Wildcat receiving maintenance in the United States, circa 1942-1943

Caption     Wildcat receiving maintenance in the United States, circa 1942-1943 ww2dbase
Photographer    Unknown
Source    ww2dbaseUnited States National Archives
Identification Code   80-G-K-15611
More on...   
F4F Wildcat   Main article  Photos  
Photo Size 500 x 746 pixels
Photos at Same Place United States
Added By C. Peter Chen
Licensing  Public Domain. According to the US National Archives, as of 21 Jul 2010:
The vast majority of the digital images in the Archival Research Catalog (ARC) are in the public domain. Therefore, no written permission is required to use them. We would appreciate your crediting the National Archives and Records Administration as the original source. For the few images that remain copyrighted, please read the instructions noted in the "Access Restrictions" field of each ARC record.... In general, all government records are in the public domain and may be freely used.... Additionally, according to the United States copyright law (United States Code, Title 17, Chapter 1, Section 105), in part, "[c]opyright protection under this title is not available for any work of the United States Government".

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Colorized By WW2DB     Colorized with Adobe Photoshop



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Visitor Submitted Comments

1. Commenter identity confirmed David Stubblebine says:
23 May 2008 08:37:07 PM

It looks like they're sighting in the guns.
2. Commenter identity confirmed Bill says:
19 Jun 2012 04:31:45 PM

FILE PHOTO INFO:

VF-10 (Grim Reapers) activated San Diego, Ca.
June 1942. Assigned to the USS Enterprise (CV-6) and fought during the Battle of Guadalcanal. Later flew Grumman F6F Hellcats
deactivated Nov. 1945

Grumman F4F-4 Wildcat was armed w/6x.50 cal.
machine guns with total ammo load of 1,440 rounds or 240 rpg, this gave the pilot about 20 seconds of firing time.
The F4F-4 had folding wings this gave navy squadrons twenty seven planes per squadron, instead of eighteen planes, on the larger Essex carriers.

SECONDS COUNT: 20 SECONDS WORTH OF AMMO

Some navy pilots had their machine guns bore sighted so those .50 caliber rounds met at the same time, in a concentrated cone of fire, with those 50s hitting the lightly built A6M Zero it was going down.
It all depended upon the shooting skill of the pilot, some had the weapons sighted for 200 yards. Another dog fight tactic was called deflection shooting, fire just ahead of the enemy aircraft, its pilot flying into those .50 caliber slugs.

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