According to Vejtasa, he then challenged Thach himself to repeat the exercise with him in order to prove his point, however Thach ignored the challenge. During the training sessions, James Flatley and Vejtasa tested the maneuver with their divisions playing attacking and defending teams. He argued that it is ineffective when faced with experienced attacking pilots. One of the most notable among them was USN ace Swede Vejtasa. There were also pilots who criticised the Thach weave.
The maneuver proved so effective that American pilots also used it during the Vietnam War, and it remains a viable dogfighting tactic today. Nakajima was raging when he got back to Rabaul he had been forced to dive and run for safety. He had no trouble in getting on the tail of an enemy fighter, but never had a chance to fire before the Grumman's team-mate roared at him from the side. Two Wildcats jumped on the commander's plane. Commander Tadashi Nakajima encountered what was to become a famous double-team maneuver on the part of the enemy. Saburō Sakai, the famous Japanese ace, relates their reaction to the Thach weave when they encountered Guadalcanal Wildcats using it: įor the first time Lt. The tactic initially confounded the Japanese Zero pilots flying out of Rabaul. Marines flying Wildcats from Henderson Field on Guadalcanal also adopted the Thach weave. One of the attackers was Lieutenant Yoshio Shiga, who gave up after he made several runs. įor instance, during the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands, Flatley's division of four Wildcats encountered Zeros from Jun'yō and deployed Thach weave defensive tactics when they attacked. The maneuver soon became standard among US Navy pilots and was adopted by USAAF pilots. Thach's wingman, Ensign R. A. M. Dibb, was attacked by a Japanese pilot and turned towards Thach, who dived under his wingman and fired at the incoming enemy aircraft's belly until its engine ignited. Thach carried out the first test of the tactic in combat during the Battle of Midway in June 1942, when a squadron of Zeroes attacked his flight of four Wildcats. I couldn't make any attack without seeing the nose of one of your airplanes pointed at me." In combat After landing, O'Hare excitedly congratulated Thach: "Skipper, it really worked.
#Ww2 air combat maneuvers series
Trying a series of mock attacks, O'Hare found that in every instance Thach's fighters, despite their power handicap, had either ruined his attack or actually maneuvered into position to shoot back. The defending aircraft had their throttles wired (to restrict their performance), while the attacking aircraft had their engine power unrestricted – this simulated an attack by superior fighter aircraft. Thach took off with three other Wildcats in the role of defenders, O'Hare meanwhile led four Wildcats in the role of attackers. Thach called on Ensign Edward "Butch" O'Hare, who led the second section in Thach's division, to test the idea.
A correctly executed Thach weave (assuming the bait was taken and followed) left little chance of escape to even the most maneuverable opponent. After crossing paths, and once their separation was great enough, they would then repeat the exercise, again turning in towards each other, bringing the enemy plane into the hook's sights. When an enemy aircraft chose one fighter as his target (the "bait" fighter his wingman being the "hook"), the two wingmen turned in towards each other.
It was executed either by two fighter aircraft side-by-side or by two pairs of fighters flying together. The theory behind the beam attack was predicated on the 2-plane element of the finger-four formation. Working at night with matchsticks on the table, he eventually came up with what he called "beam defense position", but which soon became known as the "Thach weave". While based in San Diego, he would spend every evening thinking of different tactics that could overcome the Zero's maneuverability, and would then test them in flight the following day. Before even experiencing it for himself, he began to devise tactics meant to give the slower-turning American Grumman F4F Wildcat fighters a chance in combat. Thach had heard, from a report published in the 22 September 1941 Fleet Air Tactical Unit Intelligence Bulletin, of the Japanese Mitsubishi Zero's extraordinary maneuverability and rate of climb.
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