|
The Akutan Zero, also known as Koga's Zero and the Aleutian Zero, was a type 0 model 21 Mitsubishi A6M Zero Japanese fighter plane that crash-landed on Akutan Island, Alaska Territory, during World War II. It was found intact by the Americans in July 1942 and became the first flyable Zero acquired by the United States during the war.〔Rearden, ''Enemy''.〕 It was repaired and flown by American test pilots. As a result of information gained from these tests, American tacticians were able to devise ways to defeat the Zero, which was the Imperial Japanese Navy's primary fighter plane throughout the war. The Akutan Zero has been described as "a prize almost beyond value to the United States",〔Rearden, ''Fighter'', x.〕 and "probably one of the greatest prizes of the Pacific war". Japanese historian Masatake Okumiya stated that the acquisition of the Akutan Zero "was no less serious" than the Japanese defeat at the Battle of Midway, and that it "did much to hasten Japan's final defeat".〔Okumiya, 160–163〕 On the other hand, John Lundstrom is among those who challenge "the contention that it took dissection of Koga's Zero to create tactics that beat the fabled airplane". The Akutan Zero was destroyed in a training accident in 1945. Parts of it are preserved in several museums in the United States. ==Mitsubishi A6M Zero fighter== The Second Sino-Japanese War began in 1937. Attacks by Chinese fighter planes on Japanese bombers caused the Japanese to develop the concept of fighter escorts. The limited range of the Mitsubishi A5M "Claude" fighter used to escort the bombers caused the Japanese Navy Air staff to commission the Mitsubishi A6M Zero as a long-range land- and carrier-based fighter.〔Rearden, ''Fighter'', 1–3.〕 The Zero, which first flew in 1939, was exceedingly agile and lightweight, with maneuverability and range superior to any other fighter in the world at that time.〔Oxford guide, "Fighters" entry, pages 278–279. The Zero's supremacy in flight range is given in table 2, sourced to W. Green, Warplanes of the Second World War, 1961. Maneuverability is described as "excellent ... Of the early Allied fighters, only the F4F Wildcat could oppose it on anything like equal terms".〕 The Zero was superior to any Allied fighter it would encounter for the first two years of the war.〔Oxford Guide, "Air power" entry, page 17. "It was largely thanks to these blows, and the superiority of the Japanese Navy's Zero fighter to anything that it was to meet for two years to come, that the Japanese were able to sweep through the ill-defended British and Dutch possessions in South-East Asia without the Allies being able to interrupt their communications".〕 To achieve this, however, Japanese engineers had traded off durability. The Zero was very lightly built; it had no armor and no self-sealing fuel tanks. According to American author Jim Rearden, "The Zero was probably the easiest fighter of any in World War II to bring down when hit ... The Japanese ... were not prepared to or weren't capable of building more advanced fighters in the numbers needed to cope with increasing numbers and quality of American fighters".〔〔Rearden, ''Fighter'', 10.〕 The Zero was the primary Japanese Navy fighter throughout the war. During the war, the Japanese manufactured roughly 10,500 Zeros.〔Bergerud, 205〕 In 1940 Claire Lee Chennault, leader of the Flying Tigers, wrote a report on the Zero's performance. However, United States Department of War analysts rejected it as "arrant nonsense" and concluded the performance attributed to the Zero was an aerodynamic impossibility.〔Handel, 139.〕 Early in the war, the Zero outclassed any Allied fighter it encountered. According to American flying ace William N. Leonard, "In these early encounters and on our own we were learning the folly of dogfighting with (Zero )".〔Rearden, ''Fighter'', 14.〕 During the attack on Pearl Harbor, nine Zeros were shot down.〔Rearden, ''Fighter'', 28.〕 From these wrecks, the Allies learned that the Zero lacked armor and self-sealing fuel tanks, but little else about its capabilities.〔Rearden, ''Fighter'', 29.〕 The Zero's flight performance characteristics—crucial to devising tactics and machinery to combat it—remained a mystery. Prior to recovery of the Akutan Zero, technical information from three other downed Zeros was available to the Allies. One Zero (serial number 5349), piloted by Hajime Toyoshima, crashed on Melville Island in Australia following the bombing of Darwin. The Zero was heavily damaged, and Toyoshima became Australia's first Japanese prisoner of the Pacific war. Another Zero, piloted by Yoshimitsu Maeda, crashed near Cape Rodney, New Guinea. The team sent to recover the plane erred when they chopped off the wings, severing the wing spars and rendering the hulk unflyable.〔Rearden, ''Fighter'', 30.〕 The third came from China, where Gerhard Neumann was able to reconstruct a working Zero.〔 He used a partly intact Zero (serial number 3372) that had landed in Chinese territory, repaired with salvaged pieces from other downed Zeros. However, bad conditions and the long delivery time from China prevented Neumann's Zero from reaching the United States for testing until after the recovery of the Akutan Zero. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Akutan Zero」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|