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Info Eduard - October 2011
HISTORIE
eduard
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Info Eduard - October 2011
HISTORY
72522 F6F-3 exterior 1/72 Eduard
72523 F6F gun bay 1/72 Eduard
73379 F-22 S.A. 1/72 Fujimi
99035 WWII USN 20mm Oerlikon 1/700 1/700
32307 P-51D engine 1/32 Tamiya
32712 P-51D interior early ser.5-15 S.A. 1/32 Tamiya
ZOOMS
33087 Su-25 Frogfoot interior S.A. 1/32 1/32 Trumpeter
33092 He 111P-1 interior S.A. 1/32 1/32 Revell
FE565 Fw 189A-2 interior S.A. 1/48 Great Wall Hobby
SS379 F-22 interior S.A. 1/72 Fujimi
SS393 Ki-67 Hiryu Peggy 1/72 Hasegawa
33097 P-51D Interior early ser.5-15 S.A. 1/32 Tamiya
MASKS
CX296 Meteor F.1 1/72 1/72 Dragon
CX298 Su-33 Flanker D 1/72 1/72 Hasegawa
EX339 A-4N 1/48 1/48 Hasegawa
EX340 F3H-2 1/48 1/48 Hobby Boss
EX341 Yak-38/38M 1/48 1/48 Hobby Boss
JX135 F-84E 1/32 1/32 Hobby Boss
JX136 P-51D 1/32 1/32 Tamiya
BIG-ED
BIG7268 F-16I SUFA 1/72 Kinetic
BIG7269 Bf 109G-6 1/72 Airx
BIG4955 Su-24M FENCER D 1/48 Trumpeter
BIG5309 PRINZ EUGEN 1/350 Trumpeter
Eduard team
There are few aircraft types that took part
in combat during World War Two, that can be
described with such one sided outcomes in terms
of kill : loss ratio as the Hellcat. Representing the
middle of the Grumman Cat lineage, the Hell-
cat was a unique type right from its beginnings.
Success of its older brother, the Wildcat, which
carried on its shoulders the bulk of the strain
of the Pacic air war in 1942, prompted the US
Navy to give Grumman free reign over the inde-
pendent development of a new ghter. This type
was to act as insurance in the event the concept
of the F4U Corsair turned out unsuccessful.
Grumman designers set forth with the de-
sign, with emphasis on ease of manufacture,
performance and suitability for carrier ops.
On the 30th of June, 1941, as Corsair produc-
tion was initiating, the Navy signed an order for
two prototype XF6F-1s, and a star was born.
Original expectations centered around develo-
pment of the proven F4F Wildcat, which was to
be dominated by installation of more powerful
engines. As such, this eventually evolved into
a new ghter altogether. The US Navy also had
accumulated combat experience, and was able
to incorporate pilot suggestions into the de-
sign. The Hellcat was some 60% heavier than
the Wildcat, was more heavily armed, had
a more powerful engine, was more heavily ar-
mored, carried more fuel and was generally of
a more robust construction. The rst prototype
took to the air on June 26th, 1942, and by Ja-
nuary, 1943 equipped the rst Navy unit, VF-
9, on the deck of the USS Essex. The new type
was called Hellcat. The name not only suggested
the place to which her enemies would be sent,
but was also a play on words. The term in the
old west referred to barroom brawlers, and that
was what the Navy wanted: a tough ghter with
hard sts, that could absorb punishment and had
stamina. The Hellcat line didn‘t result in the most
elegant of ghters. It was, after all, over twice
as heavy as its main adversary, the Japanese
A6M Zero. But
elegance certainly doesn‘t play a pivotal role
in terms of the potential survival of the pilot.
It was a ghter rst and foremost in every sense
of the word, designed around the requirements
of the pilot to fulll the combat mission for which
it was designed and he was trained. The initial
version, F6F-3, was supplanted by the dash ve,
which modied the canopy, cowl, bombracks and
droptanks. The rst combat engagement of the
enemy occurred on September 1st, 1943, when
an Emily was amed by the half inch guns of
two Hellcats. Their advantage over Japanese
ghters was well demonstrated on February
16th, 1944, when, in the vicinity of Truk, over
100 ghters were claimed in the air and over
150 on the ground for the loss of four aircraft.
Five days later, in the Marianas, a further 160
enemy aircraft were destroyed in the air and
on the ground Often one sided combat was do-
cumented in the battle for the Philippine Sea that
culminated on June 19th, 1944 in the now le-
gendary ‚Great Marianas Turkey Shoot‘, where
Hellcat pilots claimed some 350 enemy aircraft
destroyed. A further turkey hunt took place be-
tween October 12th and 14th, 1944 over For-
mosa, seeing the destruction, at the hands of
Hellcat pilots, of 300 enemy aircraft for the loss
of 27. In October, 1944, the Japanese began
to escalate night attacks, bringing on a requi-
rement for night ghters to counter them. USA-
AF P-61s were too far off. Night ghting vari-
ants of the Hellcat were introduced in the form
of the F6F-3N and F6F-5N, equipped with ra-
dar. This new role for the Hellcat rst appeared
at the end of fall, 1944 during the intensicati-
on of kamikaze attacks, that required the inter-
ception of unorthodox attacks by aircraft that
avoided air to air combat. Other major combat
was seen over the Japanese islands over the
rst half of 1945. Although the Hellcat was pro-
gressively replaced by its stablemate F4U Cor-
sair, it served in the combat role up to the end
of the war. Under the designation Hellcat F Mk
1 and II, several hundred served with the Royal
Navy, notably in the Atlantic covering convoys,
and also in the Far East. According to statistics,
there were 12275 Hellcats of all versions made.
For the loss of 270 of these, Hellcat pilots clai-
med 5156 kills. That accounts for over half
of USN and USMC victories. The Hellcat also be-
came the most successful carrier based ghter
in the Pacic in under two years of ops. Lumbe-
ring, awkward at rst glance, lacking in elegan-
ce, barroom brawler – wild, tough, a fearless
hulk, able to clear a saloon before turning three
times…..that was the Hellcat in the skies over the
Pacic.