Throttling their Hellcats’ powerful 2,000-horsepower engines, they ascended for the attack. Roy Rushing, were looking for trouble up ahead and they found it-a squadron of 60 Japanese aircraft, including bombers escorted by Zeroes, the feared fighter of the Japanese Imperial Navy.ĭespite being overwhelmingly outnumbered, the American pilots never hesitated. It was October 24, 1944, and the Battle of Leyte Gulf-the largest naval engagement in modern history-had just begun. Below them, armadas of ships clashed in an epic battle to control the sea around the island of Luzon, where American and Australian ground forces engaged the Japanese in bitter combat. In 1956, about a hundred of these destroyers were delivered to the German Army, the Bundeswehr, for the training of its troops, while the Americans permanently removed them from their ranks the following year.Two Grumman F6F Hellcats streaked across the sky above the Philippines. Used after World War II in an improved version (M39), it took part in the Korean War. Its strengths were the mobility, both on and off-road, as well as the speed of rotation of its turret. The kills-to-losses ratio for Europe was 2.3 to 1 and the overall kill to loss ratio was 2.4 to 1. This gave the M18 crews the ability to fire at an enemy and then quickly retreat before a response could be mustered.Įntering service in 1944, the M18 served primarily in Western Europe, but was also present in the Pacific. Her top speed of 55 to 60 miles per hour in ideal conditions – faster than any other armored fighting vehicle of the war. In the field, the M18 proved an excellent vehicle for the intended role. The doctrinal priority of high speed at the cost of armor protection thus led to a relatively unbalanced design. The open-topped turret left the crew exposed to snipers, grenades, and shell fragments, however it gave the crew excellent visibility which was of importance in the killing of tanks, the intent of tank destroyers being primarily ambush weapons. The armor protection was very light with open-topped turret, and the inconsistent performance of its 76 mm gun against the frontal armor of later German designs such as the Tiger and Panther.
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