What defeated the japs?

[Dragon]

M-18  ??   

[The Jekyll]

I give it to the PBY-5A piloted by LT Howard P. Ady, Jr., flying with VP-23, better known as "Strawberry 5" and the battle of Midway.

[Ripsnort]

The Japanese beat themselves by;
A)Underestimating the United States free will and tenacity.
B)Underestimated our resources to ramp up and conduct war.
C)Failed to sink the carriers at PH.
D)Over extended their supply line by expanding their territory too far.

Had they sunk the carriers at PH(C) , and not over extended themselves(D), the inevitable defeat might have taken just a few months longer.  

[Becinhu]

In an aircraft only standpoint the F6F was king in the kill stat category.  However, in terms of holding the line and fighting with their back to the wall the P-40, F4F, P-38, and P-39 slowed the Japanese tidal wave moving across the Pacific.

In a more laid back outlook consider the war in the Pacific like a dodgeball tourney.  Japan beat the Chinese in round 1.  They beat the motley squad of the Phillipines, Okinawa, Guam, and New Guinea in round 2.  They were on top of the Soviets at the intermission and looking ahead to facing the Australians in round 4.  While on the way back to the arena Team Captain Tojo looks to the side of the walkway and smiles. He pokes Co-captain Yamamoto and says "Do you think I can hit that hornet nest in that tree with one shot?"  Yamamoto replies "Why would you even  want to hit a hornet nest?" The rest is history.

[Shuffler]

F6F had the bulk of the kills...............

38s got Yamamoto.

[gyrene81]

They were on top of the Soviets at the intermission and looking ahead to facing the Australians in round 4. 

uh actually, they threw in the towel against the soviets...well documented...just sayin.

[redwing7]

The others may have had higher kill rates, but they were also doing it against a Japanese pilot corps that never caught up in training and quality after 1942.    It's kind of like those who claim the 51D won the airwar in the ETO.  Tell that to the guys who fought the war in other birds prior to D-Day when the fight for air supremacy was won and the veteran German pilots had been killed or knocked out of the fight for the most part.

Could not agree more. 

[Imowface]

duhh the USSR defeated japan in 1945

[Tac]

I would say no fighter played a major role in the defeat of Japan.

Ground based aircraft like the P-38 and P51 & P47s did their share and the carrier borne fighters did theirs.

The one plane that hurt Japan the most was the Dauntless Dive Bomber.

It sank most of Japan's carrier fleet and in almost all cases going at it alone without fighter escort. It sunk the biggest warships Japan had. Without the destruction of the carrier forces the US had little hope in the early and mid years of the war.

Dauntless hit ground targets in preparation of and in support of marine landings... it destroyed enemy supply ships and performed scouting and recon duties.

The fighter planes of the army and navy did their job against the IJN fighters and bombers... but once you think about it, once Japan lost its carriers it lost the war.

But if you want to know which FIGHTER hurt Japan the most... hmmm I'd think the F4F.

You have to think about not total kills but WHO they killed. The F6F is like the P51 in Europe..by the time it got in the fight the enemy was already heavily bled out and these new planes ended up fighting a mostly green enemy air force.

The F4F took on the most veteran IJN pilots without numerical or airframe superiority and held the line..and bled the majority of IJN's experienced pilots. When the F4U and F6F came in they completed the job via superior planes in superior numbers.

[JUGgler]

They're appetite was bigger than their stomach!

The Japanese were doomed from the outset of war. They didn't have a hope in hell of eating the buffet they had ordered! They should have been content with their gains in china and waited years before trying to belly up to the adult buffet 


JUGgler

[Imowface]

yes but if the japanese would not have gone to war with the US the US might not have jumed in on germany, and if that wouldnt have happend, half to world would be speaking Russian at the moment, not that its a bad thing 

[lulu]

As to me you can find a very good answer reading this:


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruth_Benedict


In particular:

The Chrysanthemum and the Sword.


 

[dedalos]

Going to take an other guess and say that the war was won by the guys that fought it and not the machines.

[Ardy123]

Going to take an other guess and say that the war was won by the guys that fought it and not the machines.

maybe they were machines.... maybe they were cylons? 

[Wildcat1]

Probably best to look at the fighters that held the line until US production could get rolling and new birds appeared.

P40, F4F

Those two and the pilots who flew them really had to take on the most experienced Japanese pilots and in the end decimated the Japanese pilot ranks by the end of the Canal fight.  And if you were going to pick from the two, you'd have to go with the F4F since I think it's fair to say the Japanese Navy pilots in their Zeros were the 'elite' at the start of the war.

The others may have had higher kill rates, but they were also doing it against a Japanese pilot corps that never caught up in training and quality after 1942.    It's kind of like those who claim the 51D won the airwar in the ETO.  Tell that to the guys who fought the war in other birds prior to D-Day when the fight for air supremacy was won and the veteran German pilots had been killed or knocked out of the fight for the most part.

+1