Profile 00: Grumman FM-2 Wildcat from the USN’s VF-3, aboard USS Yorktown 1942

Skins Compatibility: IL2 Sturmovik Forgotten Battles (FB), Ace Expansion Pack (AEP), Pacific Fighters (PF), 1946, Storm of War (SW).

CN F4F-3 VF-3 23 $ Thach USS Yorktown 1942
CN F4F-3 VF-3 23 $ Thach USS Yorktown 1942 NC
CN F4F-3 VF-3 23 $ Thach USS Yorktown 1942 NM
F4F-4 Wildcat flown by Lt Cdr John S Thach, VF-3, USS Yorktown, June 1942
skin by Canon, November 2007
This skin can be modified for your own use, but may not be uploaded, or included as part of another skin, without permission. Thanks :)
www.canons-skins.com

WW F4F-3 VF-3 23 $ Thach USS Yorktown 1942
WW F4F-3 VF-3 23 $ Thach USS Yorktown 1942 NC
WW F4F-3 VF-3 23 $ Thach USS Yorktown 1942 NM
WW F4F-3 VF-3 23 $ Thach USS Yorktown 1942 V00
Skin Pack of VF-3 WildCats. Although these planes were flown by Thach and O'Hare, they would also have been flown by the rest of VF-3 too.
F4F-3 BuNo 3976/White F-1, flown by by Lt Jimmy Thach CO VF-3, Uss Lexington 1942.
F4F-4 BuNo 5093/White 23, flown by LtCdr Jimmy Thach CO VF-3, USS Yorktown 1942.
F4F-3 BuNo 4031/White F-15 flown by Lt Butch O'Hare VF-3, USS Lexington 1942.
F4F-3 BuNo 3986/White F-13 Flown by Butch O'Hare VF-3, USS Lexington 1942.
For full size Screenies Check the Skinners forums at the Zoo http://forums.ubi.com/eve/forums/a/frm/f/45410763
Blank and Nomarking for all 4 skins. Credits in readme. Enjoy.
WW Warwolfe1
WarWolfe1@gmail.com
http://www.flying-legends.net/

Asisbiz Free Virtual High Resolution Images for Screensavers and Wallpaper: If you have any additional historical information about the person or aircraft featured in our website please email us at info@asisbiz.com so we can add more details about the historic events featured here. Also any photos would be most welcome. If you're a graphic artist and can help with il2 game skins or Microsoft CFS skins we'd be delighted to host your material.

General Motors FM-2 Wildcat Fighters

In 1942, automobile manufacturer General Motors converted several of its east coast factories to aircraft production under the name Eastern Aircraft Division. Eastern received contracts to build F4F-4 Wildcat fighters and TBF-1 "Avenger" torpedo planes, allowing Grumman to gradually reconcentrate its energies on the new, urgently-needed F6F "Hellcat" fighter. The GM F4F-4s, redesignated FM-1s, had only four .50 caliber machine guns, but were otherwise little changed from the original model. Well over a thousand FM-1 fighters were delivered in 1942-43, including some three hundred for the British Royal Navy.

Meanwhile, Grumman had prototyped a new Wildcat under the designation XF4F-8, which was to be produced by Eastern Aircraft as the FM-2. With lightened structure and a more powerful Wright R-1820 radial engine, the FM-2 was notably quicker, faster climbing, longer ranged and more maneuverable than its predecessor. To help control the increased power, the new plane had a distinctive, taller vertical tail. All-in-all, it was a great improvement, and more than four thousand FM-2s were built in 1943-45. Of those, over three hundred went to the British.

The U.S. Navy FM-2s operated exclusively from escort carriers (CVEs), small ships with notoriously lively flight decks. They were used in the Atlantic, teamed with TBM "Avengers" for anti-submarine work, the escort carriers' original purpose. In the Pacific, CVEs did ASW too, but also employed their "Avengers" and "Wildcats" to provide air cover for invasion forces and close air support for ground troops. Those missions produced opportunities for aerial combat against Japanese planes, and two Navy pilots achieved "ace" status in FM-2s. The GM Wildcat also played an important role in the 25 October 1944 Battle off Samar, in which a force of the slow CVEs and their escorts out-fought a vastly superior Japanese surface fleet.

FM-2 Wildcat characteristics:
  # Dimensions: Wing Span, 38 feet; Length, 28 feet 11 inches; Wing Area, 260 square feet.
  # Weights: Empty, 5448 pounds; Gross, 8271 pounds
  # Powerplant: One 1,350 horsepower Wright R-1820-56 "Cyclone" single-row radial engine.
  # Armament: four .50 caliber Browning machine guns; Two 250-pound bombs or six 5-inch rockets.
  # Performance: Maximum Speed, 332 m.p.h. (@ 28,800 feet).

Royal Navy Martlet and Wildcat Fighters

A modified version of the U.S. Navy's F4F, the Grumman Model G-36A provided the Royal Navy with its first high-performance single-seat monoplane carrier fighter. Named "Martlet I" in British service, these 81 aircraft had originally been ordered by France and were taken over by the British after France surrendered. Powered by 1,240 horsepower Wright "Cyclone" radial engines, the first "Martlets" entered service in September 1940, and achieved the first "kill" for any American-built fighter in British service on Christmas day of that year, when a German Ju-88 was forced down near Scapa Flow.

Several other versions of the design followed in 1941. The 100 "Martlet II" and 30 "Martlet III" types had 1,200 horsepower Pratt & Whitney "Twin Wasp" engines, like the American F4Fs. Most "Martlet IIs" also had folding wings. These early "Martlets" had considerable combat service, flying from shore bases and from aircraft carriers, including the pioneer escort carrier, HMS Audacity. Very maneuverable by European standards, and heavily armed, they were a serious threat to enemy aircraft.

The "Cyclone" powered Grumman F4F-4B, a type built solely for transfer to the British, became the "Martlet IV". Like later versions of the design, these 220 planes were provided through Lend-Lease, rather than by sale, and were delivered starting in 1942. Next in the series were over 300 "Martlet Vs", identical to the U.S. Navy's General Motors-built FM-1, with Pratt & Whitney engines. Surviving units of these two types were redesignated "Wildcat IV" and "Wildcat V" in January 1944. There were also 340 "Wildcat VI" fighters, the equivalent to the USN's FM-2. The first of these arrived in 1944.

The later British "Martlets" and "Wildcats" were extensively used at sea, primarily based on escort carriers though some were also carried aboard fleet carriers. In addition to anti-submarine work, teamed with "Swordfish" strike aircraft, they participated in amphibious operations in the Mediterranean and Normandy, helped make oceanic aerial reconnaissance unhealthy for the German air force and successfully competed with enemy fighters for control of the air over European shores.

For general characteristics of this type of aircraft, see the entries for U.S. Navy F4F and FM-2 Wildcat fighters.

F4F3-Wildcat