I would like to start with this: with a question. And the question is not simple, but golden. Why do we, speaking of airplanes, immediately draw in our heads the image of a fighter, and with it a fighter pilot?
That is, when we talk about the Hero-pilot, who immediately appears? That's right, Pokryshkin or Kozhedub. Yes, that's right. But … Polbin, Senko, Taran, Plotnikov, Efremov? Few people know these names, except, probably, Polbin. And by the way, all of them are Twice Heroes of the Soviet Union, bomber pilots. Pokryshkin had 650 sorties, Senko - 430.
Pokryshkin did not allow Senko's fighters to shoot down, and Senko destroyed everything on the ground that he could reach.
The bomber was the underrated hero of that war.
And now we will talk about the plane that looked like. Looks like he really destroyed everything he could reach. And with just great performance. And even though he fought on the other side of the front.
But - how …
Begin. As always - a small historical excursion, and a little not even in the general timeline. But a very illustrative example of how the information received at the wrong time can be the cause of a serious defeat. Or two.
But in our case, it was the beginning of a blitzkrieg, which has no equal in history yet.
So, the calendar was December 2, 1941. Before the terrible blow to the face of the US Navy in Pearl Harbor, there were only five days left, before the invasion of Southeast Asia began - six.
Compound Z of the Royal Navy has arrived in Singapore, the British stronghold in Asia. These were the battleship "Prince of Wales", the cruiser "Repals", the destroyers "Electra", "Express", "Tendos" and "Vampire".
If the Japanese had no problems in theory with the first part (distribution in Pearl Harbor cabbage soup), then they did have problems with the second part of the plan.
The British Navy is serious, the drowned Bismarck showed everyone in the world that something had to be done with the frankly raider "Compound Z".
The Japanese decided to seize Southeast Asia for a reason, the country needed resources. It is common knowledge that in Japan itself everything is sad with them. And where the capture of resources, there is a need for their delivery. That is, as everyone has already understood, - sea convoys.
A new battleship with a battle cruiser is unpleasant. In the vastness of the Pacific or Indian oceans, it was possible to chase them for a long time and dreary, and such a raider gang could do a lot of harm.
The "sweet couple" "Scharnhorst" and "Gneisenau" in December 1940 - March 1941 perfectly demonstrated this by sinking and capturing 22 ships with a total tonnage of 150 thousand tons.
Therefore, the Japanese watched the British very closely, and just five days later, while the Americans were still smearing bloody snot on their faces, the representatives of the "Mistress of the Seas" got their full program.
Around noon on December 10, 1941, Japanese aircraft captured British ships near Kuantan, on the east coast of Malaya.
The Prince of Wales received 2 torpedoes to the port side, and during the next attacks 4 to the starboard. After that, it remained to lightly beat it with 250-kg bombs and that's all, from the new battleship there were circles on the water and the memory of 513 dead sailors, including the commander of the unit, Admiral Phillips.
It took the Japanese an hour and a half to tear apart the battleship.
"Repals", which had a more experienced crew, at first did a good job and dodged 15 (!!!) torpedoes. However, the 250-kg bombs did their job and immobilized the ship. Then three torpedoes in the side - and the battle cruiser went after the battleship.
The destroyers got the role of extras and rescue ships.
And now let me introduce you to a participant in our story. Mitsubishi G4M, one of the best bombers of that war. At least with indicators of harmfulness it is in complete order.
Japan … Well, after all, the most unique country.
Only in Japan, long-range aviation was subordinate to the Navy (IJNAF) and not to the Army Air Force (IJAAF). Moreover, the aviation of the fleet in Japan was unambiguously more advanced and progressive, better equipped and more qualified than the land aviation.
It so happened that in the island empire, the fleet came out on top and crushed a lot, including the development of aircraft, weapons and equipment.
The history of the appearance of our hero is closely related to the wishes of the naval commanders. The Japanese naval commanders wanted to continue the theme of the rather good 96 Rikko aircraft.
It must be said here that "Rikko" is not a proper name, but an abbreviation for "Rikujo kogeki-ki", that is, "stormtrooper, basic model."
In general, the fleet wanted such an attack aircraft that everyone who could participate in it refused the tender. Therefore, Mitsubishi was appointed to the role of the winner of the tender, which worked well on the topic “96 Rikko”.
And now you will understand why the winner of the tender had to be appointed. When you see what you thought you should have been. The naval commanders have a new attack aircraft.
Maximum speed: 215 knots (391 km / h) at 3000 m.
Maximum range: 2600 nautical miles (4815 km).
Flight range with a combat load: 2000 nautical miles (3700 km).
Payload: essentially the same as the Rikko 96, 800 kg.
Crew: 7 to 9 people.
Power plant: two engines "Kinsei" 1000 hp each.
What was the nightmare of the situation: with the same engines, and, moreover, rather weak, the naval wanted to get a significant improvement in performance in terms of speed and range in comparison with the "96 Rikko".
In general, everything was very, very difficult and looked somewhat doubtful, since it was hardly possible to improve aerodynamics so much. Yes, still (naturally) the range had to be increased too.
In general, everything looked pretty crazy.
Plus, the cherry on the cake was a clear misunderstanding of how this strange attack aircraft would be used in general, which was supposed to combine both a bomber (not a dive, thank God) and a torpedo bomber. And in which direction to develop it. Bomber or torpedo.
I would like to say that in Mitsubishi they were able to either jump over themselves, or wholesale souls were laid to the devil, but the plane did not just work out, but came out very decent. And in fact, Mitsubishi's engineers were able to implement all the semi-fantastic and not entirely justified requirements of the naval commanders.
In general, in reality the plane has become just a masterpiece, the finale of a huge amount of work done.
Perhaps the most experienced in terms of multi-engine aircraft, Kiro Honjo, was appointed the designer of the aircraft.
He immediately expressed his opinion that the plane, in order to meet the requirements of the fleet, especially in terms of range, should be four-engine.
The fleet very quickly hacked down the project and in a categorical manner ordered the construction of a twin-engine aircraft.
It can be said that this failed the attempt to create a Japanese heavy four-engine bomber, the absence of which ultimately cost Japan dearly.
I took the liberty of expressing the opinion that that Japan was a very strange power. Achievement of any goal regardless of losses is historically familiar to us, but nevertheless in Japan it was elevated to a cult. But this cult then condemned, in fact, all of Japan. But more on that below.
And in fact, the command of the fleet set the designers the tasks that the aircraft was supposed to perform. And for the sake of fulfilling these tasks, everything was sacrificed, both the survivability of the aircraft and the mass of the combat load, and the lives of the crew were not taken into account at all. Well, it was typical for that Japan, although it would be appropriate for China.
The fact that the naval forces allowed Honjo a small gamble by replacing the frankly weak, but officially approved Kinsei engine with more powerful Kasei, which at that time were being developed by Mitsubishi, can be considered a huge victory.
Kasei showed 1,530 hp in tests. against 1,000 hp from its predecessor, and just promised a significant improvement in the characteristics of the future car.
In general, things were developing well, and the plane was ready to go into series, but the unexpected happened. In China, where the Japanese were waging their Second World War, the command conducted a major operation, during which the fleet's aviation suffered significant losses among the "96 Rikko". The planes were forced to operate outside the range of the fighters, and the Chinese, armed with American and Soviet-made fighters, were quickly able to take advantage of this. The Japanese suffered simply staggering aircraft losses.
Analysis of these losses showed that the bombers located at the edges of the group were killed first of all, since they were not covered by fire support from neighboring crews. It was then that the command of the IJNAF drew attention to the phenomenal data of the new experienced "1-Rikko".
And someone came up with a bright idea to turn the plane into an escort fighter. It was difficult to mass-produce the new aircraft in conditions of the fact that it was necessary to compensate for the losses incurred in China, therefore it was decided to launch a version of the escort fighter based on the G4M1 into a limited series.
The Mitsubishi management objected, but nevertheless, the 12-Shi Rikujo Kogeki Ki Kai escort fighter (Modified base naval attack aircraft) or the short designation G6M1 first went into the series (albeit limited). It differed from the basic design of the G6M1 by the presence of a large nacelle with additional 20-mm cannons and partial protection of the fuel tanks in place of the bomb bay.
The first two G6Ml were completed in August 1940, and as Mitsubishi had predicted, the aircraft turned out to be a rare slag. The flight and tactical characteristics of the aircraft suffered greatly due to the increased resistance created by the massive gondola with cannons, in addition, as the fuel depleted in long-distance raids, the centering of the aircraft changed very much.
Nevertheless, the Japanese constantly returned to this idea until the very end of the war. Both in the army and in the navy, almost every new bomber was tried to be upgraded into an escort flying cruiser. With about the same success.
A miracle happened in the same year 1940, when a new carrier-based fighter "Mitsubishi" Type 0, aka A6M "Rei Sen", aka "Zero" flew (and how!). The new fighter had a phenomenal range and was able to accompany the formation of bombers all the way during the raids on cities in China. And after the first battle with the participation of the A6M on September 13, 1940 near Chongqing, the G6M1's career as an escort fighter ended.
After all, the career of a bomber and torpedo bomber began.
They tried with all their might to turn the aircraft from the consequences of a strange technical assignment from the naval command into a real combat vehicle.
It sounds strange in relation to the Japanese car, but there were even attempts to increase the survivability of the new bomber. They tried to equip wing fuel tanks with a CO2 filling system, however, this idea was soon abandoned due to its absolute inefficiency. The wing skin was the tank wall, so minimal damage could result in a fire show.
There were just creepy ideas, such as installing a rubber sheet with a thickness of 30 mm on the lower outer surface of the wing. The external ersatz protector reduced the speed (by 10 km / h) and the range (by 250 km), so it was abandoned.
The tail was additionally booked by installing two armor plates 5 mm thick on the sides of the tail gun. True, the purpose of the booking was not to protect the shooter, but the gun's ammunition! But these plates could not stop even a rifle caliber bullet, and were removed by technicians upon arrival of the aircraft in the warhead almost immediately.
Only in the latest modification, G4M3, they were able to do something in terms of protecting the tanks (at least they stopped burning like matches), naturally, to the detriment of the flight range. Well, since the head has been removed, then there is no need to cry through the hair. And in 1944 (in a timely manner, right?) They finally abandoned the 7, 7-mm chiming machines, replacing them with 20-mm cannons.
Nevertheless, despite all the outrageousness, the G4M turned out to be a very versatile, quite agile and fast (for a bomber) aircraft. And it is he who plays a huge role in supporting the Japanese blitzkrieg in the Asia-Pacific region.
On December 8, Japan entered the war with the United States and Great Britain. Yes, exactly on the 8th, and not on the 7th, because although the Japanese arranged Pearl Harbor for the Americans on December 7, but since Hawaii is on the other side of the date line, then December 8 has already come for Japan. Fun fact.
Further, our hero, with the support of all the same "Zero", smashed the American forces in the Philippines. They already knew about Pearl Harbor and were preparing to meet the Japanese, but they appeared during the change of flight detachments and, without meeting resistance, smashed to pieces half of the American aviation in the Philippines.
Then it was the turn of the British. It's funny, but the Japanese air reconnaissance first made a mistake, mistaking for battleships two large tankers stationed in the harbor of Singapore. But the radiogram from the submarine I-65 did its job and on December 10, Britain also received its dose of humiliation. The Prince of Wales and Repals have gone to the bottom. The losses of the Japanese were 4 aircraft.
In the battles it turned out that a Type 1 Rikko or G4M freed from bombs easily escaped the British Hurricanes.
As an assessment of the aircraft, I propose an excerpt from the memoirs of the Japanese naval aviation lieutenant Hajime Shudo.
“I've always felt sorry for the guys from Genzan and Mihoro whenever we flew on missions with them. During the raids on Singapore, the idea was to meet over the target so that our bombs would fall at about the same time. But, departing from the same base, our "Type 1 Rikko" were there in three and a half hours, and the aircraft "Mihoro" (G3M) appeared only an hour after us.
Then the guys from "Mihoro" began to fly out much earlier than us. When, as we approached the goal, we caught up with them.
They barely kept 7500 m above sea level, while we easily flew to 8500. To go at the same speed, we had to fly in zigzags.
Enemy fighters feared our tail 20mm cannons and rarely attacked us. If they did, they only had time to make one pass, and then switched to Type 96 Rikko, flying 1000 meters lower and much slower. And tormented them …
Anti-aircraft guns also focused their fire on the lower Type 96 Rikko. We often ate ice cream at the base for a long time and had a rest when the guys from Mihoro returned home."
The most serious issue was the vulnerability of the Type 1 Rikko, and it was during the air campaign against Guadalcanal that the G4M earned its infamous nickname "Lighter".
Trying to somehow compensate for the vulnerability of their vehicles in the battles over Guadalcanal, the G4M crews tried to climb as high as possible, where the actions of enemy anti-aircraft guns and fighters would not be so deadly effective.
But in general, if you look at all this from the point of view of a normal person, the point is not even the problems of the plane. It's about people.
At the beginning, I promised to voice the reason for the defeat of the Japanese aviation. And here it is definitely not even a matter of performance characteristics, Japanese aircraft had many advantages over American technology. And I'm just silent about the British.
Attitude towards death. Traditional national trait. Yes, it is strange, of course, because the question of self-sacrifice unnecessarily was never part of the tactics or requirements of the command, especially in that war. But this Japanese tradition, which prescribed that the surrender of a Japanese warrior was simply unthinkable - is a barbaric anachronism that simply bled the airborne units.
The crews of the downed aircraft, as a rule, preferred to die along with their cars, rather than leave the plane with a parachute with the prospect of being captured. Therefore, very often Japanese pilots simply abandoned parachutes, and in the thick of battle, often a farewell salute from flare launchers from the cockpit of a burning G4M was the last action of the seven-man crew.
Silly, of course. But the fact is, even the fact that Mitsubishi upgraded the aircraft throughout the war, the quality of the crews was steadily declining, and by 1943 it became clear that this would not be so good.
The Battle of Rennel Island was another page that was written with the help of G4M. Night fight. Without the use of radars, which were categorically scanty on Japanese aircraft. Nevertheless, the successful night attack by Japanese aircraft had a demoralizing effect on the Americans and made it possible to evacuate Japanese units from the islands.
For experienced crews of Japanese aircraft, night torpedo attacks were the standard procedure for training crews, but the Americans were not ready to fight at night. As a result, the heavy cruiser "Chicago" went to the bottom, the destroyer "La Valetta" was saved.
At Rennel Island, the IJNAF demonstrated that they can still pose a threat, but in fact this battle was the last in which the G4M achieved significant success with moderate losses. Further, the decline of the Japanese naval aviation began, mainly due to the fact that, unlike the opponents, they could not properly compensate for the losses in the crews.
It was on board the G4M that Admiral Yamamoto went on his last flight.
By 1944, it became clear that everything, the G4M was already hopelessly outdated. And he was replaced by a successor, the high-speed base dive bomber "Ginga" ("Milky Way"), P1Y1, nicknamed "Francis" from the allies.
And the remaining in a fairly large number of G4Ms of various modifications switched to night work and patrol functions.
And the last mission of G4M in the war. On August 19, Lieutenant Den Shudo in G4M brought the Japanese delegation to surrender negotiations. At the request of the Americans, the plane was painted white and green crosses were applied.
The plane went through the entire war. By Japanese standards, it was a very advanced aircraft with good performance. Good maneuverability, good speed for its time, even the armament was quite remarkable compared to its colleagues.
Small arms defensive armament consisted of four 7, 69 mm machine guns and a 20 mm cannon. Plus (where else will you find this!) Two more spare machine guns!
Machine guns were located in the navigator's cockpit, upper blister and two side blisters.
The Marine Type 92 machine gun was a copy (not very good, otherwise why spare) of the English Vickers machine gun of the same caliber and was equipped with disk magazines with a capacity of 97 rounds (magazines for 47 rounds could also be used). Ammunition - seven stores.
The blister of the upper firing point consisted of a front fairing and a rear movable part. Before firing, the rear part was turned around the longitudinal axis, and it was retracted under the machine gun. The machine gun could be thrown from one side to another. Ammunition - seven disk magazines with 97 rounds in each.
Cannon "Megumi" Special Marine Type 99 model 1, was placed in the tail of the aircraft. It was attached to a special rocking installation, which made it possible to stabilize the barrel in a vertical plane. At the same time, this installation, together with a transparent tail fairing, could be manually rotated around the longitudinal axis. Ammunition - eight drums of 45 shells in each were located on the right rear of the shooter and fed to him on a special conveyor belt.
LTH modification G4M2
Wingspan, m: 24, 90
Length, m: 19, 62
Height, m: 6, 00
Wing area, m2: 78, 125
Weight, kg
- empty aircraft: 8 160
- normal takeoff: 12 500
Engine: 2 x Mitsubishi MK4R Kasei -21 x 1800 hp
Maximum speed, km / h: 430
Cruising speed, km / h: 310
Practical range, km: 6 000
Rate of climb, m / min: 265
Practical ceiling, m: 8 950
Crew, pers.: 7.
Armament:
- one 20-mm cannon type 99 model 1 in the tail turret;
- one 20-mm cannon in the upper turret (7, 7-mm machine gun type 92 on the G4M1);
- two 7, 7-mm machine guns in side blisters;
- two (one) 7, 7-mm machine gun in the bow mount;
- up to 2200 kg of bomb (torpedo) load.
The total production of the G4M bomber is estimated at 2,435 pieces.
One of the most effective strike aircraft of the Second World War. Of course, if you count real victories and achievements, and not cities bombed into rubble. But we will not point our fingers at Lancaster and B-17, but simply note that, in spite of everything, the G4M turned out to be a very useful combat vehicle.
