Cactus Air Force - Tactics Employed

Tactics Employed

U.S. Navy and Marine fighter pilots, who had little high-altitude flying experience to begin with, were at a disadvantage from the start because their F4F Wildcat was not in the same class as the Japanese A6M Zero when it came to service ceiling, rate of climb, and maneuverability. The Zero fighter was lighter, faster, and a better climber. The American pilots learned quickly not to dogfight with the Zero. Instead, if they became engaged with one, they would give it a quick, diving firing-burst and then dive away to regroup, climb, and attack again. Cactus pilots had to constantly refine their tactics and techniques, rely on teamwork in dogfights and improve their gunnery to remain effective against the Zeroes.

Because of the Zero's maneuverability, American pilots quickly adapted hit and run tactics similar to those used by the American Flying Tigers in China and Burma and the tactic of a two-plane mutually protecting flight section. This technique had previously been developed by the U.S. Navy fighter pilots John Thach and Edward O'Hare, and it was known as the "Thach Weave." The aircraft would remain in the same general area of one another and if Zeroes showed up, they had a better chance of engaging the aircraft on the tails of their wing men.

One American pilot had remarked,

" One Zero against one Grumman is not an even fight, but with mutual support two Grummans are worth four or five Zeros."

Disadvantages aside, the Wildcat was not without its merits. This fighter plane was found to be well-defended compared to the lightly armored Zero, had a self-sealing fuel tank, and possessed adequate firepower with four .50 caliber M-2 Browning machine guns. U.S. Marine pilots, very skeptical since the Battle of Midway, did place a great deal of confidence in their aircraft at first.

Because they could not effectively dogfight the Zeroes, Henderson Field's defenders realized that the best they could do was break up each day's raid and live to fight another day. With this in mind, their primary targets became the bombers rather than the fighters, and many of the tactics introduced were largely devised by Marine Major John L. Smith. American aircraft always sought to initiate the attack at least 5,000 feet (1,500 m) above the Japanese formations, and they concentrated their attack on the trailing aircraft in the Japanese formation. This gave them good angles to shoot at the exposed fuel tanks of the Japanese bombers, and it also presented a difficult gunnery problem for the bombers, since the high overhead passes of the American fighters put them into blindspots from the Japanese gunners. This tactic also caused the escorting Japanese fighters to climb and burn more of their fuel, and thus reducing the time they could spend over Guadalcanal itself.

From September 3 to November 4, 1942, the Cactus Air Force claimed downing 268 Japanese planes in aerial combat, and the damage inflicted on others is estimated to be as great.