After Action Report
October 26
Skies over the Pacific.
Today, our element of two F4F-4 Wildcats encountered two Type 52 Zeros. Neither of us held an advantage during our approach. After some initial jockeying for position, the Zeros made a pass and their lead had a bead on me. My wingman fired a burst that lightly wounded this pilot, causing him to break off this attack pass. More guns equal fewer shots with this new model Wildcat. Pilots in the ready room argue the pros and cons of this setup. The argument continuous, but I was thankful for my partner's extra firepower.
We weaved back and forth, occasionally trading shots. I was squeezing off a burst at every opportunity, good or bad, and had missed every one. An old habit I had acquired flying the type Dash 3. While lining up a shot against the lead enemy a/c, a shell passed through my cockpit, lightly wounding me and throwing off my aim.
My wingman was doing a bang up job of picking apart the lead Zero whenever he would slide into position on my tail, finally causing him to exit the combat with a moderate wound.
Our doctrine would have the wingman escort his wounded leader to safety. Not this Japanese pilot. Alone, he avoided our every attempt to sandwich him between our guns. His skill finally brought my wingman down. The Wildcat's left wing was so shot up it could no longer support itself and the plane cork-screwed away to the left. I watched for my wingman to jump free from his aircraft. He failed to bail out.
I was finally able to land several heavy blows against the remaining Zero. Even he recognized his airplane was about to fall apart in three or four different ways and turned away from combat. I could not pursue due to my low fuel state. I had a heavy heart as I turned towards where I hoped my carrier would be.
Note: This American pilot could only claim a probable. But the Japanese lost the services of this brave wingman. His a/c was so damaged it cracked up during his landing. The pilot died and the aircraft was a complete loss.
