Dogfights: Guadalcanal
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Aug. 30, 1942. The U.S. planes are trying to stop Japanese bombers and fighters over Guadalcanal.
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The F4F Wildcat. On this particular mission they run into a swarm of over twenty Japanese Zeros. There's a group pf P-400s (U.S. planes) which are being attacked by the Zeros from behind, and the Wildcats are behind them.
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The Zero was vulnerable in this section since the fuel tanks are here.
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John Smith fires at the Zero and hits it, causing it to blow a wing clear off the plane. The planes based on Guadalcanal were referred to as the Cactus Air Force.
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Aug. 7, 1942, the U.S. launches its first amphibious assault, on Guadalcanal.
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The U.S. takes the airfield from the Japanese, and renames it Henderson Field. The fighting is still vicious, however, even around the airfield.
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John Smith takes on another Zero, and the film explains the tactics he used, and the types of bullets.
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Then a third Zero comes straight at him. The two planes play a game of chicken, basically, but Smith wins since his plane has better armor.
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The plane contains “self-sealing” fuel tanks. For the first time anywhere I find an explanation of that term. The tanks are sealed in rubber, and when punctured, the rubber reseals the hole. This helps keep the tank from blowing up.
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On the same mission as above, Smith encounters two more Zeros while returning to his airfield.
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One thing that made the battle for Guadalcanal unusual was that the U.S. controlled the ocean in the day, but at night the Japanese controlled the ocean. The U.S. planes were limited to daytime fighting, so at time they could end up being bombarded by Japanese ships.
The film then covers a battle where some bombers were trying to attack a Japanese convoy. The leader of the F4F's , Jeff DeBlanc, was leaking fuel. All this is taking place six months into the campaign for the island, which gives a person a good idea of how long and hard the fighting was.
One of the planes encountered in the fight.
Another plane then encountered in the fight.
DeBlanc shoots down his fifth Japanese plane of the day.
The Japanese end up withdrawing from the island.
April 7, 1943: The Japanese launch a major attack on an American convoy. There are over 200 Japanese planes in the strike force.
Four wildcats come upon the Japanese attack force.
Jim Swett attacks three of the Val dive bombers and blows up one, making it his first kill of the battle.
Moments later, he gets his second kill.
Then he gets the third bomber.
He shoots down his fifth plane within fifteen minutes. The Japanese planes were following their strict discipline and not breaking formation, which made it easier on him to attack.
He downs two more.
The Cactus Air Force ended up destroying over two hundred Japanese planes.
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