The alignment is from left to right so that an American Element is
equal to a Japanese Shotai. As you can see there is not always an
equivalent. The Japanese Army Air Force adds the Air Brigade and
Air Division in between their equivalent of the American Group and
Air Force. Note too that the IJAA has no Chutai while the IJNA
does.
The numbers of planes is an ideal number as it existed on paper. In
real life in the field there were any number of conditions that had an
impact on those numbers. On very rare occasion there may have
been more planes available for a mission than pilots. Most often the
opposite was true, pilots out-numbered the planes. The reasons
were varied. Early in the war the combat planes that had been in
the Pacific when the war started wore out before replacements
were available. When the war in the Pacific had started America's
resources were dedicated to the war in Europe. The forces in the
Pacific were expected to just hold on until America could win in
Europe or until it could bring it's production capacity up to the
levels needed to supply all the combat theaters. What changed that
was Guadalcanal. When it was discovered that the Japanese were
building an airfield on Guadalcanal the government had to act. This
forced America to move over to offense before it was ready. This
caused extensive wear-and-tear on the planes as flying in those
tropical conditions was very hard on them. They broke down or
were shot down so that missions were basically made up of what-
ever planes were capable of flying. The one unit that did not change
was the Element. It was essential for survival that all fighter pilots
flew in pairs. A squadron might only have 6 planes ready to fly but
the Element was always 2. If there was an odd number of planes
available then you found someone who's wingman was unavailable
and you paired up with him, but you didn't fly alone.
As the war progressed and second generation fighters started to
appear the supply problem diminished but didn't disappear. There
were other reasons planes might be unavailable. Planes crashed,
were shot up, were damaged in collisions, or simply had some
part break or wear out. Maintenance crews did an incredible job
of patching and repairing but parts were often in short supply.
The thing to remember is the American policy of flying in pairs and
the tactics devised to exploit the use of 2 man teams combined to
be one of the main reasons why the Allies were able to establish air
supremacy in the Pacific by late 1943. |
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ARMY
