11. Midway proved the effectiveness of a new tactic for fighting the Japanese Zeros
The Japanese A6M Zero fighter airplane was superior in maneuverability and in rate of climb to any aircraft in the US Navy’s arsenal in 1941. Grumman’s F4F Wildcat was the primary US Navy fighter by early 1942, and it was at a decided disadvantage in air-to-air combat. Navy pilots began hearing of the Zero’s capabilities in the summer of 1941. One Naval aviator, John S. Thach, studied the intelligence reports on the Zero and began to develop aerial tactics which would negate the Japanese airplane’s advantages. With his squadron mates, he developed a maneuver in which Wildcats operated in pairs, alongside each other. When either was attacked from behind, the Wildcats turned towards each other, a maneuver repeated as necessary.
Thach experimented with the maneuver – which he called the Beam Defense Position – at San Diego before the war, but it was first used in combat at Midway. It was so successful it became standard Navy operation, known in the fleet as the Thach Weave. Army pilots picked up the maneuver during the Guadalcanal campaign. A similar maneuver was used in jet combat during the Korean War, and the maneuver appeared in the skies over Vietnam in the 1960s. Thach himself shot down three Japanese Zeros at the Battle of Midway, half of the total of six he was credited with during the war. Thach also offered an example of the rotation system adopted by the US Navy following the victory at Midway.