F4F Wildcat

This book examines the role of the Grumman F4F Wildcat, the US Navy’s standard carrier fighter at the start of the Pacific War, and its clashes against the Imperial Japanese Naval Air Force’s Mitsubishi A6M Zero-sen.

The US Navy went to war in December 1941 with the tubby Wildcat, the first of Grumman’s famed ‘cats’, as its principal carrier fighter. Ruggedly built and well-armed, the F4F’s performance was inferior to the Japanese Zero-sen. Yet, in the carrier battles of 1942 between the US Navy and the IJN, the Wildcat pilots more than held their own against some of the finest naval aviators in the world.

Many of the Wildcat pilots who saw action in the South Pacific comprised what respected naval historian John Lundstrom has called the ‘First Team’ – the small group of highly trained pre-war pilots who manned the bulk of the US Navy’s carrier fighter squadrons.

Illustrated with specially commissioned artwork, including armament views and ribbon diagrams, F4F Wildcat examines the carrier battles that took place in August and October in the South Pacific around the first American offensive of the war – the amphibious assault on the island of Guadalcanal. It details the actions of the Wildcat in combat with IJN carrier aircraft, describing key combat actions accompanied by rare and original photographs and diagrams. The book also explores the training and tactics that contributed to the Wildcat’s success.