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Army M24 Build Thread

lockedandloaded
Watch_this71 said:
I was looking at cases for my A2 rifle and gear today. I like the Hardigg case that Allcases has for sale, but I'm cheap since I'm over 50 and don't want to pay $650 for the case and foam. Anyone know where I can get JUST the precut foam?
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Here are 2 cases of mine. First is an old Browning travel vault with an aftermarket foam set made with pick/pluck. This is same as a Pelican 1750. Weighs a ton and one fixed handle, no wheels. Ancient, expensive.

Next is a Harbor Freight Apache 9800 50" with pick/pluck foam included, 3 color choices, 3 folding handles, roller wheels, pressure release valve, lightweight. Got it on sale for $99. Dont sleep on these cases, great value even at the regular price of $149.
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The Trap is Sprung

V
Dead Eye Dick said:
Here is the “skinny” on the Zero. As most realize it was very lightly built. It had great range and good speed for its day. However, its ailerons were very heavy at speed. At low speeds it could out turn any other fighter in the war. At high speeds, it was a dog. So, after evaluating the zero it was learned how to fight it. Don’t allow yourself to get in a slow turning fight. If so, you’re dead. Also, use the thatch weave. Invented by Jimmy Thatch. It used one Wildcat to bait a zero, while the other Wildcat came up from behind and took out the zero. When a pilot has target fixation, his aircraft is never going to outperform the opposing aircraft because he is fixed on flying behind that aircraft.

A couple more lessons. As said, the Zero was very lightly built. It had to be to achieve the performance of its radial engine which only produced about 965 horsepower. Further, it couldn’t take a hit. No protection for the pilot and no self sealing fuel tanks. One tracer round through one of its gas tanks, and it was a firebomb. The Wildcat and later the Hellcat were tough as nails. Pretty much over built and dependent on the horsepower that the Prat & Whitney R1830 producing 1200HP for the Wildcat and the Pratt & Whitney R2800 producing 2000HP for the Hellcat provided those two aircraft.

The toughness of the little Wildcat kept us in the war. Its toughness is also what made the Thatch Weave work. Its took something for a zero to take out a Wildcat but a virtual spitball would take down a Zero.

So as others have said, zoom and boom is the best tactic, otherwise, use your wingman to come from behind while the zero pilot is fixated on you.

Wildcat vs Zero - 5.9 to 1 kill ration in favor of the Wildcat in 1942 and 6.9 to 1 kill ration for the entire war. As said, the Wildcat kept us in the war for 1941 and 1942

Hellcat vs Zero - 19-1 kill ratio. The Hellcat development started in 1938 and first flew in 1941. Subsequent development was brought about by advice from Wildcat pilots (Butch O’Hare for one) and the lessons learned from the captured zero. The biggest change was to the larger and more powerful R2800 engine. It made its combat debut in September 1943.
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Well-written analysis on the Zero. No protection for the pilot and gas tanks, sacrificed for pure performance, follows the philosophy that it was an honor to die for the Emperor.

I had a friend, "Red Dog", who flew the Hellcat. Near, or just after the end of the war he had an opportunity to fly a captured Zero. This was not the one that was mentioned earlier here, but as I recall, one that a smart Japanese pilot who realized that the war was lost and the Emperor wasn't actually worth dying for, voluntarily surrendered near the end. This was not a test flight, or research. The war was basically over, and the CO was letting anyone with single-engine fighter credentials sign up for a joy ride. It only lasted a few days before the Admiral got wind and shut it down, but he said it was a very fun aircraft to fly. Delightful at low speed, and a little scary/weird at high speed.
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The Trap is Sprung

BJames
Blue Sky Country said:
It took the US some time to recover from that huge sucker punch we received at Pearl Harbor and be technologically up to par with Imperial Japan and the Third Reich. Prior to Pearl Harbor, we had been WAY behind Japan and Germany technologically. At one point both of the Axis giants were enriching uranium fuel for future weapon development while we were still just carrying out university experiments with fissionables. The Mitsubishi Zero had been the apex fighter craft for a few years until we shot one down over Alaska in 1943 with great difficulty. That Zero crashed into the snow and was relatively undamaged, the US pilot managing to get a great lead on the enemy plane and hit it with a burst that mainly shredded the cockpit and Swiss-cheesing the occupant. From that one Zero, Northrop-Grumman reverse engineered the thing and produced the F6F Hellcat which surpassed the Zero in speed and maneuverability. From 1943 onward it was a direct straight line uphill climb for us. All of the top secret Tier 1 tech agencies like the Skunk Works and JPL, the holy of holies throughout the intense moments of the Cold War right up to this day, started during this time whose original missions were to capture and reverse engineer Axis tech.
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That’s not quite what happened how we got the zero. It was shot down by AA fire during an aerial attack on the PBY base in Dutch Harbor, AK. It crashed landed on the nearby island of Akutan, flipping over and killing the pilot. Passing Navy boats noticed it, reported to higher and the recovery effort began. The Japanese pilot was buried there for awhile until they dug him up and mailed him back home.

At the time Dutch was only a PBY base, no runway or land to build it on. P-40’s were on Fort Glenn, the next island down from the one Dutch harbor is on at the time of this specific attack. Though it’s only about a 15-20 minute flight, P-40’s were slow and weather often didn’t cooperate, by time the call came and they launched, the Japs were already gone. They had mastered the hit and run by then.

https://www.amazon.com/Kogas-Zero-Fighter-Changed-Alaska/dp/0929521560

https://www.amazon.com/Thousand-Mile-War-Aleutians-Classic-Reprint/dp/0912006838/ref=sr_1_1?dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.O1jpydvu5iyAUD8yJwwF_yMbDmvzFnXS0iYdABIrkYATlhokAbw12uXn1UxzWlH0ZuX0e-YqdMOsQrhTHXv3z3anen-ET3-ocq9OxQ6is8KdA_7DgWIuOdtIRCDLbU6iIqYDP1z9VXPQUmkMqkkYuLz1NmD4y1w3Lt47vkOT848gQaDKLMglL6oEgNz5I7TtbPYcNyvnk1IpBM5BPbdoMQckSNlzFN_p5ZArLuoPYjQ.axLfDkA3pbJB8-gdYTJLMpPaw4YWZPgJU0j-K4OEGUk&dib_tag=se&hvbmt={BidMatchType}&hvdev=c&keywords=the+thousand+mile+war&qid=1749098773&s=books&sr=1-1

Two great reads on the war in the Aleutian’s.

It’s amazing how far ahead technologically the Japanese were comparatively. We didn’t figure out flush rivets on aircraft until Koga’s Zero for Christ sake…

Here’s a pic I took from one of the machine gun emplacements when I used to fly the Aleutians. That’s the entire town of Dutch Harbor and the US’s busiest fishing port.
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