John Smith Thatch (Jimmy Thatch), a legendary pilot in the U.S. Navy, rose to fame in the Battle of Midway with the "Thatch Scissors" tactic that shattered the myth of the Japanese Zero fighter.
What is less well known, however, is that Jimmy Thatch, as commander of the "Wildcat" Squadron (VF-3) in the Yorktown, was still the commander of the light rod two days before the carrier went out to war! He was the only pilot in the entire squadron.
Why did Major Thatch suddenly become the "Commander of the Light Rod"?
Jimmy Thatch's greatest historical feat was the creation of the "Thatch Scissors" tactic, which flew in a two-plane cross-curve to lure the Zero fighter under the muzzle of the U.S. machine gun. The Battle of Midway was the first application of the "Saatchi Scissors".
In the process of escorting the "Yorktown" torpedo aircraft to attack the Japanese aircraft carrier, Major Saatchi led 6 "Wildcats" to meet 15 Zeros, and lost one in exchange for shooting down 5 Japanese aircraft, of which Saatchi himself shot down 3. This battle broke the myth of the "invincibility" of the Zero fighter and gave the US pilots great confidence.
But few people know that the VF-3 carrier-based fighter squadron commanded by Major Thatch in this battle was a temporary patchwork. Until the Battle of Midway was about to begin, the VF-3 Squadron was an empty shelf! The pilot was only Squadron Leader, Major Jimmy Thatch, while the 27 Wildcat fighters in the formation were fully loaded early.
This strange phenomenon was actually caused by the lack of carrier-based aircraft pilots in the early days of the war.
Born in 1905, Jimmy Thatch graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1927, trained as a naval pilot in 1929, and spent the next decade as a test pilot and instructor. In early 1940, Lieutenant Thatch was appointed commander of the Navy's Third Fighter Squadron (VF-3).
It can be said that Thatch is an old aircraft carrier elite pilot, but also an instructor-type talent. The pilots of the VF-3 Squadron before the war were also carefully trained by Thatch. In the U.S. Naval Shooting Competition held at the end of 1940, half of the 16 pilots of the VF-3 Squadron under Saatchi's leadership received the "excellent" award.
It should be pointed out that before the outbreak of the Pacific War, the us carrier-based aircraft squadron number still matched the aircraft carrier number, and the VF-3 fighter squadron was equipped with the CV-3 aircraft carrier, the "Saratoga". Similarly, VF-2 squadrons are assigned to the USS Lexington (CV-2) and VF-6 squadrons (CV-6). However, the war soon disrupted this set of rules.
On January 11, 1942, the aircraft carrier SARATOGA, carrying VF-3 Squadron, was torpedoed by the Japanese submarine I-6 in the central Pacific. After the loss of the mothership, Major Saatchi led 18 F4F-3 Wildcat fighters of the VF-3 squadron to the Lexington, and the original VF-2 fighter squadron of the Lexington was withdrawn to the rear to replace the "Wildcat" (originally equipped with F2A Buffalo fighters).
Major Saatchi, aboard the Lexington, led his troops in airstrikes against Rabaul and Saramoa in February and March. On 20 February, Thatch opened the record when he and his wingman shot down a Japanese H6K 97 aircraft northeast of Rabaul. Also on the same day, Thatch's Wildcat pilots severely damaged the 17 G4M I land attacks attacked by the Japanese army. The U.S. aircraft carrier formation suffered no losses, and only 3 of them escaped back to the base in a land attack.
In this air battle, Sarge's disciple, former wingman Lieutenant Edward O'Hare, led two "Wildcats" to intercept 8 Type I land attacks, and one shot down 5 of them (after the war, it was confirmed that 3 were shot down and 2 were badly damaged), becoming the first ship-based aircraft ace of the US army!
On 26 March, Major Thatch and others returned to Pearl Harbor with the LEXINGTON. Subsequently, VF-3 Squadron Leader Thatch suddenly became the "Light Rod Commander"!
At this time, the Battle of the Coral Sea was about to break out, and the Lexington was preparing to return to the South Pacific. The U.S. Navy decided to reorganize the VF-2 squadron of the LEXINGTON, transferring most of the pilots of the VF-3 squadron to VF-2, and a few excellent pilots were transferred back to the home country to serve as commanders of the new "Wildcat" squadron. Among them, Edward O'Hare, as a star in air combat, returned to his homeland for several months of propaganda activities, and then was promoted to new force commander, only to return to the battlefield until August 1943 (in November of the same year, O'Hare piloted the F6F "Hellcat" was shot down by the defensive fire of the Japanese type I land attack).
From this point of view, the US military was very short of carrier-based aircraft pilots at that time, and had to tear down the eastern wall to make up for the western wall. As a result, for two full months from the beginning of April, Saatchi's VF-3 squadron had only one pilot left, himself.
One person driving 27 "wildcats"?
In a way, Major Jimmy Thatch at the time was almost marginalized. Not only did Thatch not have the opportunity to participate in the command of the Coral Sea air battle, but also a group of excellent "wildcat" pilots he trained were given to others in vain.
Still, U.S. Rear Admiral Aubrey Fitch said to Thatch; "Your squadron will eventually increase to 27 aircraft, but I'm going to hand over all your pilots to Paul Ramsey (VF-2 Squadron Leader)... Then you will get more pilots. ”
27 Wildcats, much larger than Saatchi's original squadron. Before the Battle of the Coral Sea, lexington carried only 21 Wildcat fighters from the VF-2 squadron (which already included VF-3 aircraft and personnel).
The commander's promise was soon half fulfilled: 27 of the latest F4F-4 Wildcat fighter jets were quickly delivered to the Kaneohe Naval Air Station on Oahu, where the VF-3 squadron was located. But the problem is still the same, the pilot is only Jimmy Thatch.
Jimmy Thatch then personally flew all 27 Wildcats assigned to him and tested each fighter for different differences, which were adjusted by the squadron's maintenance crew. He himself briefly returned to the Pensacola training base on his home soil to temporarily mentor the new fighter pilots.
In fact, Jimmy Thatch isn't exactly a person. His former deputy, Major Don Lovelace (1906-1942), the former executive officer of the VF-3 Squadron, had been transferred back to his homeland and promoted to squadron leader of the newly built fighter squadron, but Lovelace remained for the time being to continue to assist Thatch in rebuilding the VF-3 Squadron in an informal capacity.
A makeshift patchwork of "Wildcat" squadrons
On 28 May, two days before Yorktown was repaired and left the harbor, Jimmy Thatch finally waited for the new pilot of the VF-3 Squadron! The VF-3 Squadron was also officially assigned to the USS Yorktown, whose flying squadrons were uniformly designated VF-3 Fighter Squadron, VB-3 Dive Bomber Squadron and VT-3 Torpedo Squadron, plus a VS-5 Reconnaissance And Bombing Squadron.
Most of the new pilots of the VF-3 squadron were not novices, and 15 of them were from the VF-42 fighter squadron. This squadron, the "Wildcat" squadron matched by the "Yorktown" aircraft carrier in the Battle of the Coral Sea, has a wealth of combat experience. After the Yorktown was badly damaged in the Coral Sea, the squadron was completely incorporated into VF-3, and Jimmy Thatch's face still seemed to be very large.
As for Jimmy Thatch's old division, it had originally joined the VF-2 squadron of lexington, but all the fighters of the squadron sank into the sea with lexington, and 11 pilots were killed on the spot. Most of the remaining pilots also withdrew to the rear and failed to take part in the Battle of Midway.
On 30 May, the barely repaired aircraft carrier USS Yorktown sailed from Pearl Harbor, and the Battle of Midway was set to break out in five days. The rebuilt VF-3 squadron also took off from Kaneohe Air Station and landed on the Yorktown.
At this time, Major Don Lovelace suffered a tragedy. Don Lovelace, who was supposed to return to his home country (who was supposedly designated as the captain of the reconstructed VF-2 squadron), resolutely flew with the VF-3 squadron, but he was killed on the spot when he was killed in an accident while landing on the Yorktown. Jimmy Thatch has lost his closest friend and one of his most powerful helpers.
However, Jimmy Thatch has run out of time for grief. He was almost unfamiliar with the 26 pilots under his command, and the "Wildcat" had a significant performance gap relative to the Zero, and the U.S. pilots still had psychological shadows about the Zero. At this point, there were only five days left before the battle broke out.
In just five days, Jimmy Thatch taught 26 of his subordinates a new set of tactics for zero fighters that he had summed up in the past two months, which was the famous "Thatch Scissors".
Five days later, "Thatch Scissors" will shine on Midway! After the Battle of Midway, the "Saatchi Scissors" gradually became one of the most important magic weapons for all "Wildcat" squadrons to fight against the Zero.
The superficial dilemma is also the advantage of the US military
Jimmy Thatch's pre-Midway "squadron only one man" embarrassment seems to be a joke of history. But on the other hand, it reflects the advantages of the US Navy's system of training pilots.
Before the Battle of the Coral Sea, although Jimmy Thatch became the "Light Rod Commander", in-depth analysis, this practice is also a good way for the U.S. Navy to protect key talents, especially instructor-type talents.
By the same token, Edward O'Hare, Don Lovelace, and others, who had proved their strength in the initial battle of the VF-3 squadron, were hastily transferred to the rear before the Battle of the Coral Sea, not only promoted to a higher rank, but also given the task of training and forming new troops.
Not only that, jimmy Thatch also quickly faded from the front line of air combat positions after the Battle of Midway, specializing in the training and command of carrier-based aircraft. Later in the war, Jimmy Thatch invented the "Big Blue Carpet" tactic, which was specifically used against the Kamikaze suicide machine. After the war, Jimmy Thatch was in full swing and eventually became a four-star general.
Although Jimmy Thatch is well known in aviation history, he has only shot down six air combat records, barely ranking among the aces in air combat. However, Jimmy Thatch, as an expert in fighter tactics and training, improved the operational level of hundreds of pilots throughout the war, with military value far greater than a mere ace in air combat.
It is through this cultivation idea that the US aircraft carrier pilots have gradually developed from the initial "small number and mediocre technology" (compared to the Japanese pilots) into a high-quality and large-scale elite team.
In contrast, the Japanese Navy has deployed its most elite Zero pilots on the front line for a long time, and only second-rate pilots will serve as rear instructors for a long time. As a result, the elite pilots of the Japanese aircraft carriers were quickly exhausted in a series of battles, but the pilots could not be trained in the later stages, and the level plummeted. This result is obviously caused by the huge difference in the training ideas of the two sides. (Author: Tao Mujian)