The Grumman F6F Hellcat was the first U.S. Navy carrier-based fighter that could defeat the Japanese A6M Zero fighter under virtually all conditions. The only other carrier fighter to earn that accolade was the Vought F4U Corsair.
“The Hellcat was unquestionably the most important Allied shipboard fighter of the Second World War, and to this aircraft more than to any other went the distinction of turning the tide in the air war over the Pacific," wrote British aviation historian William Green in Famous Fighters of the Second World War, 2nd series, (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1976). The F6F was credited with 4,947 of the 6,477 enemy aircraft destroyed in the air by U.S. Navy carrier pilots, with a kill-to-loss ratio of 19:1. It was the principal fighter on board U.S. aircraft carriers from 1943 to 1945, and it was predominant in the carrier battles of the Marianas and Leyte Gulf. The aircraft was also flown in large numbers from British carriers.
Work on the F6F began in 1941 at Grumman, which took advantage of pilot experience with the Navy’s first two monoplane fighters, the Grumman F4F Wildcat and Brewster F2A Buffalo, and air combat in Europe. The Navy ordered the first XF6F-1 on 30 June 1941, and that aircraft flew on 26 June 1942; the second prototype was modified and flew as the XF6F-3 one month later. The early flights were generally satisfactory, and minor problems were corrected quickly. Large production orders for the F6F-3 already had been placed in May 1942 and deliveries to the fleet began early in 1943, possibly a record, from prototype to combat squadron acceptance. (Popular stories asserted that the F6F was based on secrets learned from a Zero that had crashed in the Aleutians on 3 June 1942, but that aircraft was not returned to the United States, repaired, and reassembled for flight until October 1942. The prototype F6F had flown several months earlier.)
Deliveries to Fighter Squadron (VF)-9 aboard the USS Essex (CV-9) began in January 1943. The first action for the F6F occurred during a strike on Marcus Island on 31 August 1943 by aircraft from the carriers Essex and Yorktown (CV-10). By the end of the war all U.S. large (CV) and light (CVL) carriers had the F6F in their fighter squadrons, as did several escort carriers (CVEs) and British aircraft carriers. (The British initially called the aircraft Gannet, but soon adopted the name Hellcat.)
Hellcats from British carriers as well as U.S. CVEs flew against German aircraft in 1943-1945. For example, Hellcats from the British escort carrier Emperor in Norwegian waters clashed with German planes on 8 May 1944- They shot down two Me 109s and one Focke- Wulf (Fw) 190. Lieutenant Blyth Ritchie downed the Fw 190 despite the German plane’s superior speed (a margin of about 30 miles per hour). This is believed to be the only occasion on which a Hellcat fought an Fw 190.
U.S. carriers flew more F6Fs than any other aircraft type during the war. Fighter strength in the larger carriers by the end of the war was authorized at 73. To make space for the large number of fighters, the dive and torpedo bomber squadrons were reduced to 15 planes each. This reduction in bomber strength could be accepted because the F6F Hellcat could double as a dive bomber and scout, and few targets remained for the torpedo planes.
During the winter of 1944-45, four of the Essex- class carriers also received Marine F4U fighter squadrons. Prior to the carrier Wasp (CV-18) taking aboard two Marine squadrons, VF-81 in that ship had 90 F6F Hellcats assigned, making it the largest carrier squadron in Navy history. (The Wasp’s SB2C Helldiver squadron had been sent ashore, and her torpedo squadron had 15 TBM Avengers for an air group total of 105 aircraft.)
The Marine Corps flew the single-seat F6F in relatively small numbers, mostly the F6F-3N and -5N night- fighter models operating from land bases. The Navy flew large numbers of the night-fighter variants. By 1945 the Navy had three aircraft carriers with night air groups, although no more than two were with the fast carrier task force at any time. All carried Hellcats as their night fighters: the Saratoga (CV-3) had 31 F6F-5N Hellcats and 22 F6F-5 Hellcats plus 17 Avengers; the Enterprise (CV-6) had 16 F6F-5N Hellcats and 2 F6F-5P photo Hellcats plus 27 Avengers; and the Independence (CVL-21) had 16 F6F-5N Hellcats plus 9 Avengers.
In addition, by early 1945 most of the Essex-class carriers had a four-plane F6F-5N detachment. And as plans went forward for the invasion of the Japanese homeland in fall 1945, the Marine Corps formed four air groups that went aboard escort carriers. Each group consisted of 8 F6F-5N night Hellcats, 2 F6F-5P photo Hellcats, 8 F4U Corsairs, and 12 TBM Avengers—a total of 30 aircraft. These CVE groups marked the largest use of Hellcats by the Marine Corps. (Eight escort carriers were to carry Marine air groups for the invasion, given the code- name Olympic.)
Developed from the F4F Wildcat, the F6F was larger and had cleaner lines but retained the square wingtips and other appearance features of the F4F/FM series. There were night-fighter versions with wing-pod mounted AN/APS-4 and later AN/APS-6 radar. Camera variants of the Hellcat were introduced late in the war.
Production of the F6F totaled 12,274 aircraft through November 1945, all from Grumman’s Long Island plant. Of those, 1,182 went to the Royal Navy. The definitive F6F-5 had a top speed of 380 mph and a combat range of 945 miles. Armament consisted of six .50- caliber machine guns (2,400 rounds) or two 20-mm cannon (450 rounds) and four machine guns (1,600 rounds). By the end of 1944 all fast carriers had the F6F-5 and F6F-5N variants of the Hellcat. These aircraft were slightly faster than the earlier F6F-3, had more armor, and could carry one 2,000-pound bomb or smaller bombs, or six 5-inch air-to- ground rockets, although the bombs were rarely carried. (The F6F-5 was credited with being able to carry a Mk 13-3 torpedo, but that weapon was never carried in combat.)
Despite the excellence of the F6F Hellcat and the large production run, the aircraft did not survive long in the peacetime U.S. Navy. The F4U Corsair and the Grumman F8F Bearcat offered several performance advantages over the Hellcat.
While the F6F was phased out of the fleet before the Korean War began in June 1950, several attacks were launched against targets in North Korea from U.S. carriers using radio-controlled, explosive laden F6F-5K aircraft; sometimes F6F-5D aircraft were used to control the drones. The French Navy also flew F6Fs in its Indochina war.
Although the F6F Hellcat served in first-line U.S. Navy and Marine Corps squadrons for a relatively brief period, the aircraft certainly rates as one of the most effective combat aircraft of World War II.