Iron Cross

According to Chiaki Matsuda's analysis, the ratio of active pilots in Japan and the United States before the July 7 Incident was about 2,500:1,500, and the number of American naval aviation pilots, including active and emergency mobilization reserve pilots (referring to those who can report and perform tasks at the first time of mobilization), was 7 times that of Japanese naval aviation pilots (10,000+:1,500), because Japan was already engaged in a full-scale war and all the reserve pilots that could be mobilized had been mobilized.

In order to meet the needs of the war and expand the number of pilots, the Japanese Navy's preparatory training conducted its first expansion and reform in 1937, establishing Type A preparatory training (abbreviated as Type A pilot) and Type B preparatory training (abbreviated as Type B pilot). Type A pilots recruited graduates who had completed junior high school courses aged 16-19, mainly training junior flight officers, who needed to complete one and a half years of basic education and one year of flight training; Type B pilots continued the practice before the reform, recruiting high school graduates aged 14-16, who needed to complete three and a half years of basic training and one year of flight training. After October 1940, the preparatory training expanded its enrollment for the second time, and the original pilot trainee system (which required 5 months of flight training) was incorporated into it, which was called Type C preparatory training (abbreviated as Type C flight). In early 1943, in order to make up for the losses on the front line, the Navy recruited volunteers from Type B flight students and conducted crash training according to the standards of Type C flight, becoming Type B preparatory training (special), abbreviated as Type B flight.

In a popular way, Type A flight is to train elite flight backbones (especially good ones can go to the Naval Academy and become middle and senior officers in the future); Type B flight is an elite pilot who starts from childhood; Type C flight is a crash course for older young people (actually only 18 years old) who did not have the opportunity to study Type A flight before and are now over the age of studying Type B flight; Special Type B flight is to train half of the semi-finished products in Type B flight for crash training in advance.

From 1937 to before the Pearl Harbor incident, Japan and the United States were both expanding their pilot teams. Although the United States expanded more, Japan had a smaller base and grew faster. On the eve of the war between Japan and the United States in 1941, the gap in the number of Japanese and American naval aviation pilots narrowed from 1:7 to 1:3. Although the United States has more pilots, Japan still has an advantage in quality.

As the war entered its fourth year, the gap between the two sides' naval aviation pilots who served before the war and survived to this day became 2:3, and the United States was said to have less than 50 of the most elite carrier-based pilots (mostly in aviation schools), and Japan had nearly 200 after transferring some of them to aviation schools (Note: The so-called statistical survival rate refers to the proportion of available pilots, and those who were injured and unable to recover or captured by the enemy are not counted, although they may still be alive)

"The conclusion drawn from this is that the difference in the number of Japanese and American naval pilots before the war has basically been leveled up to now, and our army has an overwhelming advantage in the field of elite carrier-based pilots." Matsuda Chiaki explained, "Of course, the low survival rate of American carrier-based pilots is not entirely caused by Japan. The bloody battles between Germany and the British and American Atlantic Fleets also broke the backbone of American carrier-based pilots."

The reason why the number gap was so large at the beginning and the elite contrast was so large at the end was entirely caused by Japan's strict training system.

Taking the Japanese Navy as an example, in 1930, the Japanese Navy first launched a unified examination across the country, with the Navy Ministry setting questions and closed-book examinations. Candidates must first complete a math test (50 questions) within 15 minutes, and then complete a reading and writing test (also 50 questions) within 20 minutes. Only those with an average score of 85 or above can pass the exam. ?

Then they will undergo a physical examination and an aviation aptitude test. The standards are very strict, including a height of not less than 151 cm, a weight of not less than 41 kg, a chest circumference of not less than 74 cm, a naked eye vision of more than 1.2, a vital capacity of 2600 ml, and a hand grip of 22 kg. After that, the aviation aptitude test is mainly to examine whether the candidates have the potential to become a pilot of Hainan Airlines. The examination subjects include balance ability test, memory ability test, anti-vertigo test, etc. If one fails, they will be eliminated.

Then they will undergo a more detailed physical examination and aviation aptitude test. Students who pass the two levels will go to the Yokosuka Air Force (later changed to the Tsuchiura Air Force) for field tests, which usually last for 3-4 days. Only those who pass all of them will be considered preparatory trainees. After 5 years, they will have to pass many levels to graduate (those who cannot complete the test can voluntarily transfer to ground staff). In the first preparatory course, more than 8,000 people from all over Japan passed the cultural examination and participated in the selection. In the end, 79 people successfully graduated, with an elimination rate of 99% (the elimination rate in the United States during the same period was less than 30%).

So Hori Teikichi wanted to directly grant Koufei the title of officer, and everyone, including Prince Hiroyoshi Fushimi, had no objection. With Koufei's ability, he could be selected even if he went to the Naval Academy.

The reason why the pressure was so tight was simple, Japan had no money! It is impossible to train pilots without crashing planes and consuming fuel. A Zero is equivalent to the annual salary of 20 generals, and even a cheap training aircraft is equivalent to the annual salary of a dozen mid-level officers. If hundreds of planes crash a year, how can the military expenditure hole be filled?

The focus of the dispute between the aviation faction and the fleet faction was whether to grant Yifei an officer title, because in theory Yifei was selected from high school graduates, and his education level was only equivalent to junior high school, which was still a long way from the golden diploma of the Naval Academy. However, Hori Teikichi believed that military exploits and abilities were the most important during wartime, and no matter how high the diploma was, it was useless if he could not fight! Of course, he was the chief of the 32nd Marine Corps, and he could confidently say that no matter how high the diploma was, it was useless. Others would not dare to say so directly - the top student who graduated from Tsinghua University dared to publicly say that studying was useless, and you, a scumbag who could not even get into a third-rate university, dared to say that studying was useless?

Horikichi, who held great power, made the final decision: graduates of Otei who have military exploits and have served for more than 4 years, or who have served for 8 years and whose performance is above average, will be awarded the rank of second lieutenant to captain in direct correspondence with their qualifications and merits. Those with outstanding military exploits will be classified separately ( Akamatsu Sadaki falls into another category); after serving for more than 2 years, he is awarded the title of reserve officer (warrant officer); after serving for one year and having meritorious service, Bingfei graduates are awarded the title of reserve officer (warrant officer).

The second step in the analysis is to compare the training system and survival rate of pilots after the Pearl Harbor incident.

"At present, the most solidly trained group of pilots in the U.S. Navy are those who were recruited into the army after the Pearl Harbor incident, but officially graduated after 1942. Data shows that it recruits 200 pilot students every month and still receives 14-month training, that is, it not only Cultivate students' teamwork skills, sense of discipline, and awareness of obedience, as well as develop their multiple abilities - this group of students are all trained as generalists. Everyone can fly fighter jets, attack aircraft, and reconnaissance aircraft, and have good wild survival abilities, and even training subjects It also includes long-distance swimming and diving at sea (because it may be necessary to escape under the burning oil layer), and the number of troops in this part is estimated to be around 2,000.”

After the Pearl Harbor incident, the United States expanded its military while cutting some training subjects: 92 flight schools routinely provide 3 months of basic training to trainees to learn basic flight knowledge; they then receive 3 months of navigation training, including operational and theoretical learning. This is equivalent to compressing the original more than nine months of military training to six months. The students are then assigned to 16 junior aviation schools to receive flight training. If they pass the training (the elimination rate is only 15%), they are sent to Pensacola or Corpus Christi for intermediate flight training.

Only student pilots who perform well at this stage will have the opportunity to fly on carrier-based aircraft. After two months of training, they will go to the Great Lakes training aircraft carrier for training. Each carrier-based aircraft pilot student must have a cumulative flying time of 360-450 hours. Overall, after 1942, the US military compressed the 14-month training course to 9 months (11 months for carrier-based aircraft). This system was maintained until the beginning of 1943, and a total of more than 20,000 pilots were trained. Among them, there are nearly 5,000 carrier-based aircraft crews.

During the same period, Japan's Hainan Airlines also expanded its fleet. The scale of the A-level flight remained unchanged, the level and pass rate of the B-level flight were expanded, and the recruitment of the B-level aircraft was increased. Many pilots who failed to be selected for the A-level aircraft many years ago have now re-entered the B-level aircraft, but they have tried their best. Later the number expanded to less than 5,000.

If Japanese pilots had a clear quality advantage before the war, and the quality was about the same in the early days of the war, during this period, the quality of training for Japanese naval aviation, especially carrier-based aircraft pilots, began to be inferior to that of the United States. After comprehensive weighing, the quality of Japanese carrier-based pilots still has a significant advantage. Taking the Battle of Midway as an example, Japan lost 4 regular aircraft carriers and the United States lost 1 regular aircraft carrier, but the ratio of pilot losses (deaths) on both sides was 121:208.

As the gap in the number of new pilots between Japan and the United States widens, Japan will soon be overwhelmed if a war of attrition is fought. During the Battle of Guadalcanal in history, because there were not many Japanese aircraft carriers, the remaining outstanding pilots were even converted into land-based aviation and US Army aviation to fight against each other. However, the historical process began to reverse in the second half of 1942. The Guadalcanal Air War, which caused Japan heavy losses, ended in a hurry after it started, saving the vital carrier-based aircraft pilots.

At a turning point in history, the Combined Fleet not only won the South Pacific naval battle under the leadership of Horikichi, but also cooperated with Germany to quickly improve the development of new aircraft and maintain the vital backbone and quality. Although the quality of the new recruits added by the Japanese army after the Battle of Midway has declined, after all, the veterans are still in the team, and their lack of experience was supported by their seniors in subsequent operations.

This period was undoubtedly tragic for the Allies. The defeat in the South Pacific naval battle and the near-total annihilation of the Allied fleet in the Horn of Africa greatly damaged the morale of the United Kingdom and the United States. At that time, many of the pilots on the escort aircraft carriers were better than the pilots on the current fleet aircraft carriers in 1944. powerful. The several times personnel advantage accumulated in the early stage suddenly disappeared. In addition, the German HNA began to rise. The US HNA, especially the carrier-based aircraft pilots, no longer had an overwhelming numerical advantage. Their total number was only slightly more than that of Japan and Germany combined. , but the quality is much worse.

In order to further expand the scale of pilots, the United States launched a reform of the pilot training system in the spring of 1943: subjects were compressed, general training was no longer emphasized (that is, fighter pilots only cultivate fighter piloting abilities), and the overall training cycle was reduced by 2 months (7 months for ordinary sea aviation, Carrier-based aircraft for 9 months), and the five-level evaluation system of Level 1-5 was enabled for use. This batch of pilots served in large numbers by the beginning of 1944. Since there was little fighting between Japan and the United States at this stage, most of them were consumed by the German HNA and the British and American. Japan has only now fully grasped the relevant details.