Peter Stickney wrote:

In article ,
Gernot Hassenpflug writes:
"Peter" == Peter Stickney writes:

Peter Actually, it's fairly easy to see why - The Imperial
Peter Japanese Navy was only so large - they didn't have enough
Peter ships to be everywhere in the Pacific at once. /../

Peter /../ They could fly htier land-based bombers from their
Peter forward based in Indochina and Formosa, but they'd arrive
Peter without fighter escorts. The same, of course, would apply
Peter to any sea-borne invasions force - no fighter cover, and
Peter they'd be sitting ducks in the target area.

Peter /../ One of the most closely held secrets if the IJN was
Peter the unprecedented range of the A6M (Year Zero)
Peter fighter. /../

Peter Much has been made of teh Zero's maneuverability as the key
Peter to its success early in the war. /../

Sorry, but that's not true AFAIK: the fact that it came as a
surprise to some of the Allies is not the same as the IJN keeping
it a strict secret. The IJN never considered it secret, using it
in China. Chennault wrote of this fighter in 1940 and 1941, and
the Chinese certainly knew of this successor to the Type 96
'Claude'.

The existance of the Zero wasn't a secret - the fact that the Japanese
had built a single-engine fighter that could fly from Taipei to Manila
and back was. That was certainly not apparent to anybody, and the IJN
wasn't advertising that fact.

One reason was that the Japanese were unaware that they had the capability
until sometime in 1941. Clark and Iba were over 450nm from the closest
Formosan bases, Manila was 500nm away. They'd never made attacks at such
ranges in China, and they were flying over land there, where navigation was
much easier. They'd originally planned to use three small carriers (the big
ones were going to PH), but that was inconvenient as they were slow and
unable to operate sufficient numbers of a/c (only 75 vs. the 250 or so Zeros
they had assembled on Formosa and believed to be necessary). So in 1941,
they started to see just how much they could safely stretch the fuel economy
of the Zero, individually and then in larger groups. Ten hour missions
became routine, then 11 and eventually they were able to stay in the air for
12. Okumiya describes this in "Zero!", with average fuel consumption
dropping to 21 gal./hr. and Saburo Sakai holding the record at only 18
gal./hr.

Guy