The Aleutians Islands Champaign was characterized by gawd-awful weather, including sheets of rain that turned airfields into ponds, rolling fog that obscured targets and landing strips, and frostbite due to inadequate boots. The tundra defied digging in. Obviously, this was just about the last place anyone would want to fly an aircraft. The fighting went on for just over a year, from June 1942 to August 1943. After the Japanese invaders were virtually wiped out, an American PBY patrol plane spotted a nearly intact, possibly flyable A6M Zero fighter plane that crash-landed short of an emergency airstrip runway on Akutan Island. The plane flipped over on its back, and the pilot was killed.
It took weeks to ship the wreck to San Diego, where restoration specialists waited to complete one of the most important projects of the war. It took another six weeks to knock out the repairs. The tail, wing tips, and canopy were easily restored. The propeller was wrecked, and the landing gear snapped by mud, but aside from a fuel line, the engine was completely intact. Bullet holes were patched and it was repainted with American stars.
On September 20th, Lieutenant Eddie Sanders took the Zero up for a myth-busting session like no other. This was something of a coup at that time, as this design was much feared by Allied pilots. Closer examination revealed the Zero’s many flaws and imminent obsolescence.
Sanders described the aircraft as well-equipped. He noted its superior rate of climb in comparison to the Wildcat. The fighter’s light weight did give it an impressive range, and Zero’s maneuverability was supposed to keep it out of trouble. Its manufacture was a true marvel. Of particular note was the light aluminum skin that covered the fuselage. Whatever materials were substituted for Japanese metals in the reconstruction may well have been considerably heavier than the Japanese originals. Sanders noted that the Zero was slightly slower than the F4F. Pilots who fought the plane begged to differ. This added reconstruction weight may have been the cause of this dispute.
American experts studied the Japanese armament package. By early war standards, the Zero mounted what was considered to be an impressive combination of two rifle-caliber machine guns and a pair of 20 m/m cannons. Unlike any other air force, the Japanese mounted the weapon trigger on the throttle handle instead of the stick. Japanese pilots depended on their pair of 7.7 m/m rifle caliber machineguns that were completely inadequate against Allied armor plating. This was a World War One standard of armament. Their cannons were slow firing, limited to sixty rounds, and had a low muzzle velocity, which hampered their accuracy. British pilots had the same problems with their initial batch of cannon armed Spitfires. By the end of the war, cannon ammunition capacity and reliability were greatly improved. The early war Zero was actually deficient in the weapons department.
The Japanese introduced a .50 caliber weapon to replace their 7.7 m/m guns. This was largely a copy of the basic Browning design, but the round it fired was inferior in speed and striking power to the American original.
The zero had other glaring issues. Defensive features were found lacking. American designers discovered that the A6M had neither armor to protect the pilot nor self-sealing fuel tanks, standard features on Allied aircraft. The .50 caliber armor-piercing incendiary round was the perfect choice of bullet for downing a Japanese aircraft of any sort.
Sanders reported that at high speeds, the Zero was very difficult to turn as the large flaps had no hydraulic boost to assist the pilot. Yes, a turning fight with the Zero at speeds below approximately two hundred miles per hour was suicidal, but when zoom tactics were employed to deliver slashing high-speed attacks, Japanese pilots faced a problem that they often could not counter. If a Flying Tiger or Wildcat pilot found a Zero on his tail, he could point his nose at the earth below and add power to dash away and re-enter the fight on better terms. At two hundred knots, the Zero and Wildcats had a very similar rate of roll, but at two hundred and fifty knots, Sanders found that it was physically impossible to roll the Japanese wonder weapon.[1]
As it turned out, the Akutan Zero confirmed that American designers already had better aircraft in production, as would soon be proven in the Great Marianas Turkey Shoot, which took place in The Philippine Sea on June 19th and 20th, 1944. The cream of Japanese Naval air power fell to new F6F Hellcat fighters from the Grumman Iron Works. 123 American planes were lost in that action, with 109 pilots killed, mostly due to fuel starvation and accidents during night recovery operations. The Japanese traded almost 650 planes and two and half thousand lives in the exchange. They also lost three irreplaceable aircraft carriers and several precious support ships. It was a stunning blow to the Emperor.
[1] Pacific Air, p. 224