My father said he and a couple other guys shot the last plane down in Europe. He said it was 3 days after the war was over and a German plane didn't have it's landing gear down when it flew over. To show the war was over all planes would have to fly with their landing gear down. They shot some warning shots and it came back at them and they shot it down. He said it was in the Army paper "Stars and Stipes". I have been trying to find this article or paper to verify and get the story correct for my father passed away a few years ago and he told the story when we were young. If anyone can find the paper I would love to see and read it or obtain acopy of it. The Last aircraft shot down in WW2 was a Convair B-32 Dominator, shot down in 17th August, two days after the surrender, a group of A6M zeros and Shiden-kais attacked a formation of 2 B-32s on a reconnissence mission, during which one B-32 was critically damaged and made a forced crash-landing in the sea, in this attack participated two japanese Aces including the famous war-hero, Saburo-Sakai. this would be the last confirmed aircraft shot down in WW2.
It was fought in the air, on the sea, and on the land. By far, the most ferocious and bloodiest battles were fought at sea. In fact, the only two US Navy admirals killed in action in WWII, during a surface engagement, occurred during a Guadalcanal sea battle. In the air campaign, the A6M Zeros were flying such great distances, that at first the allies thought that they were coming from some hidden bases somewhere, or some hidden aircraft carriers. But they weren't, they were making long range flights from Rabaul (and back). With their light weight construction and external fuel tanks, the Zekes could approach 2,000 miles in range. The ground campaign, of course, was fought by the US Marines. And that's been covered by television's history/military channel (although not very accurately). Apparently, it would be too expensive and time consuming for TV to cover the naval and air campaigns of the Guadalcanal fighting.
Edward "Butch" O'Hare became the US Navy's first "ace in a day" and first Medal of Honor fighter pilot when he was credited with destroying five Japanese Mitsubishi G4M "Betty" medium bombers in a single flight, and damaging a sixth. Japanese records indicate he actually destroyed three and damaged three. O'Hare and his wingman were the only fighters aloft when the flight of nine Bettys approached O'Hare's carrier, the USS Lexington (CV 2). The wingman's guns jammed, leaving O'Hare as the sole protection for his ship. O'Hare's fierce attack broke up the Japanese bombing attack and the Lexington remained undamaged. Later in 1942 O'Hare destroyed a Mitsubishi A6M "Zero" fighter plane.
Of the hundreds of designs built; only one was designed specifically to destroy the A6M Zero; the US Navy's F6F Hellcat. Germans used Fokkers the British and Canadians used Sopwith Camels. In the Second World War some famous planes were: British:Spitfire, Hurricane (fighters) Lancaster bombers; German: Messerschmitt and Focke-Wulf fighters; Stuka dive-bombers; Japanese: Zero fighters; American: Flying Fortress and Liberator bombers; P 51 Mustang
the JAPANESE suffered heavy losses. so many of their ships were destroyed, and so many JAPANESE sailors died, that the battle of leyte gulf ended japan's ability to fight major naval battles.
The A6M is one of the many types of Japanese fighter planes The A6M is one of the many types of Japanese fighter planes
No, they escorted the bombers then strafed the installations around Pearl Harbor.
If you mean the Mitsibishi A6M, the common models had about 1,000 hp.
Japanese records were destroyed during WWII. However, it's estimated that Mitsubishi built nearly 12,000 A6M Zero fighters; Kawasaki built nearly 4,000 Type 61 and Type 100's (Tony and Hien fighters).
My father said he and a couple other guys shot the last plane down in Europe. He said it was 3 days after the war was over and a German plane didn't have it's landing gear down when it flew over. To show the war was over all planes would have to fly with their landing gear down. They shot some warning shots and it came back at them and they shot it down. He said it was in the Army paper "Stars and Stipes". I have been trying to find this article or paper to verify and get the story correct for my father passed away a few years ago and he told the story when we were young. If anyone can find the paper I would love to see and read it or obtain acopy of it. The Last aircraft shot down in WW2 was a Convair B-32 Dominator, shot down in 17th August, two days after the surrender, a group of A6M zeros and Shiden-kais attacked a formation of 2 B-32s on a reconnissence mission, during which one B-32 was critically damaged and made a forced crash-landing in the sea, in this attack participated two japanese Aces including the famous war-hero, Saburo-Sakai. this would be the last confirmed aircraft shot down in WW2.
The Mitsubishi A6M Zero had two 20 mm cannon and two 7.7 mm (.303 in) machine guns .
The A6M had the longest range (nearly 2,000 miles), so the Hellcat could run out of gas and crash into the sea if the pilot is inexperienced. That aside, Grumman designed the F6F specifically to kill the A6M Zero. The Hellcat had 6 fiftys and was built like a tank! It had the horse power and speed of an assassin. The Hellcat would kill the A6M, unless the Zero had a good pilot (like Sakai).
Mitsubishi A6M Zero
The F6F Hellcat, specifically designed to destroy the A6M Zero.
Mitsubishi manufactured the A6M Zero
81 planes - less than a quarter of those launched by the six Japanese aircraft carriers which formed the Pearl Harbour strike force - were Mitsubishi A6M "Zeros". Their job was to defend the bombers, the planes that did the real damage, against any counter-attack from the ground. A total of 360 aircraft were used in the attack, while a further 48 remained to defend the fleet. The balance of the aircraft was made up of Nakajima B5N "Kate" torpedo bombers and Aicha D3A "Val" dive bombers. The attack was in two waves. The first wave consisted of 90 Nakajima B5N torpedo bombers, of which 50 carried 1760Ib armour piercing bombs, and 40 torpedoes; 54 Aicha Vals bombers and 45 Zeros. The second wave consisted of 54 Kates, 81 Vals and 36 Zeros. Marco Giannangeli
The longest range fighter of WWII (until the war was nearly half over); the A6M Zero.