The Rise and Fall of the Japanese Zero
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- čas přidán 30. 08. 2018
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References:
[1]www.thoughtco.com/world-war-i...
[2] rwebs.net/avhistory/history/ze...
[3] aboutjapan.japansociety.org/im...
[4]www.history.com/news/the-akut...
[5] www.japanpowered.com/history/...
[6] www.warbirdforum.com/sakai.htm
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I drive a Mitsubishi. Can confirm it too is unstable at high speeds
What about Nakajima Zero Compare to Mitsubishi?
Do not crash it into an aircraft carrier, drive to stay alive. ;)
@@rayross997 You are Referring to the WWII Japanese Mitsubishi Zero Kamikazes, aren't you.
@@anthonyivanaglugubjr.2645
Since the video is essentially all about the Zero and its uses, that is pretty much a given. ;)
@@tibfulv Your English Grammar is too Advance Given Essential.
The Zero was symbolic of Japanese war philosophy: your vulnerability is irrelevant if you deliver a first, fatal blow to the enemy. The fallback plan was to die bravely in battle.
And the P51 was symbolic of the American War philosophy: Have a mighty military that is good in all aspects to maintain peace.
Aidan Beattie and I believe the P 51 was also symbolic in the survivability afforded by its armor: the belief in the value of the individual; go into battle, die if you must, return if you can. The Japanese were ruthless toward themselves as well as their enemies. The individual only mattered in that they served the need of the whole: your life is nothing, victory is everything.
@@dennisvance4004 kind of ironic it was a part of why they lost (refused to have best pilots training). Somewhat like the revelation that productivity increased when safety procedures were introduced when building the Golden Gate bridge.
@@aidanbeattie8341 the p47 tends to be more accurate than the p51
Dennis Vance
You wonder if that also applies to corporate philosophy...
My grandfather was 16 years old when he tried to become a fighter pilot near the end of the war. Most of the new recruits in Japan were quite young then since everyone older had already been called up or killed in battle. He failed the test so was ordered to fly recon instead which most likely saved his life by keeping him out of any kamikaze missions. My family and I exist today because of his failure.
becoming a pilot at that age ia success enough. he didnt failed
@@izzat003 His grandfather basically getting a B in schools, and as Asians we see that as failure.
@@fadel_rama hahahah.
@@fadel_rama ong
戦争の光栄は必死のやつの物だ。
The other reason that the Zero lost so much ground after the first year or so was the difference in the way America and Japan treated their pilots.
American pilots were typically rotated off the front line after six months or so and given a stint as training instructors. This meant that they could pass along things they'd learned in direct combat to new pilots and let the rookies benefit from their experience. Japan, on the other hand, pretty much just kept its top pilots on the front lines until they died and relegated training duties to people who weren't as skilled and didn't have actual experience fighting the Americans.
A lot of the same applies to the Luftwaffe as well towards the mid and late war, just in general when you’re on the back foot strategically you don’t have the luxury of being able to spare throwing everything you have at the enemy to slow them down
Master move by the USA!! Thanks for the info.
Surely,at the end of the war they had like only 10 hours of training before they flew, hell some didnt even know how to land and wasnt really an issue since they werent coming back.Its also the fact that USAF planes were build to protect the pilot, Japans were build to be fast and agile and cheap, and the pilot could go to hell ;p
Macrochenia
This is very interesting to know
@@havocgr1976 That's mostly true, but the reason why early war Japanese planes were so light was because they had to cross vast oceans to protect their island possessions. The Americans had the Philippines, Guam and Hawaii, but the rest of their territory was continental. This led to their carrier planes following a design philosophy emphasizing durability above all else (since carrier planes of the time could not match the speed and agility of land based planes anyways). Of course the Americans did care a great deal about their pilots (and, I believe, used them more effectively), but it wasn't true that the Japanese did not care about theirs.
"They were able to reverse engineer the Zero and figure out the best way to disable it.... After countless hours of research they came to the conclusion that you have to shoot it."
lmao xD
How to shoot it was also seemingly important.
Within a day of the first test flight every American pilot in the Pacific knew to dive and cut hard to the right to turn the tables on a pursuing Zero.
The Aleutian Zero
yeah, u right lol
The Wind Rises is a good movie about the development of the Zero by Studio Ghibli
I love that movie
Actually it's mainly about the development of A5M (the direct predecessor of A6M/Zero).
[SPOILER] the A6M Zeros only appear as "cameo" near the end of the movie. Still, given it's from Ghibli Studio, it's a very nice movie to watch, whether you're into animated movie or not.
That movie was phenomenal
It's about the A5M and it was very fictional, enjoyable but not a factual movie at all
That is the reason why I am here now hahaha. The Wind Rises is really an educational one. I love it ❤
7:20 To clarify, the Zero actually had a bypass. When inverted, the fuel would flow uninhibited through the carburetor. This would prevent the engine from cutting out entirely, however the limited fuel permitted while inverted did notably reduce the engine's power.
The biggest myth with the saying that the Zero's engine cut when inverted comes from a captured Zero by the US. They didn't install the carburetor correctly, presumably that bypass.
Fascinating :)
Also, the Americans advanced the design of their planes over time so while maintaining their armor, they became more agile and came to match the Zero. Americans, like most of the allies had less than optimum aircraft at the start because... you know... they didn't plan, practice for, and expect ww2. They started on a peace footing while Germany and company started on a well prepared and planned war footing...
@@Kimoto504 Nice joke bi@cgh. The Allies wanted the whole war the most! :,D
@@BansheeVi Boom and zoom, don’t turn and burn.
@@BansheeVi Add altitude and who sees who first.
Me playing war thunder:
*sees zero*
*furious climbing and diving intensifies*
"Commencing Tumbleweed Manuever!"
*crack enabled*
Me *uses f4u* I am sped!
@@Cringe34R Yes the best tactic is having a friend and one plays japan, the other plays Italy. If a Zero and a C205 III are flying together, nothing can stop them
Flying zeros in Pacific theater maps are my most favorite moments of the game.
This video probably won't get the views I hoped, because of the subject matter. CZcams has a tendency of suppressing things like this. So share it if you can. Just released a new vlog episode, if you want to watch that too: czcams.com/video/hJlbuecu2vk/video.html
Big shout out to Knowing Better too, whose video on Japan help shaped the narrative of this video. czcams.com/video/lnAC-Y9p_sY/video.html
Will you make a video on p51? Like the history and stuff. Thanks :D
This is the stuff I love to see! It may not get many views, but I'm sure your subscribers will love you 10x as much for it!
Real Engineering what is the logo of yours , I mean what is it
Thank you for making this video.
Why would they suppress it, it’s not up for debate is it?
I love how this channel mixes engineering with history and strategy. You learn about how the plane was engineered, why it was engineered that, and then historical impacts of said engineering and strategy down to peoples lives. I learned from this video that it was the zeros shortcomings may have lent a bigger hand to the allies victory than I could have thought of. Thanks
Same here
Yeah. Technology does not exist in a vacuum. Details such as horsepower, climb rate, armament, etc. Are useless if you want to know exactly how well any piece of equipment performs in war, because situations that have nothing to do with technical details have a far greater impact in performance than calibers or diameters or materials...
Not sure about the engineering, but he gets many historical facts wrong, so I doubt his engineering as well.
@@Pugiron Haven't encountered any, at least not in this video. Don't agree with all of his conclusions, but they're reasonable, arguable positions to take.
@@Pugiron this channel gets a lot of modern-day stuff about his spot on as you can expect for somebody with limited information for stuff like spin launch where they just weren't giving him some of the details, but when he has all the information he gets it exactly correct. But it seems like he took the first three sources he could find which with all the myths surrounding the zero it's understandable how he got so much so wrong
10:25 In such a context, the smiles were so heart breaking...
I do believe that it was more of protect our families then for the emperor. A similar thing happened in Germany, a pilot took off with no ammo, because there was none, and attempted to crash into an American bomber. He was shot down and managed to bail out. He was captured and when ask why he would do something like that, he replied "if I managed to take down just one bomber, that may be the one that could have dropped a bomb on my family" The human side of war is offen over looked.
Damn
It is much harder to kill in war while acknowledging the human side of it. Which is why the side you're on always makes the other side out to be monsters.
To be fair the time to think of your families is before you try to take over the world. It's like the guy crying about getting arrested after a high speed chase.
This is the way I see it too. I'm an American veteran (USAF pilot) and respect the Imperial Japanese & Germans. The vast majority weren't out here committing Looney-Tunes like atrocities as often depicted/propagandized in Western media.
Infact I sympathized when I heard about the Airmen who bombed Tokyo and were captured shortly after. It did not surprise me at all that they were tortured considering they just flattened and burned innocent children, women, and elders. And destroyed their communities and possibly their own families. I would do the same if I were in the Japanese soldiers' shoes. However we are repeatedly taught as Americans that we are always right, nothing matters other than me, and Kraut&Sushi bad; leading to severely clouded moral judgements.
@@user-pn3im5sm7k Exactly, as an Vietnamese I hope all American will have your mindset. Despite of what politicans and the media want us to think, we are the same. We share same dream, hope and the same daily struggle. We all wants happiness and the best for our famillies.
"The Japanese Air Force didn't even rise to intercept the nuclear bombers"
There are two reasons for this, the Japanese didn't have the layers of early warning radars that the Germans did, so often they didn't have enough time to intercept small formations. The second is that lone bombers were typically weather and target reconnaissance that wouldn't drop a weapon so it was a waste of fuel to attempt intercept them as they would be gone before their fighters could get up to altitude. This was a tactic that USAAF deliberately exploited with the nuclear bombers.
US tactics in forward areas in requires convoys to make 'sailboat fuel' shipments.
One out of three convoys carry anything of value, yet all convoys are armed to the teeth.
If the enemy knows there is a 2/3 chance of going home bloodied and empty-handed, they stop attacking all convoys.
Japanese survivors of the nuclear bomb raids have said the same thing.
Stupid Briton, the Mitsubishi Zero was THE best during first 3 years of the war (faster, farther and more maneuverable) and especially its ultra-advanced engine at that time, like the Toyota today, ultra smooth and ultra reliable. Germany traded their Lightwater reactor for one of this during the war. It was later after Americans on an undamaged copy of Zero that crashed in Philipines they learned its techniques and develop ways to counter it.
Second, Japanese Naval was much bigger than British Royal Navy, 20+ fleet carriers, largest battleships, largest submarine (even carried a couple of airplanes inside). Japanese navy sucked first British expedition fleet after Britain send a second expedition, they flagship HMS Hood. (In addition, of sunk two such Russian expedition fleet prior.) Even the radar technology used British use (coined "most valuable shipment ever arrived American shore"), its inventor was an expat Japanese in Britain. ( ... and right they used your "European technology", how come their technology is better then?)
Do some research before you put up an ignorant video.
The fuck is Mark E trying to communicate?
@@marke9036 100% wrong! The Hood was sunk off Iceland, The Zero was found on Akutan island, Alaska. Maybe your the one that should do some homework.
“Zero” might have to be the coolest name for a plane
The A6M is usually known as the "Zero" from its Japanese Navy type designation, Type 0 carrier fighter (Rei shiki Kanjō sentōki). It's taken from the last digit of the Imperial year 2600 (1940) when it entered service.
Na, Americans got some sweet names for aircraft: Hellcat, Lightning, Bearcat, Corsair, Dauntless, Avenger, WarHawk, and of course the Mustang.
It has cool aesthetics too.
Ki-43 Hayabusa (Perigrine Falcon) and J7W Shinden (magnificent lightning) would like to know your location
@@JamesWillmus Corsair is probably the best one, and also the best looking WWII plane in general.
The F4F Wildcats vs A6M Zeroes are one of the best rivalries/matchups of fighter aircraft in history
ala Boston Celtics Los Angeles Lakers rivalry end of 1941- end of 1943😀
Zeroes were no match against P51
If by best you mean the Wildcats were slaughtered, then yes.
@@navyseal1689 P51 was a land based fighter and rarely, if ever, fought Zeros.
@@_Zekken watch more ww2 documentary and less anime
Real Engineering, could you do a video on the engineering of the B17 or the B29. It would be really awesome if you covered those topics
Well youve inspired me. I start my course in Aerospace engineering in two weeks. Thanks a lot Brian!
University starts on October 1st for me, and I also got into aerospace engineering. This channel certainly played a part in my decision, but I think I have to attribute a big part of my inspiration to Kerbal Space Program as well^^
Same xD. Time for that juicy course load
As an aerospace engineering major, I can tell you you won't regret it
Same :D
I started Aerospace engineering in 2014, and I can't finish until 2020 now, I hope you have better professors than I did
6:00 me if try to land in War Thunder.
Try landing a PBY-1 Catalina with no landing gear the first one has no landing gear X_X
@@sheilaolfieway1885 that's not hard, just go low and slow on the airfield
just landed the floatplane zero today after the main pontoon got shot off. Did a somersault but still repaired.
Scheneighnay Landing on a airfield is easy... but on a carrier it’s almost impossible.
@@sasori1938 you know when you have a floatplane you're supposed to land next to the carrier on the water?
It's tedious because you need to get the timing down for stopping, but it's hard to crash while doing it.
Jason it is possible but my hook never connects with the cables for some reason
"Wow, all that Japanese taste and none of the calories!"
-Peter Griffin
Hello there
General kenobi
Wow.. did anybody take time to read that letter? That is the most profound expression of love I have ever come across.. :(
Including a reference to chilblains...!
Yes. Japanese, Chinese, Korean and Vietnamese really know how to express their feelings in letters to their close ones, or respect to those whom they feel it towards to. Too bad most of us have somehow lost this ability along the path of our history.
@@Jaromir-Druzba yeah alcohol n drugs will do that to you....
“What use is armor if you don’t get hit”
They all say that, until their vehicle is full of holes
Well, the "modern" US Navy is working on that theory. Many/most Navy ships are "delicate!"
@@GilmerJohn Well when you're dealing with missiles armor isn't going to do you much good; that's what the CIWS is for
@@GilmerJohn the destroyers and cruisers arent that armoured, mainly made out of aluminum, but the aircraft carriers are THICC bois.
John Gilmer well they rely on the doctrine of over penetration, a shell that goes straight though the ship without exploding is preferable to the shell that explodes on contact.
@@notlogical4016 Destroyers and Crusiers are made of steel; the US Navy experimented with steel hulled, aluminum superstrucered ships with terrible results during the Cold War - with terrible consequences - and abandoned the idea. Destroyers are built to a standard of at least "Level II" durability.
My Asian Studies professor in college was growing up in Japan at the end of WW II and training as a pilot, age 16. He told me it was only after Japan’s surrender that he learned he was being trained to be a kamikaze and that he was shocked to learn he was immediately expendable. There was a lot of coercion in the Japan of WW II, especially amongst the kamikaze.
To be fair later in the war Japan was running out of good pilots too.
Sad to see so many people chewed up for purpose of Empire, warfare, and the like. What a terrible, terrible waist.
@@kaneinkansas "War... war never changes"
ThessentialJapanse weaknsswasa lacks oil from whichtomakeviaton fuel-and Japan'sideaofa well trained pilot required great quantitiesoffuel,whichthe KidoButai didn't have-even lacking fuelfortheships. Sothey red everything they could shorenthtimeandreducethe flyingtimnecessary to qualifyasa combat pilot-using primitive simulator with motion picture film reprducingth pilot's POVina varietyofaerialmaneuvers. Butthey couldn'tmachtheir own pre-warstandardswhich after al,trined pilot cadetswhohadbeen identified earlychildhooda havingthesencofbalanceandperiperalvision tomakgood pilots. They also suffered from a lack experienced pilot instructors, due,in part, totheirpolicyof kepis successful pilotsonthefront linesunriltheir luck ran outwhil America acswresentbackto statsidebassto train thenxt generationofaviators!
@@charleschapman6810 Did your space-bar break?
8:40 I felt something in my heart seeing that plane go down..
One of the best war movies ever made is the Japanese movie "The Eternal Zero". It's different from almost all other war movies, and very moving.
The movie is derived from a comic book series. It was a little controversial in Japan for its sympathetic portrayal of the military, especially these types of pilots.
Another movie I'd recommend is Studio Ghibli's "The Wind Rises" by Hayao Miyazaki. It tells the story of the man who designed the A6M "Zero" and is also considered a little controversial in Japan.
mitsubishi made 2 amazing things
the zero and the evo
Epic statement! Epic epic epic! Should be first comment!
Dayaoumnnn
@John Smith*cough* rally racing *cough*
My outlander is really reliable
@John Smith Like what? The only think I can really think of is a Vickers light tank and EVERYONE copied that including germans and Russians. Look up t- 26 light tank. None of their ships pre 1945 are copies from anywhere. They are either built in Japan or the UK.
Loving how your production quality and polish is increasing over time. Keep it up!
Please continue to focus on the engineering and logistics of warfare, as I find it fascinating. How about the captured Sidewinder missile and how reverse engineering works? (K-13 Missile)
ohh i can help with the reverse engineering bit.
its quite simple, you have a thing you dont know how it works, so you take it apart, studying every little bit, making sure you know where everything goes and understanding how one piece works with another (this is the most important, without understanding how something works with one other, you would never understand the developer reasoning for something, some random bolt to you may seem useless, but could be the most important piece).
after taking it apart you rebuilt it, and repeat until you can build a copy, of course the copy would be worthless if not useless, but its the steeping stone into refining the idea.
of course this is a very simplistic view of it. but should help you.
I don’t like guns and weapons, but I am fascinated by how it all works and by what engineering choices were made and why. Check out the Forgotten Weapons channel. There’s some really bizarre guns out there, and many of them are shown on this channel.
Not sure if that story is true, but I heard once that the B-29 the Soviets used as a basis for the Tu-4 had a small hole in one of the wings (or something like that, I can't remember the exact details) due to a manufacturing error, so when Soviet engineers studied and copied the aircraft, they ended up building all their Tu-4s with unnecessary holes in the wing^^
Well, China reverse engine everything, I think learning engineering would be fun
Thekilleroftanks
A few lines in a comment section doesnt exclude a video suggestion/request.
Pretty sure there are plenty of people here already familiar with how these things work, but would just like a good video made on the subject.
Reverse engineering, methodlogy, and history is a fascinating topic in itself.
There’s a Japanese movie called “The Eternal Zero”. It talks about how pilots mostly died for their families and moments leading up to a kamikaze attack, It’s a good watch.
And the other Japanese movie “the wind rises” explains a lot about the creator, by no means is it a historical movie but still a must watch
@@hirohamada9693 the film ended on a bittersweet note too.
@@sorian_delorean3348 indeed
And for anime
This channel seems worthy of subscription.
Thank you. I did enjoy this video.
Not doing a smooth segue on this video was the right call.
"I'm not going to do a smooth segue, as it would just be off tone, but videos like this would not be possible without.." sounded like a pretty smooth segue to me.
to be fair his entire video was smooth as butter
but why "ن" may I ask
Completely true. He handled it very well.
Yeah, man. Classy move.
....if you want to be a kamakazi pilot there are many great coarse on skillshare...
OY VEY
Omg lmfao, that's how Osama trained his pilots to kamikaze the twin towers!
*Illumystic*
As you are a 'truther', then you surely are an expert on 'fake'. How come thousands of foolscap office papers were just as strong as the 'diamond' passport? They came from exactly the same place. Why not be a body donor? Nobody would need your brain, that's for sure, but the rest of you could do someone some good. And that would be a first for you.
*Illumystic*
"If you would use your brain" - it would be normal for me to do so, as I'm an aerospace engineer and industrial designer, and have been for half a century.
"you would know that paper burns easily" - when held motionless, and set on fire.
"the planes were the main cause of heavy fire and explosion" - No. The FUEL MIST and HOT ENGINE PARTS had to meet BEFORE there was any fire and explosion. By that time the passports and the papers were in mid-air and moving fast, and still surviving.
"All of the other paper came from the other floors" - How was that possible? The other floors were SEALED, and THEIR WINDOWS WERE CLOSED AND INTACT.
"that is logical" - What you suggest is MOST ILLOGICAL.
"the impact burned everything" - the impact burned NOTHING. Only fuel and stationary combustible materials did any burning. Paper would be in motion.
The pressure wave from the explosion blew out the windows, and passports and foolscap sheets from at least FOUR ACRES of offices escaped the building ahead of the flame front.
Paper, thin film products, in fact anything that was lightweight and with a large surface area would have done so. You could verify this by inspecting photos of any other high-speed aircraft crashes. You will find tiny pieces of metal parts and a field of intact papers. The faster the crash, the smaller the pieces of metal, and yet the same amount of intact paper sheets and fairly intact insulation wrapping. There is a physical rule for this.
Stick to mysticism. It cannot be applied to physics. Your 'armchair physics' and lack of logic have apparently turned you into a *_terrorist sympathiser and traitor._*
I hope I have illuminated you.
*Illumystic*
"you are talking with the former NASA Lead engineer" - I trained as an aero engineer working at The National Gas Turbine Establishment testing and building the Olympus engines for the Concorde. Then atomic energy equipment. Then secret defence equipment. Later I designed the ethernet hardware that started the Internet. Later still, the charging socket for an electric car. Working backwards, perhaps...
"you took some of my points" - I took _all_ of your points and refuted them.
"as easy as possible for you to understand" - I'm ever so grateful.
"turned them into the same exact meaning" - I took _all_ of your points and refuted them.
"You believe you mainstream narrative" - I don't have a 'mainstream narrative'.
"I'm from Europe" - so am I.
"your people" - not mine.
"brainwashed" - Nope. My politics are anarcho-syndicalist, and you don't even know what that means.
"I just hope America will stop sucking Zionist cock once and for all, as it have done it since Israel was created" - with you there. That might yet kill us all..
"distinguish false conspiracies from real facts" - is something I have done which apparently you haven't.
"my old man" - your turn next.
"bbc news" - I never watch it.
"good luck!" - keep it for yourself. You'll need it. I'm with Elon Musk, sustainable energy, and permaculture farming. And I'm off on holiday to Sienna celebrating my 50th wedding anniversary, so bye-bye.
Despite all the flaws,The Zero is still my favorite fighter of WW2,by far the sleekist design imo
Whenever my friends and I play Warthunder I always fear the Japanese fighters because if I can't kill them immediately there is a good chance I will die. But then again I am known by my friends as the guy who lands critically damaged half the time :P
Incredible video. Thank you for taking a neutral and humanist approach to the subject, stating facts without being cold, and using nuance.
Stupid troll, he's Irish, for starters - and your blather is just restating things he clearly said in the video. Try watching it again and turning off the self righteousness this time. You might even learn something.
Yes so often japan and germany are slated as bring worse than the other countries. But we know both sides did bad things. So who are we to juden?
Well, we didn't slaughter six million people based solely on their ethnicity, so....that's who we are. Moral relativism is never a particularly useful stance.
he said all of that in the video...he want even biased at all honestly it seems you are the one that is extremely biased and obviously defensive for no reason
+ rdormer: Beware! In this case, moral relativism is only the first step of a plan to reverse history in the opinion. The final step will be to accuse the allies of beeing the real criminals, and nazis and imperial japanese the poor innocent victims who just tried to defend themselves , and young and ignorant generations can be fooled this way ---> with time the fall of democracy and the return of the murderous tyrans!
“Japan had adopted suicide tactics because conventional tactics were inherently suicidal.”
Suicide is badass
teh kang zheng ya
@@tehkangzheng9019 Yep. It do hurt, don't it.
@JiYun Just an excellent example of the benefits of a surprise attack, really.
Yeah, I mean they basically looked at the numbers, saw that most of their pilots were already dying without any chance of even getting a single hit in against the enemy and just kind of figured that if they used the suicide tactic, they could send much fewer planes (and therefore loose fewer planes) while having a relatively got chance at causing damage and decided to go with that.
Not a humane decision, but humanity is something you abandon once you set out on a course of war.
One of the most nuanced, perceptive and tasteful takes Ive seen on a difficult historical/political topic and you're engineer! Very well done. And you managed to be incredibly concise.
Yes, I feel so much better about the torture of civilians and pows. I guess the death marches are just misunderstood.
@@biggiebaby3541 Yes, thats exactly what I meant. Im glad you too have such a nuanced understanding of history and politics. Look at us. Just a little enlightened bunch of pals.
"surprise attack on Pearl Harbor"
yeah of course. despite the US seeing the fleet coming 3months in advance with all the radars, spy planes and submarine driving all around the earth 24/7 during the biggest war ever yet.
Absolutely mammothly informative and excellent! Grateful subscriber here! 💛🙏🏼
The way you discredited your own quote by letting us know more about the Japanese pilot belief in the Nanking massacre never happening made me respect you immensely, that is the kind of unbiased education I aspire to acquire instead of one sided opinions and fabrications many history books make that I don't discover as wrong until a more versed history buff points it out to me with different sources.
This video was great and I hope you do more of these, since I loved the spitfire one as well!
Well said! Isn't their arrogance annoying?
Hentai Commander who denies them, they are gone over again and again, but hey you get to enjoy the fruit of what they created. All while being a racist
That's because Manchuria and China was under Army control and thus their cruelties. All imperial pilots are from air force and navy. Those 3 division was in their own war against each other thus make them not sharing information of what other division do, so it make sense the pilots think nanking massacre never happening. Cuz they never participate in it.
@@satriorama4118 Not having taken part in something has little to do with denial. It's just arrogance and egoism.
qOvob
Many wehrmacht who fighting in eastern europe also dont know about holocaust and they deny them ever happens cause they've been fighting soviet all the time. You want to blame them too.?
Another decisive factor in the end of the Zero was the rise of the Hellcat; basically a toughened-up Wildcat with an upgraded engine, it could match the Zeroes in some of their previously most lethal maneuvers, which came as a nasty shock to Zero pilots and put their advantages down once and for all with a 13:1 kill ratio. Of course, that WAS only the finishing touch; another factor you forgot to mention was the Thach weave, a squadron-level maneuvering tactic that relied on coordination to defeat individual Zeroes even when older planes were using it.
The Hellcat was a lot more than a toughened-up Wildcat with an upgraded engine. It was a completely different plane designed around a different engine. But yes, I believe you are correct in saying the end of the Zero was the rise of the Hellcat.
Don't forget the impact of the proximity fuse. The Japanese expected the kamikaze to be way more effective than it was because they didn't know we had proximity fuses. They ended up sending thousands of planes and many of their skilled pilots to be destroyed inflicting relatively minor damage on our fleet.
The hellcat may be a much superior plane but it lacked the legendary and heroic status of the zero. The zero was a marvel ahead of its time.
@@bobbygetsbanned6049 I think there was one kamikaze attack where the proximity fuses were useless. This kamikaze attack used biplanes made of wood and canvas and from recollection sunk a destroyer USS Callaghan as a result.
Very true, but I think it's more interesting when you view that development (and the introduction of the Corsair for that matter) as symptomatic of Japan's larger problem, which was that they were *never* going to be able to take the allied powers in a straight war of resources. The US alone in a year built more tonnage of transport ships than the entire Japanese navy had tonnage of ships period during the entire war, combined. In other words it's not just that the US came along with a better fighter while Japan didn't, it's that Japan never had the resources to pour into developing and then mass-producing a better fighter once the war was already underway.
(And I know they had a few designs later in the war like the Ki-84 that were a much better match for late war US designs, but those were all too few, too late, and lacked enough experienced pilots to fly them or fuel to keep them airborne to make much of a difference).
Great video! Well done on the way you mentioned the sponsor.
The downfall of the Zero really began much earlier than is commonly thought. Most of the Zero Aces insanely high kill numbers were racked up in China or early in the Southwest Pacific Campaigns. In China they were largely flying against obsolete biplanes and untrained pilots. That started to Change when Cherneau’s Flying Tigers showed up with their P-40’s. Cherneau had a firm rule, his pilots were to never dogfight the Zeros. Take them on head on or tail on with high speed passes, and get clear. It was quite effective. In the early days of 1942 the Zero ruled the South Pacific, as it was facing mostly remote colonial garrison forces flying obsolete, oddball or hand me down planes. The Zero pilots first real sustained encounter with their upper tier US Navy A list counterparts was at Coral Sea. Where the Zeros fared better than their Dive Bomber and torpedo plane counterparts. But it was still a shocking experience meeting the Grumman Wildcats in force and equal footing. Yes the Zero’s were far more agile than the Grumman’s, with a higher climb rate. But the Wildcats were like flying tanks. The Zero had 2 20 mm cannons. But due to the Zeros weight limitations it only had 7 seconds of cannon ammunition. It would need all of it to shoot down a single well armored Wildcat. The a Wildcat in return had either 4 or 6 (depending on model) cannons. Each with 30 seconds of ammo. And the pilots could selectively fire the cannons in pairs to conserve ammunition. It only took a 2-3 second cannon burst to flame a zero. This rather cruel math really started to add up. Especially over Guadalcanal in the back half of ‘42. By the time the US found the Acutan Zero in the Aleutians, the US Navy and Marine Carrier pilots had largely figured the Zero out. Fly in pairs, Take the Zero’s head on. Gain height before engaging and force the Zero to dive. Do Not Get into a Turning Dogfight. If the Zero tries to get you into one, get clear and let your wingman nail him. Guadalcanal would see the pre-war elite Zero pilots virtually wiped out. The only expert pilots to survive, such as the legendary Saburo Sakai, were badly wounded early on, and thus were out of action for most of Guadalcanal.
One other thing also often gets missed. A surprisingly large number of air to air Zero kills were by US Dauntless Dive bombers. Once they dropped their bomb they were surprisingly agile. And the twin 30’s in the rear were devastating to the Zero pilots who failed at aircraft recognition.
Andrew, a pretty good summary. Jimmy Flatley came back from Coral Seas with some confidence in the F4F. "Jimmy" Thatch came back from Midway without confidence in F4F. Interesting how two USN honchos had different views. The reason Thatch began working out his Beam Defense, the "Thatch Weave," was because he heeded the intel Claire Lee Chennault was sending back to the War Department prior to Pearl Harbor. Before Pearl Harbor all A6M Zeros had been withdrawn from China so the AVG never fought them, but Chennault had watched them for a year and, interestingly, Chennault was the first to acquire a Zero - before the Battle of Midway. Two crash-landed on a China beach in fog redeploying from Tainan to Hanoi in November, 1941. A6M Model 11 s/n 3372 of the Tainan Kōkūtai, pilot Lt. Kikuichi Inano (captured) was recovered an put into flying condition, although I think a month or two after the Akutan Zero.
Slight correction. F4F and other US fighters were armed with .50cal machine guns, not cannon. Except for the P-38, P-39, P-61 and P-70, and some experiments, no USAAF or USN production fighters were armed with cannon, except for some batched of USN nightfighters, and about 200 late-war F4U-4 Corsairs.
@@fredkitmakerb9479 I stand corrected in the F4F’s Guns. The difference in how Flatley and Thatch viewed the F4F vs the Zero probably has a lot to do with him they encountered them. If I remember correctly Flatley’s crew largely took them on while flying CAP, so they had height and some radar warning. A situation that gave some advantage to the Wildcat. Or at least evened things out. Thatch encountered them while escorting a strike mission. So the Zero’s had the advantage. In that situation the Wildcats slow climb rate was a problem. Much of the Wildcats success over Guadalcanal came from Radar, and especially the well hidden Australian Coast Watchers who were able to spot the Ajapanese aircraft coming down from Rabaul and give Henderson fields Wildcats enough time to get up to max altitude ahead of time.
Flying tigers never fought zeroes
@@jerry5876 Tell that to Chenault.
pearlharboraviationmuseum blog p-40-warhawks-and-claire-chennaults-flying-tigers-pearl-harbor AVG never fought Zeroes. They fought ki27 and ki43. He only had intel on the Zero
That was really good. As a USN Sailor who served aboard ships named after people and places from this era this was a great perspective on the Zero and its tactics.
There's a fully functioning Zero (minus weapons) in Carson City Nv. It flies all the time out of the little airport.
I'veseen it-at WW2weekendin Lancaster, Pa. Ithaca devicewhich siulatesthesoundofmahnegun fireandspendsmuchoftheweekenddoingstraffingrunsovertherowsof German greyand British yellow-brown tents!
saw that Zero at the Chino airshow. "nice"
It's an airplane which one can afford fuel for it
@@charleschapman6810 Is your space bar broken?
I thought this was the USA? Who doesn't need dual 20mm cannons? I mean, seriously!!!!
9:14 Wow, someone actually made note of a detracting factor to a sources credibility. Incredibly well done research, and good on you for making people aware of possible flaws.
What a great video! Should be required watching for kids in school, whenever schools start again! Great, great job!
I love this change in history coverage. I found it interesting to learn so much about this plane and its role in the rise and collapse of the Japanese empire. Keep it up!
They didn't care about there pilots. They should have built armoured fuel tanks.
Very informative! My Dad's ship was almost hit by a kamikaze airplane during the Battle of Okinawa, and I actually have a small piece of that plane in my possession. Just a small part of the outer skin, about 7 by 3 inches, but still a fascinating piece of history. I think I understand the kamikaze culture and mentality better now after seeing this video. Thanks.
We had two nazi emblems that my grandfather cut off of German planes he shot down (AA gunner). We donated them to an airforce museum. Still pretty cool.
The destroyer my grandpa was on was hit by a kamikaze during Okinawa, luckily the bomb didn't detonate so the ship didn't sink but everyone in the #1 gun was killed. The naval battle of Okinawa doesn't get much attention but it was the deadliest naval battle in US history, there was an insane amount of kamikazes.
This is probably the best segue you've done. What you think smooth is definitely not stop
Thanks for not being an insensitive clod regarding the ad. Didn’t realize it back then, but subconsciously, it’s why I used *your* link despite the numerous other wonderful creators and educators on YT I could have chosen. 👊🏼
My Grandfather "Gran-pop" was a Marine at the Battle of Iwo Jima. My other Grandfather "Pop-pop" was a navigator on a B-25 Mitchell over Germany. Some how they made it out of their respective theaters alive. Great Men.
I had a grandfather who was a machine-gunner in a Halifax bomber in the Royal Canadian Air Force. My other grandfather was a Tiefbauingenieur (deep-ground Engineer) who was positioned in Kirkenes (in northern Norway) during WW2 building coastal defences and other bunker-type emplacements (as an officer, he forced to enlist into the German army because he was a trained engineer).
My great uncle was also at Iwo Jima, USMC. I never knew much about what happened because he hated talking about it. Scarring.
You want a medal?
@@foobarmaximus3506 Mine too! What are the odds?
My late grandfather was an ammo loader on one of the carriers that was attacked at Pearl Harbor. He was supposed to be stationed on one of the ships that was attacked but the captains said no blacks on board and sent him to the barracks on the opposite side of the island.
When the zeros came and butchered the crew inside those ships, he was playing basketball. One twist of fate and my whole family tree would have been wiped out
Goddamn, bless your grandfather. At least racism did something good for once lol
Thank you for telling - this is one more thing to understand and remember. ❤
Ah, life and its unpredictabilities .
But....but....but..... there were no aircraft carriers at Pearl Harbor when it was attacked.
@@thejoker1178 :: You are right! There was a second attack on Pearl Harbor, though, but perhaps there is a memory - slip or another story behind the grandfathers memories. Here is what Lexington (carrier) was doing around Pearl Harbor in December 1941:
Lexington: On 5 December 1941, TF-12, formed around Lexington, under the command of Rear Admiral John H. Newton, sailed from Pearl to ferry 18 Vought SB2U-3 Vindicators of Marine Scout Bombing Squadron 231 to Midway Island. Dawn on 7 December 1941 found Lexington, heavy cruisers Chicago (CA-29), Portland (CA-33), and Astoria (CA-34), and five destroyers about 500 miles southeast of Midway. The outbreak of hostilities resulted in cancellation of the mission and VMSB-231 was retained on board [they would ultimately fly to Midway from Hickam Field on 21 December].
The Thach Weave also helped bring a lot of the Zeros down.
As well as the lost of experienced aviator
Interesting to note that the engineering of the Zero is a direct symbolism of Japanese sword fighting style in the past. The katana was nimble and sharp yet it wasn't strong for blocking. Samurai were taught to commit in striking their opponents quickly in disregard of defense. It was all out offense,go hard or die kind of fighting
Wrong, a real Katana can chop any other sword in half. In fact with a single swipe it can chop off the barrel of a rifle with no problem. I can't believe you don't know this, it's common knowledge.
@@actionjksn Myths about samurai stuff are far more common than knowledge.
@@actionjksn i practiced iaido for 7 years a katana will easily break if it hits something hard its not a fucking lightsaber its a mediocre sword made out of shitty iron
@@ilikecheese4518 You're dumb.
@@actionjksn so cringy. めっちゃ
To Real Engineering: What made you tell the story of Kiyoshi Ogawa (at 11:00 in)?
My wife arraanged the repatriation several items belonging to Ogawa to the young man's family, including his watch, and a letter, and a few other items. Ogawa's items were collected by a crewmember of the Bunker Hill, who left those items in a small tin, to his grandson, who worked for me. Because of my interest in military subjects, he showed them to me and I asked my wife who reads Japanese to translate the letter, and learned Ogawa's name. She then contacted a shrine in Japan, and was able to learn of Ogawa's surviving relatives, and arranged to have them meet the owner of the items here in San Francisco, who gave them to the Ogawa family. That story was reported in the San Francisco Chronicle.
I was surprised to see mention of Lt. Ogawa in your video, and wonder why you selected him out of the many?
Wow! Interesting story. Very nice of you to try and contact the relatives.
Probably because the Bunker Hill is the most famous casualty of the Kamikaze attacks he chose to go into detail of the attackers.
Here's the actual article from the SF Chronicle: March 29, 2001, www.sfgate.com/news/article/Doing-His-Duty-Vet-s-grandson-gives-personal-2937231.php
This is absolutely wonderful. The premise is so tragic but this is such a touching story. I'm glad you and your wife were able to help make this happen.
Wow, I woulda tossed his shit in the bin.
The Zaku 2 seems to have been inspired by this aircraft. Impressive when made, but when the enemy got them, they made an even better aircraft.
This is a great, eye-opening anecdote from Saburo Sakai. Thank you for sharing it, I never heard this one before.
I admire not only Japanese engineering but also the quality of their products. I feel they make the best cars in the world.
Engineers intended to design good stuff until the accountants, salespeople and stockholders take over the company...
I agree. The Evo and GT-R are two of my favorite cars!
For sure they make the best cars and their quality and precision engineering is second to none.
The use of the Zero as a Kamikaze aircraft had almost nothing to do with its disposability. To use it as an effective weapon requires a highly skilled and experienced pilot. By the time the Kamikaze tactic was employed Japan had so few highly skilled, experienced pilots left, there weren't even enough to train new pilots.
It was a lack of pilots more than obsolescence that the planes were used in this way.
You need to understand Japanese culture. Anyone who knew anything about the United States knew it was impossible. The "Sleeping Giant" quote was probably never really said. It is attributed to Yamamoto, from the film Tora, Tora, Tora. He almost certainly never said this out loud. The director said he was quoting a journal of Yamamoto but no such quote has ever been found.
Also, Japan knew they could not conquer the United States, but they felt they could get the US to just give up if they killed enough. They wanted East Asia, not North America.
Yamamoto had attended college in the US so he knew how hard they would fight, but he didn't have the political strength of those in power. And their impression of the US was from films. They felt Americans were cowardly and lazy. That they would want peace no matter what. Probably the US policy in Europe didn't help much. They knew the US didn't want to fight, so the thought they wouldn't fight even if they had a reason to do so.
Agreed, the same could be said for Germany, in the beginning of the war the Luftwaffe was indeed a mighty force, but as the war dragged on attrition and bomber industrial strikes greatly affected Germany's air ability (also Hitler's bad decisions was very costly)
But I was very obsolete at the time.
What was obsolete? In 1942 the Zero was state of the art. It was obsolete by 1945, true, but we aren't talking about the end of the war, we are talking about 1942.
@@erictaylor5462 Okay, if the US fleet would have suffered more through pearl harbour and it was possible to destroy the full naval capabilities of their warmachine, the US would have been forced to negotiate a peace-treaty and deliver oil again - and therefore Japan would be happy as THE asian superpower. But if they would have known more about the US and its economic power, they would probably not have tried it.
Fifty years ago, I read a history of the Zero fighter. The thing that stuck in my mind was that the prototype Zero had to be disassembled and loaded aboard ox carts for transport to the nearest IJN airfield for testing--a journey of several days. Contemporary aircraft factories in the USSR, in Europe and in North America were on railroad lines or had access to canal barges and often had airfields as well. That difficult supply chain seems to have been replicated for raw material flowing into the factory. The big wartime improvement was using horses to pull the disassembled aircraft to the nearest airfield--horses were faster than oxen.
Wars waste men and machines. Coupled with Japan's pilot training program, the war would go Japan's way only for a short time--until they ran out of trained pilots and finished machines.
When the US tested the Zero captured in Alaska, it was noted that using high octane US fuel gave the Zero a boost in performance because of a substantial increase in engine power--and the test plane was restricted from pushing its performance envelope in the fear that the lightly built airplane would rip apart if pushed too hard. Inferior fuel hurt Zero performance.
I learned that criticizing the Zero for lack of armor and for not having self-sealing fuel tanks omitted the fact that contemporary British, French, Italian, German, Russian and American fighters also didn't have those until combat experience demonstrated that losing some speed and altitude was a worthwhile trade-off when the enemy shot back. You also mentioned that the Zero and Spitfire shared the carburetor problems. Another issue with the Zero was Japan's radio shortage--Japan couldn't build enough radios, and the two-way voice radio set cut into Zero performance. Lack of radios was a factor at the Battle of Midway.
one design feature overlooked was the rear elevators forward position that gave it a phenomenal turn aspect.
Overall and Bottom line is egos will get you killed.
This video is one of the best videos I have ever seen, so keep up the amazing work. Also every single video I watch from you truly inspires me to do better.
I love history. I love engineering. Both together? Amazing! Keep up the good work. Too bad CZcams thinks this kind of content is inappropriate...
why? did they classify this as inappropriate?
Very well written and presented. Thank you
Excellent video. Philochrony is the theory that describes the nature of time and demonstrates its existence. Philochrony establishes an analogy between zero and time thus arising the linear zero.
haven't seen one of your vids in many many months (i forgot, or youtube "forgot", to click the bell). Production quality has shot up immensely, good show sir!
"To show how good Flextape is, I crushed a plane into this boat"
Kills 300 people. NOW THATS A LOT OF DAMAGE
Please do
Holy smokes! 390 sailors and airmen died??!!! THAT'S A LOTTA DAMAGE
Joke stealer
No empathy to be seen here
So basically, the doctrine to beat the Zero was
1) not to engage it at low speeds but at high speeds, when it would become sluggish.
2) to use zero-g maneuvers whenever possible.
3) to get even just a few hits in.
Thank you for the super informational video.
Got to watch Midway again. The diving is so real.
I just got back from Tokyo a week ago. I visited the Yushukan museum and saw the beautiful restored Zero they have on display. Amazing looking thing.
Didn't know about the zero G stall or the high speed maneuver problem. Great video. Thanks for doing the homework.
My Datsun is like the zero steel it’s thin so it rusts so easily
Hey those Datsuns are classic cars now, please take care of it.
Still better than most German / American junk
The P-38's had supercharged engines with a high ceiling and extremely high dive speeds. A favorite tactic of the P-38 pilots would be to fly high over the top of the Zeros (who could not match their altitude) and dive at high speed with one flight of planes which would break up the Zero formation and then a second group of P-38's would swoop down and shoot down the stragglers who had no wingman to protect them. Very effective. The Zero was built for a close in dogfight which it excelled at but not this type of fight. On another note, I live not far from Chino airport in Chino California that was a military airport in World War 2. Just north of Chino is the San Gabriel and San Bernadino mountains. One of the peaks is 8,000 foot plus Cucamonga Peak, which has a flat looking summit. I believe this is the peak you can see behind the P-40 Warhawk in this video.
"Anaheim, Azusa and Cu--camonga..." czcams.com/video/NrTWjS9bT68/video.html
Yeah there's a WW2 pilot interview on here who talked about, said they stopped dog fighting with the Zeros then it got pretty easy to take them out. The Zeros couldn't match the P38's altitude or speed so once they played to their own strength it was relatively easy.
I believe the AVG used similar tactics when available.
The Zero was an exceptional airplane in the early days of the war. Probably too because of the excellent pilots as well. It’s range made it the first strategic fighter. A very useful trait for the vastness of the Pacific theatre. The Japanese weren’t prepared for a long war for not having a better replacement and a better program of training replacement pilots. Saburo Sakai wrote about the grueling training the navy put their pilots through. It built an esprit de corp, but washed out many a better pilot than they could produce later. He was one of their best aces and was the best that survived the war and he didn’t make the grade of carrier pilot!
The Japanese weren't just unprepared for a long war; anything short of immediate victory was always a death sentence. Much like Germany, part of why they went to war at all was a shortage of resources critical to any war effort, except unlike Germany, they couldn't exactly pick up the slack with pack mules and horses given how much water was involved.
thank you so much for this video it was more than amazing. Can't express my excitement with words after watching this
167citrusave 9p
I believe an American ace pilot noticed that zeroes had trouble manuvering in certain ways. Sothe race to recover the downed zero to inspect it only helped explained some of it's manuvering quirks at certain speeds and altitudes.
Amazing work!!!
"Japanese air power was dead. And the Hellcat was the executioner." - History Channel's show "Dogfights"
When I was a kid, I met a man named Tom Ferebee. I miss NC....the 80's were a better time.
You misspelled corsair
@@tuckerodonnell9269 I wasn't talking about the F4U Corsair. I was talking about the F6F Hellcat.
not rly kid, fuck murica fat stupid nation as well :P
@@JovanSRBIJAAA you are smart as hell
The A6M Zero was the most feared fighter plane in the first year of the Pacific war.
Lord Voldemort all had to do is not get in a turn fight but it’s hard I guess to do that
If you know you're going into war, and at the tail of yet another major modernization of your military... you better start with the best equipment. They were very successful against old torpedo bombers, but less so against the P-40. And they didn't keep their edge very long, once the US figured the Zero out.
Dear CavScout: Yes. The P-40 was and remains a grossly under-rated aircraft, almost as much as the Airacobra.
The Zero is honestly a lot like the MiGs of the Cold War. They seem strong at first and you don't want to dogfight them, but they quickly fall out of sky against USAF/USN pilots.
Korea saw win:loss ratios on the order of 14:1 in favour of US pilots, but each side was careful to avoid having their citizens face each other in direct conflict. There were not many such encounters past the Korean War; those Mig-15s in Korea piloted by actual Russians had a much better combat loss ratio. To be fair, NK pilots' main targets were slow bombers - jet fighters vs B-29s, say - and till the arrival of F-86 Sabres they did very well.
A better illustration of your point would be Israeli vs Arab air battles, at least up to and including the Yom Kippur war. Soviet leaders were Very Unhappy with the performance of Syrian pilots there.
I was stationed in Japan, at Tachikawa AB, in 1976, on base was a strange building , I was told an Air Tunnel, was said that the Zero was design /tested in this building, the base(U S side) is now a park. Tachikawa was a beautiful base and attracted many high ranking officers for the great housing.
TBF, it’s been argued that Kamikaze tactic led to the Japanese Airforce loosing fewer planes than otherwise.
It should also be noted that many key weapons systems of WWII started out as “overpowered” “super-weapons” and ended up being superseded or even made obsolete by newer technology.
The A6M did not suffer the float-type carburetor issue. It had a down-draft carburetor, fuel injection. The Americans put the akutan zero back together incorrectly which gave them this impression.
And yet somehow with this mistaken "knowledge" they still managed to devise air combat tactics that would easily defeat the Zero.
The improper reproduction of the carburetor has virtually nothing to do with understanding the performance of the aircraft as a whole. All valuable information on the aircraft can be gained with or without it properly reconstructed. I'm not attacking the engineers and development team, I was simply correcting an incorrect point in the video. Believing the carburetor wasn't fuel injected wouldn't change anything on a pilot's level. If you believe the A6M was "easily defeated" purely because of the knowledge gained from this specific crash then you've already missed many major points throughout this video.
+ChoroSquid I'm confused how incorrect reassembly would change a carburetor into a fuel injector. Your unusual wording exactly matches a comment on the Warthunder.com website, so perhaps it's an artifact of copy-paste.
Try rwebs.net/avhistory/history/zeke32.htm for info on the Zero in question. The change to down-draft carburetors came with the Sakae 21 engine, as opposed to the older design as seen on the Sakae 12.
I do not use war thunder as a source of information, especially for Japanese vehicles. Nakajima designed the engine to work in these situations where as the American model failed to fly inverted and take negative g's, as well as other negligible inferior performance.
A more detailed explanation on Nakajima's carburetor can be found here www.ne.jp/asahi/airplane/museum/nakajima/sakae.html and here home.f04.itscom.net/nyankiti/ki43-sub3-engine1.htm
There are several good reasons why the Zero became outclassed as the war went on; underpowered engines, limited armament, no armor, terrible at protecting its pilot, etc. But the Zero's biggest problem against late-war American planes was that it was aerodynamically outclassed: The Zero's maneuverability was excellent at low speeds but declined dramatically above 250mph, and by the time it was going 350mph the stick might as well have been rooted in concrete for all the control the pilot had. This fact actually killed more than a few inexperienced Japanese pilots, who put their plane into a dive only to find they lacked the control authority to pull back out and thus flew wide-eyed into the ground/ocean. It's also why a lot of kamikazes missed their targets; they pushed over too hard and too fast and thus lost the ability to correct their dive.
What makes this worse is that the speeds where the Zero's agility was declining were also the speeds where American fighters were in their element. The P-51 for example didn't really hit its stride until it was going at least 300mph. From 1943 onwards American pilots had learned not to dogfight Japanese planes at slow speeds, and kept the engagements fast where their planes had a huge maneuverability advantage.
So even if a lot of the Zero's commonly cited issues like no armor or weak engines were fixed and Japan actually had a good training program that could produce good pilots in bulk like the Allies' programs did, it would've still been badly outclassed by the Hellcats and Corsairs.
There's a major reason why the American pilots knew those weaknesses you mentioned. In one of the few successful invasions of the United States by the Japanese, the Japanese took an island or two off of Alaska. The Americans fought back and regained them. In one of those battles, a Japanese Zero landed safely on the island after receiving heavy damage. Normally, a Japanese pilot knows to destroy those planes to keep the technology away from enemy hands. But by a stroke of luck for the Americans, the pilot did not. The Americans repaired the Zero and tested it for weaknesses. And that's how American pilots learned how to defeat the Zeros.
@1Korlash As detailed in the video.
You listed *ways* it was outclassed.
There's one reason *why* . They didn't do shit to really improve it.
The Japanese had a bad habit of that TBH.
@@pochuyma9530 Well that's one reason, but they already knew the zero's weaknesses for the most part from simply fighting it.
@@lordgarion514 the Japanese did improve their craft a problem was material. They didn't have enough steel or aluminum or oil to compete.
i think its worth noting that american aircraft such as the f4f wildcat had no cockpit armor either at the start of the war. the difference was heavier overall construction and especially self sealing fuel tanks which iirc are actually insanely heavy. also zeros in many instances in order to meet range requirements for places like guadelcanal were so stripped down they didnt even carry radios
In some cases ailerons becoming ineffective at high speed was due to wings deforming at high speed. Essentially the ailerons become trim tabs of a wing warping system. Early models of the P47 Thunderbolt was known to actually reverse roll to the aileron input in a high speed dive. Perhaps the Zero also suffered from the same issue rendering the ailerons ineffective at high speed.
I think the siffness due to higher drag for higher speed caused the maneuvering arduous especially without hydraulic or power steering, at least that's what he said.
If you look at the ailerons length to span ratio you will notice the very long ailerons on the Zero. Without power assist the higher the speed the higher the effort to move them. Trim tabs can do only so much.
Might add that after WW2 Jiro Horikoshi headed Japan's rocket program and became the father of Japan's space program.
Disappointed that the P-39 gets no mention. The P-39 held a 1.1"1 kill ratio against the Zero while the much more popular P-40 held a 1.04:1 kill ratio against Zero's.
The Japanese tried to produce self sealing fuel tanks in the Zero but they could never get them to work, they leaked. In the end the Zero got fire extinguishers mounted in the wings.
Even by 1945 a Zero in the hands of a experienced pilot could still be a dangerous adversary. Their were other aircraft that could do almost everything better but may your gold help you if you got low and slow (below 200mph) with a Zero.
i had no idea about the rocket program!
thats cool!
too bad rockets are as cursed as planes are
The zero would get self sealing tanks in 1944 with the A6m6. Earlier zeros would be retrofitted with the tanks too. There shouldn't have been any trouble with leaking since the same type of tanks were used on other Japanese aircraft years ago.
problem by 1945 there were effectively no experience pilots left in the Japanese fleet and army air arms.
Actually it was Hideo Itokawa, the designer of the Nakajima Ki-43 Hayabusa, allied code name "Oscar" a Japanese army fighter who led Japan's post war rocket development.
Jiro Hirokoshi the designer of the Zero, after the war, participated in the design of the YS-11 airliner. Then he left Mitsubishi and taught at educational and research institutions, such as the University of Tokyo, the National Defense Academy, and Nihon University before retiring.
I like how you explain things without talking down to less technical people (like me.)
I love the clip of the wildcat crashing off the carrier, I just imagine everyone in the bridge going "oh shit!"
I think you meant that the Zero was "relegated" to the status of a dispensable resource, rather than "regulated".
Also, to be more precise, there wasn't a Japanese air force, in the sense of an independent organization. Rather, both the Army and the Navy had air arms.
Is it just a coincidence that eminem dropped Kamikaze the same day you dropped a Japanese zero video?
Cormac at least no one dropped an atomic bomb
*dropping mic*
Thing is, Marshall Mathers is about as relevant in 2018 as a Nokia phone that's been sitting in a junk drawer since 2008.
Thx1138sober idk bro I always enjoy his music. Have you heard this album it's actually quite good
nokia just re released that phone so probably not a good comparison......
I don't know much about the rise of the Zero...But the fall was from .50 cal API ammo.
fall was due to non-sealing fuel tanks and lack of supercharger / turbocharger as later Japanese planes like the Ki-84 & Ki-100 etc had.
The main issue was the control reversal phenomena that this aircraft experienced at high speeds.
Back when I was good at the game and before I got rusty from inactivity, I had a naughty habit of taking my A6M2 Mod. 11 (and regular A6M2) into 6v1 dogfights over enemy territory to get more kills (this is in arcade, by the way-- not enough ammo to do this in realistic). Participating in a 4v4 dogfight with a plane that can single-handedly beat 7-8 enemy fighters at that tier is inefficient. I remember one time where I charged towards the enemy base on that snowy mountainous map (Gorge?), drawing pursuers, then turning around behind a rock and baiting them into a
@@danisbz3933 There was no control reversal on the A6M.
Lmaooo good one
Great research, good job
This is a really nice and entertaining video
Amazing
I used to ride an itchifani 250cc. Always loved Japanese motorcycles
9:13 "Images from Nanjing are NSFL"
I mean ... if that's not the understatement of the year ...
so fucked up i don't even know where to begin.
Still, people should see them. Most people just don't know.
Comparing what that guy knew about the zero and flight training to nanjing is stupid and retarded. The dude lost an eye and was transferred to train dudes until he was transferred back. Also the dude was navy not army. Nanjing is backed on both sides of by propaganda. Dude probably just believed what he was told in the military. He trained the pilots so he knows what was going on.
I enjoyed your video, great work.
Great video. Thanks for sharing.
Once again loved the video. I am actually in the middle of a book called ' Whispering Death '. Which is a day to day history of the Royal Australian Air Force during the Pacific War. Needless to say the Mitsubishi Zero features heavily in the book. All if the aspects mentioned in this video are in the book. If I may add, the Japanese pilots of the Zero along with other fighters and bomber very rarely carried parachutes. Which of course meant they lost most of the pilots and other aircrew when shot down. There is one description in the book of a Mitsubishi G-4M ' Betty ' bomber which came down in a raid on Darwin. The final crash was low and slow, when the Australians arrived on the scene there was no fire, but all eight crew were found death, and with not a parachute between them.
11:28 the tracer fire, just wow
Thanks for this we have a Mitsubishi Zero plane in a museum here in NZ✈️🇳🇿
Nicely done video folks.
please make a video explaining the inner workings of a mechanical watch. I have seen quite a lot of them and none explain the concepts as you would be able to. It is an mechanical marvel though not as accurate as atomic clocks and gps based time in smart watches it is an amazing accomplishment of humans over centuries, a story that should be told.
Also i want to let you know your videos are amazing and the best ones are where you explain a problem so well and not give a solution of your opinion. Those videos like the airport one or the future of airplanes ones, make me think long and hard on those topics trying to figure out a solution.