The Unloved Pacific Hero - Grumman F4F Wildcat | Aircraft History #97 

This is the U.S. version of the Hurricane. The Wildcat & Hurricane were the workhorses while the Hellcat and Spitfire got the glory.

Fun Fact: Chicago's O'Hare airport is named for Butch O'Hare, and they have a lovingly restored F4F-3 in an exhibit right in the airport. I'm 100% certain it's not airworthy, but it is an absolutely gorgeous restoration of the aircraft, painted in the markings of the aircraft that Butch O'Hare flew. The aircraft on display was pulled out of Lake Michigan (?) and lovingly restored. It sits inside the security zone, so anyone traveling through O'Hare can see it. If you fly to Chicago or are just passing through it's worth detouring to see it.

Eric ‘Winkle’ Brown had a soft spot for this aircraft and always rated it highly, possibly because he had his first kills in the Wildcat. Considering the number of planes he flew, praise from him was high praise.

My great uncle was a navy test pilot, and I'm pretty sure the F4F was the first fighter plane that he flew for acceptance. I know that the last plane he flew for acceptance was the F4 Phantom, and he took great pride that he "came in flying an F4, and went out flying an F4". My dad still has his first generation jet helmet from flying an F9F Panther.

Good to see this plane getting some recognition, I feel it really gets looked on poorly by people who don’t understand it’s true situation

Wildcats and their pilots don't get enough love. Everyone loves to laud the Hellcat and its 19:1 KDR, but everyone forgets that it was the Wildcat pilots (along with USAAF Airmen and USN AA Gunners) who managed to shoot down so many of the competent pilots that made the Kido Butai such a terror upon the seas. Others have said it better, but: the Zero was a spectacular dogfighter, but it was incredibly fragile, and mistakes were often fatal. Combined with an incredibly inefficient pilot training program, losses became irreplaceable, and by the time the Hellcat was introduced the Japanese Air Forces were shells of the former selves. Meanwhile, the Wildcat was spectacularly survivable, enabling pilots to survive otherwise lethal mistakes and pass on their experiences. Combined with a fantastically efficient training system, overall pilot quality grew, and when the Hellcat entered theater the pilots were better trained, in objectively superior aircraft, against much poorer trained pilots. It's no wonder the Hellcat was as successful as it was.

Always loved the Wildcat. A chunky little scrapper that did worthy service against the odds.

British pilot John Herbert, flying off the carrier Victorious: 'Concerning the Wildcat I echo the line of our best test pilots - it was probably the finest deck-landing aircraft ever built. I once landed a Wildcat with a hole in one wing big enough to put my desk through. I've landed with most of my tail shot away and with holes all over it, and bits dripping out of the engine, and the bloody thing still flew. It was incredibly good.'

The Curtiss and Grumman designs of the early war period were ESSENTIAL in stemming the Axis tide. Not brilliant - but good enough. Tough, easy to produce in large numbers and generally reliable and easy to fly. The Chieftain often states that ‘any tank is better than no tank at all’ - and these aircraft were what we had and WAY better than nothing. Good work Rex mate 👍👍

"Winkle Brown sung the aircraft's praises, and you cant get a much better reccomendation than that" quite true Capt Brown had flown most aircraft of the period capable of flight and a few things that shouldnt be.

Thank you, it is often overlooked that it was the Wildcat that held the line decimating the flower of the Imperial Japanese pilots long before the Hellcats and Corsairs showed up to the fight.

EVERY TIME AN AD COMES I ONLY SEE A STUKA.

I have a strange connection too the wildcat. No, I'm no way old enough to have flown, let alone ever even seen one in real life. However, I have had this memory of my childhood, my grandmother took me into a toy store. I don't remember the occasion, nor my age, but I must have been very very young and the store was one of those completely dedicated toy stores of the 60's and I could not have been more than 3 or 4 years of age. She told me to pick a toy, and my eager eyes lay on a wildcat! It's wings folded, and it being fairly large for my small hands and heavy being all metal. This was the first time my grandma ever gave me a smack for the price of the plane was more than she wished to spend. I had a habit of throwing myself on the ground and losing my everliving little mind in public which seemed to have worked on my parents but grandma? Not so much. I remember she And the owner of the store fighting to gain control of said toy from my aggressive claim of ownership. I then received my first spanking I had ever had, at least as far as I can remember, at the hands of my favorite person in my life at that time. To this day, I remember that toy 50 and change, years later With wishful regrets. I have no idea Why I was fixated on this toy wildcat, nor why it made such an impression on my small mind. But this is a very vivid memory and I have never had it diminish. Sorry for the far too long and personal tale of a spoiled brat being justifiably admonished in public by dear gran, but every time I see a wildcat that damn blue plane of which I wanted so badly, pops in my grayish head. Great video, and as always wonderful work!

From my perspective as a fifty-year-old American and pretty much lifelong WW2 buff, the Wildcat has achieved a legendary status whereas the P-40 really hasn't. Probably because the Wildcat was the main American carrier based fighter during those first four carrier battles of 1942 and at Guadalcanal. A series of battles where it held its own against the deservedly legendary A6M Zero. While not quite the icon that the Spitfire, the P-51, or the P-38 are, the Wildcat is still a legend. Now I'll be quiet and watch the video

The Hellcat/Corsair crushed IJN and won the air war, but the Wildcat _held the line_ in 41-42, and worked hard the entire war. Fantastic little fighter.

Wildcats/Martlets were the airgroup of the very first escort carrier HMS Audacity which was Eric Brown's first operational posting

I can't imagine a true warbirds enthusiast NOT having a soft spot for the Wildcat! Its pilots fought the Japanese during that crucial first year-and-a-half, achieving an impressive loss-to-kill ratio, and when its successor arrived the tides of war in the Pacific had already turned. Imagine for a second that Grumman had thrown the towel after their initial problems, leaving the poor Navy pilots having to face Zeros flying the Buffalo.. PS : Incidently, one of the first model I built was a 1:72 model of the Wildcat. The assembly of the complex and fragile landing gear was such a nightmare that in the end I just glued the wheels to the fuselage and fixed the damn plane on its stand!

I remember Birds of Steel including so many Pacific missions with these things. I always found it odd how the P-40 and even P-36 were more familiar to me than a plane that we basically entirely relied upon for the Pacific Theater, at least at the beginning. I've grown to absolutely adore the thing, and I'm glad to see a video on it!

I am now building the AZ Model Grumman G-36 Grumman Martlet Mk I model kit .1/72 kit. Very nice fun build.

I wouldn't say it was unloved by all means. The fact that it's biplane origins and rugged design does have some positive merits.

Sweet! Who doesn't love the chunky cuddly Martlet/Wildcat!?

Upon researching escort carriers in search of Wildcat history (post Hellcat) I was astounded to find that Wildcats were seemingly in/at every battle. I had been told that they only hunted submarines and escorted merchant ships in the Atlantic after the coming of the Hellcat. NO NO NO they participated everywhere including D-day. Not all escort CVs were restricted to Wildcats only for their fighters, just the smaller ones. Escort CVs did a hell of a-lot in WWll. One company built 50 escort CVs "in one year" and they weren't re-fits they were CVs from the drawing board: Holy crap! Yep Escort CVs participated (usually in multiples even) nearly everywhere! I had no idea! Unsung hero's defined!

My heart goes to the F4U. And the Brits who taught us how to land them! Loved the explanation.

Well done video about the F4F.. This airplane deserves more credit than it gets. I am a former USAF fighter pilot (15 years and 3000+ hours of fighter time).. and was I lucky enough to talk in-depth to several WW2 pilots who flew the F4F, (two of them aces most here would know) and NONE of them would say the A6M was superior to the F4F.. Yes the A6M did several thing better than the Wildcat, but the F4F did things that the Zero could not. Initial US losses against the Japanese air forces were do to the lack of real combat experience and valid tactics.. Read what Boyington wrote about his fist engagement with JAF Fighter.. It almost killed him because he tried to turn with it.. He got lucky and escaped.. after that he put a whole lot of confidence in Chennault's tactical doctrine..

The Wildcat is The Little Plane That Could

Honestly, and this is no doubt a unpopular opinion, the Wildcat is actually the superior aircraft to the Zero. Not because of the performance, but due to it's greatly superior abilty to bring it's pilot home alive, something the Zero was notoriously (and rightly so) terrible at.

2:30. The Wildcat being overshadowed by the Hellcat and Corsair. Is similar to how the newer and larger Essex-Class Aircraft Carriers overshadowed the older Pre-War Fleet Carriers such as the Lexington and Yorktown-Classes and one offs such as USS Ranger and USS Wasp as well as the smaller Escort and Light Carriers.

While the A6M was the superior dogfighter - turning at slow speeds - an F4F pilot who chose dive-and-zoom tactics had a good chance of winning that fight. The F4F had strengths that were different from the strengths of the A6M (which also was longer ranged), strengths that were usable and useful: faster in a dive, less difficult to control in a high speed dive, a more balanced armament, and more rugged. The F4F also, early in the war, had better radios, i.e. better communication with other planes and with controllers. IMO, neither was "superior", they just had very different strengths and were suited to different usages.

The FM2. The wilder wildcat. I agree Rex..P40 and the F4F.. two of my favorites of WW2. Thanks for the great content. Carry on, sir.

Probably not news to you, but the book "the first team" by John B Lunstrom is a must read for F4F Wildcat enthousiasts. First hand accounts of its fighting history in the US navy, and a deep dive into the fighting tactics.

I had the privilege of seeing (and hearing) a FM-2 Wildcat taking off at Duxford. The Wildcats are awesome little (compared to the Corsair and the Hellcat) tubs!

glad the wildcat is getting some love. I have always loved this short, stubby but rugged plane. the Corsair and mustang are great show planes and I love them too, but the wildcat were the real work horse during the most dangerous times when we first entered the war.

Despite its performance not being the most impressive in comparison to some of its counterparts, this is my favorite naval fighter from ww2. It's various upgrades during the war showed that in the hands of a good pilot with the right tactics it was a good airplane. Thanks for another great video Rex. I managed to catch this one early because I'm getting ready for work lol.

The Wildcat may not be my favourite plane (I don't dislike it, though) but I think that this video highlights that there's more than just performance figures that make a plane great. The Wildcat, P-40, and Hurricane were work horses and not as much a looker as many of their contemporaries. But they were able to talk the talk and walk the walk. That is what it takes to be a great plane. You may always have your top performers that stand out, but the bulk of the work is done by the average. Consistency is key. There's no shame in being average! :)

one of my favourite fighters, very much underrated

This new format sounds like a great idea... and what a great little plane to start it on... keep up the good work it's a pleasure to listen to when doing jobs around the house...

The F4F was an outstanding aircraft for its time. The fact that it was used in front line combat for the duration of WWII is proof of that.

Another superbly researched and produced video. Top work, Rex!

I didn't know this thing had a 6:1 kill ratio. For a plane that was outclassed by the Zero, that's kindof amazing.

unsung heroes, P-40, Wildcat and the Hurricane, held the line and turned the tide. Its the Mechanic not the tools, thanks to our brave heroes

This content is a pleasure to watch. Keep it up!

My friends dad flew missions off escort carriers in the last year of the war. He said at that point it was more ground attack than dog fights. Nice old guy, greatest generation for sure.

them Grumman flying barrels are something else

One of my all time favorite planes!

Don't know exactly why 😊, but the P40 has always been my favorite WW2 fighter. As the F4 is the jet 😎. Great videos. I've watched the 3 part P40. So I'm looking forward to your F4F4 video.

Now that's a pleasant surprise, one of Grummans carved from solid products.

The P40 and the F4F arre my favorite airplains too.

I was a big Hellcat guy and I am still a big Hellcat guy, but I appreciate the Wildcat now. It held the line for most of the war until the superstars finally showed up. The Wildcat was the Thin Red Line.

My fav plane from WW2, if only because I love the way the landing gear folds into the fuselage

I don't I have ever met anyone who studied the Pacific War who derided the Wildcat. It was a tough little customer that brought its pilots home and racked up an impressive kill ratio.

I am right there with you Rex about liking the F4F and the P-40 as well as thinking that they tend to be slighted. One of the first, if not the first, model my father ever bought for me to build is a Wildcat. A poor job of gluing and the canopy being half-fogged with the propeller blades long since broken off, it is still kept with great affection in my collection all these decades later.

Its the older, less successful brother to the Hellcat. Its little wheel carriage system is cute though. I like the plane mainly for its oddly cute look.

26 minutes is now the short format. Looks like a drachinifelization of the channel. Not bad, not bad at all.

What I love the most about the Wildcat is the heroic aviators who turned it into a Zero killer despite its performance deficiencies.

Brought a tear to my eye when I saw one at an airshow a few years back

Excellent presentation. I enjoy the fact that "Winkle" Brown, flying a Martlet, had 2 separate, single handed air to air kills vs Focke-Wulf Condors. He spoke highly of the firepower of the Martlet.

Another great vid. Well done. The Cat was a good, solid transition fighter that did the job when it had to

I loved the buffalo in IL-2 Sturmovic as its low stall speed and beefy landing gear taught me how to land properly. But the wildcat is far more iconic in my eyes

There are several aircraft worthy of serious recognition. The P40, PBY Catalina, the Kingfisher, the Wildcat, (obviously) to name a few. These aircraft were the backbone of U.S. airpower in their respective roles. Their contributions cannot be undervalued.

The Late 1942 Guadalcanal campaign shows how well Wildcats and Zeroes stacked up when both sides had capable pilots (the Japanese pilot attrition was surprisingly light at Midway and only really became critical during Guadalcanal); they had damn near 1:1 kill ratios against each other. So one wasn’t really better than the other. It should be noted that the meme of American pilots preferring boom-and-zoom tactics while Japanese pilots preferred turning dogfights due to aircraft characteristics isn’t true. Even though the A6M was more suited for turning fights, IJN aviators still went for boom-and-zoom tactics if they could and it was more a case of them being saddled with an aircraft that was poorly suited for their favoured and most effective tactic (though it’s worth noting that the A6M had a better climb rate than the F4F, even if it fated much worse during a dive).

I've always been a huge wildcat fan.

I’ve always loved the Wildcat…

Never understood why this aeroplane has been largely ignored - it did a fantastic job & should be lauded.

My dad was a NAVY aircraft carrier mechanic during WWII and vigorously defended the F4F Wildcat when someone was throwing shade at it. If there was a model he did not appreciate it was the Brewster Buffalo. He had a LOT of good things to say about the F6F Hellcat.

As one played a lot of Pacific Fighters (locally known as Pearlharbor PC game), this was one of "these planes" that you took to do the job but pretty much never for "casual one-off fun flight" (that went either for Spitfire, Corsair, P-38, Beaufighter or B25)

You covered way more unpopular aircraft than popular ones

The plane I've all been waiting for

It would be worthwhile to mention the "Thatch Weave", a dogfighting tactic developed that give Wildcats a real chance against the Zero.

My grandfather served on an escort carrier in the Pacific. The FM-2 was a valuable component of their air power.

Another outstanding video Rex. Hopefully one day you might find the time to do an video of the Mitsubishi A6M Zero.

The wildcat and SBD basically laid the foundation for our victory in 1942.

My all-time favorite aircraft. Thank you.

One pilot that flew on both the SBD Dauntless and F4F Wildcat (as well as 2/3 of the Yorktown Sisters) was Stanley "Swede" Vejtasa. According to the Unauthorised History of the Pacific War Podcast, he was assigned to VS-5 on Yorktown at the Battle of the Coral Sea and claimed 3 Zeroes in his Dauntless. He was reassigned to fighter training during the Battle and was supposed to head back to the States on USS Neosho and we all know what happened to her. Afterwards, he would be assigned to VF-10 "Grim Reapers" and, on October 42, would embark on Enterprise, participate in the Battle of Santa Cruz, and claim 7 aircraft shot down. Though post-war analysis reduced it to 2 Dive Bombers an 2 Torpedo Bombers. Later he would test out the F4U Corsair on Enterprise in early 1943.

Looking forward to the new format and long-form videos

love the Wild Cat - it did most of the toughest work in the Pacific extremely well - Wild Cat Aces would be an hour long vid I'd watch

Fantastic work Rex! Particularly like the Lady Lex's 'Action off Bougainville' in which Butch O'Hare played such a prominent role getting a mention.

People forget that before the Hellcat and the Corsair, it was the Wildcat that fought the hard battles early in the war. By the time we got the Hellcat and Corsair in large numbers, the Japanese were largely beaten in naval/air battle.

Butch O'Hare's dad was the book keeper for Al Capone. Chicago's O'Hare Field was named in honor of Buth O'Hare. It was formally known as Orchard Field, which is why if you travel to Chicago via air, you luggage tags will say ORD which was the original title for Orchard Field. It is unknown why it never changed. Chicago's Midway Airport was named for the Battle of Midway and if you pass through there you will see a F4F and a SBD Dauntless suspended from the ceiling. So now this knowledge and $2 will get you a cup of coffee at 7/11.

This is one of my favorite war thunder naval fighters and is a very potent threat at it’s BR. I’m glad you’re covering it and I can’t wait to see more videos!

I worked at Grumman for a while, company Philosophy always prioritized pilot survival, and planes were designed as a family of aircraft not just a single plane, which is why they could iterate designs quickly. The interaction with GM on the F4F only helped the concept along. You SHould watch the Footage of Leroy Hrumman telling how he designed the folding wing on youtube.

Ive always loved the wildcat and warhawk. They suffered heavy losses, but not because of the airframe. The pilots were all inexperienced and fighting outnumbered. The planes performed excellently in the hands of experienced pilots. Most of the early american airframes had the same problem. Even the Buffalo was a capable airframe when its weaknesses were taken into account and its strengths used intelligently.

Unloved Hell, I've loved that little fighter since childhood.. it took on the Best and Above and beyond held it's own.

Aeronave incrível! Gratidão pelo vídeo e pelas informações!🌟

Looking forward to the deep-dive video - thanks for all the work!

Keep in mind it was the F4F that did the bulk of the Yeoman's work early in the Pacific and did it with a 7:1 kill ratio. It was the F4F that faced the cream of the crop of Japanese Navy pilots in the Battle of Midway and the Battle of Coral Sea along with other Naval battles. The F6F Hellcat didn't appear until the very beginning of 1943 and even though the F6F shot down shot down much more aircraft than the F4F, it was the Navy F4F pilots that developed the tactics to defeat the Japanese Navy pilots and it was passed on to F6F pilots.

This bird, along with the SBD Dauntless, were the heroes of The Battle of Midway. Even the mediocre Devastater played it's part. Good video.

Hey, Rex. You were slightly wrong about F6F's not serving on escort carriers. During Operation Dragoon, VOF-1 and VF-74 operated Hellcats from USS Tulagi and USS Kasaan Bay

Always had a fondness for the tubby Wildcat…

Thank you Rex, for a very nicely done presentation of an important aircraft. Photos don't do justice to how small this airplane is compared to any more modern fighter. @ 3yrs ago I witnessed the first taxi and flight of a restored F4F-3 from Falcon Field in Mesa, Arizona. It was minuscule next to the hanger doors. Trundled down the runway and 'brrrrrr'd' off into the sky. A week or so later I watched it repeatedly do the pattern at Mesa Gateway Airport (formerly Williams AFB) from my backyard overlook. The sound of the old radial engines is uniquely pleasant.

"Butch" O'Hare is honoured by the eponymous Chicago airport.

As a kid I played an old DOS flight simulator named Aces of the Pacific. Playing through the campaign as different branches in the service, I found the F4F Wildcat to be exactly as this video described: a reliable workhorse that did a lot of heavy lifting throughout the most crucial conflicts. By the time the Hellcat became available ingame, the Wildcat and its variants were already venerable and comfortable fighting machines. It came as a surprise to me years later when Hellcats were venerated and Wildcats were considered bad planes. I guess people put too much stock in biased firsthand accounts as the USN were at their weakest and the IJN at their strongest. Wildcats, to me, won the war and helped defeat the IJN. Hellcats were merely nailing the coffin shut.

Thanks for your treatments of the F4F and P40. They don't get enough appreciation for their accomplishments when defeat in the war was still possible and victory only a hope.

The Wildcat has always been one of my favorite planes!

But yet, it was able to beat the A6M "Zeke" by taking advantage of its strengths: a sturdy, safe airframe (it had proper armor protection and self-sealing fuel tanks) and the ability to easily outdive the A6M. That's when the Japanese found out their own planes were extremely vulnerable to enemy fire during the Battles of Coral Sea and Midway.

Rex You might look into Butch Ohare's minor gangster father, and how he got him into Annapolis. It's fascinating Chicago history.

The Wildcat, the P-40 and also the Hurricane have the same problem: When the untrained eye compares them to their opponents and competitors, they don't look like performers.

So from this video, the upcoming deep dive video, and the superb video you did on this aircraft on Drachinifels channel, we are going to get, "everything you wanted to know about the F4F, Martlette, and the FM-2, but were afraid to ask", by our very own Rex. Thanks for this video and very much looking forward to the new deep dive video. Very well done Rex.

The photo at 23:58 with "fire plug" painted on the bulkhead behind the plane, is the best description of the plane's profile.

Well done. At the EEA "Air venture" last summer, I saw the F4F (or more likely an FM2 made to look like an F4F) next to the F6F Hellcat. I was amazed at how much smaller the F4F was.

I would definitely not call it "unloved". It is by far one of THE most wellknown Pacific fighters. It's to the point where "Wildcat" was sometimes used as the name for both Wildcats AND Hellcats, with the latter just added to the category as "the not really important later model" kinda thing.