequently jam, a problem common to wing mounted weapons of many U. S. fighters early in the war. An F4F 3 flown by Lieutenant Edward O'Hare shot down, within a few minutes, five Mitsubishi twin engine bombers attacking Lexington off Bougainville on 20 February 1942. But contrasting with O'Hare's performance, his wingman was unable to participate because his guns would not function. A shortage of two stage superchargers led to the development of the F4F 3A, which was basically the F4F 3 but with a Pratt & Whitney R 1830 90 radial engine with a more primitive single stage two speed supercharger. The F4F 3A, which was capable of at 16000 feet (4877 m), was used side by side with the F4F 3, but its poorer performance made it unpopular with U. S. Navy fighter pilots. The F4F 3A would enter service as the Martlet III(B). At the time of Pearl Harbor, only Enterprise had a fully equipped Wildcat squadron, VF 6 with F4F 3As. Enterprise was then transferring a detachment of VMF 211, also equipped with F4F 3s, to Wake. Saratoga was in San Diego, working up for operations of the F4F 3s of VF 3. 11 F4F 3s of VMF 211 were at the Ewa Marine Air Corps Station on Oahu; nine of these were damaged or destroyed during the Japanese attack. The detachment of VMF 211 on Wake lost seven Wildcats to Japanese attacks on 8 December, but the remaining five put up a fierce defense, making the first bomber kill on 9 December. The destroyer Japanese destroyer Kisaragi was sunk by the Wildcats, and the Japanese invasion force retreated. In May 1942, the F4F 3s of VF 2 and VF 42, aboard Yorktown and Lexington, participated in the Battle of the Coral Sea. Lexington and Yorktown fought against the fleet carriers Japanese aircraft carrier Zuikaku and Japanese aircraft carrier Shōkaku and the light carrier Japanese aircraft carrier Shōhō in this battle, in an attempt to halt a Japanese invasion of Port Moresby on Papua. During these battles, it became clear that attacks without fighter escort amounted to suicide, but that the fighter component on the carriers was completely insufficient to provide both fighter cover for the carrier and an escort for an attack force. Most U. S. carriers carried fewer than 20 fighters.

In June 1942, 17 F4F 3s and one F4F 3A (18 total) were converted into F4F 3P photoreconnaissance planes. The F4F 3Ps were for short range tactical reconnaissance, as their reserve fuel tanks were removed and replaced with Fairchild F 56 cameras. The F4F 3Ps retained their machine guns and were mainly flown by VMO 251 on air defense missions from Espiritu Santo in the South Pacific, arriving in July 1942. In October 1942, long ranged and unarmed F4F 7s began replacing the F4F 3Ps, but a detachment of three F4F 3P from VMO 155 operated from the Bogue class escort carrier USS Nassau (CVE 16) during the amphibious invasion of Attu Island in May 1943. Boston, MA, USA: Little, Brown and Co./Atlantic Monthly Press

This floatplane version of the F4F 3 was developed for use at forward island bases in the Pacific, before the construction of airfields. It was inspired by appearance of the A6M2 N "Rufe", a modification of the Mitsubishi A6M2 "Zeke". BuNo 4038 was modified to become the F4F 3S "Wildcatfish". Twin floats, manufactured by Edo Aircraft Corporation, were fitted. To restore the stability, small auxiliary fins were added to the tailplane. Because this was still insufficient, a ventral fin was added later. The F4F 3S was first flown 28 February 1943. The weight and drag of the floats reduced the maximum speed to As the performance of the basic F4F 3 was already below that of the Zero, the F4F 3S was clearly of limited usefulness. In any case, the construction of the airfields at forward bases by the "Seabees" was surprisingly quick. Only one was converted.

A new version, the F4F 4, entered service in 1941 with six machine guns and the Grumman patented Sto Wing folding wing system, which allowed more aircraft to be stored on an aircraft carrier, increasing the number of fighters that could be parked on a surface by more than a factor of 2. The F4F 4 was the definitive version that saw the most combat service in the early war years, including the Battle of Midway. Navy F4F 3s were replaced by F4F 4s in June 1942. During the Battle of Midway, only VMF 221 still used F4F 3s. VF 42 of the Yorktown was the last carrier group converted to the F4F 4, and that was done as it left Pearl Harbor on the way to the Battle of Midway as VF 3 flew in new F4F 4s with Commander Thach. The F4F 4 version was less popular with American pilots because the same amount of ammunition was spread over two additional guns, decreasing firing time. With the F4F 3's four .50 in (12.7 mm) guns and 450 rpg, pilots had 34 seconds of firing time; six guns decreased ammunition to 240 rpg, which could be expended in less than 20 seconds. The increase to six guns was attributed to the Royal Navy, who wanted greater firepower to deal with German and Italian foes. Jimmy Thach is quoted as saying, "A pilot who cannot hit with four guns will miss with eight." Extra guns and folding wings meant extra weight and reduced performance: the F4F 4 was capable of only about at 19400 feet (5913 m). Rate of climb was noticeably worse in the F4F 4; while Grumman optimistically claimed the F4F 4 could climb at a modest 1950 feet (594 m) per minute, in combat conditions, pilots found their F4F 4s capable of ascending at only per minute. The G 36A also had French instruments (with metric calibration), radio and gunsight. The throttle was modified to conform to French pre war practice: the throttle lever was moved towards the pilot (i. e. backward) to increase engine power. The armament which was to be fitted in France was six 7.5 mm (.296 in) Darne machine guns (two in the fuselage and four in the wings). The first G 36A was flown on 11 May 1940. After France's defeat in the Battle of France, all contracts were taken over by Britain. The throttle was modified again, four 0.50 in (12.7 mm) guns were installed in the wings and most traces of the original ownership removed. The Martlets were modified for British use by Blackburn, which continued to do this for all later marks. British gunsights, catapult spools and other items were installed. After attempts to fit British radio sets, it was decided to use the superior American equipment. The first Martlets entered British service in August 1940, with 804 Naval Air Squadron, stationed at Hatston in the Orkney Islands. The Martlet Mk I did not have a wing folding mechanism and was therefore used primarily from land bases, with the notable exception of six aircraft of 882 Sqn aboard Illustrious from March 1942. In April 1942 Illustrious transferred two Martlet I aircraft to HMS Archer while in port at Freetown. One of her four retained Martlet I aircraft were subsequently fitted with folding wings by ship's staff during passage to Durban. The Martlet was the second single seat, monoplane fighter to operate from Royal Navy aircraft carriers following the introduction of the Sea Hurricane IB on in July 1941. The majority of the Martlet Mk IIs were sent to the Far East. The first shipboard operations of the type in British service were in September 1941, aboard , a very small escort carrier with a carrier deck of 420 feet (128 m) by 59 feet (18 m), no elevators and no hangar deck. The six Wildcats were parked on the deck at all times. On its first voyage, it served as escort carrier for a convoy to Gibraltar. On 20 September, a German Fw 200 was shot down. On the next voyage, four Fw 200 Condors fell to the guns of the Martlets, and of the combined total, two of these five Condors were shot down by Eric "Winkle" Brown during his time aboard. Operations from Audacity also demonstrated that the fighter cover was useful against U boats. Audacity was sunk by a U boat on 21 December 1941, and of the pilots only Brown and one other survived, but it had already proved the usefulness of escort carriers. Ten fixed wing G 36Bs were used by the FAA as Martlet III(A).