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Aerial Victories of Navy Fighter Planes

U.S. Navy and Marine Corps F4F Wildcat, F6F Hellcat, F4U Corsair

By , Feb. 2000. Updated January 21, 2012.

This table shows the aerial combat victories credited to U.S. Navy fighter planes (Wildcat, Hellcat, and Corsair) in the Pacific during World War Two. It includes both Marine Corps and U.S. Navy credits. The table displays the victories for land-based and carrier-based aircraft, by month of the war.

I sourced this data from the Naval Aviation History website, on a Naval Aviation Monographs page. On that page, there is an item labelled Naval Aviation Statistics - World War II, which displays a large (3.7MB) Adobe Acrobat .pdf file with the source of the data I've summarized here. The document was prepared in 1946, and is a fascinating piece; there's a lot more data in there than I've summarized here. Click on it when you 20 or 30 minutes, which should allow time for it to load and then some time to peruse the information. At the time the study was commissioned, the existence of a separate Naval air arm was in question, and the study played a controversial role in that debate. The "Background" section of the monograph describes the post-war inter-service politics involved.

The data summarized on this page come largely from Tables 3, 5 and 24, but some of the detail figures I had to estimate, based on percentages. But all the row and column subtotals are right from the tables. I used the 'action sorties' in Table 5 to allocate the victories by month.

Estimated Victories by Type - Table 5 & 24
  Carrier-Based
Fighter Planes 		Land-Based
Fighter Planes 		Both Carrier & Land-Based
Fighter Planes
  F4F/
FM2 		F4U F6F F4F/
FM2 		F4U F6F F4F/
FM2 		F4U F6F TOTAL
Dec-41 - - - 10 - - 10 - - 10
Jan-42 - - - - - - - - - -
Feb-42 25 - - - - - 25 - - 25
Mar-42 - - - 1 - - 1 - - 1
Apr-42 - - - - - - - - - -
May-42 34 - - - - - 34 - - 34
Jun-42 65 - - 15 - - 80 - - 80
Jul-42 - - - - - - - - - -
Aug-42 72 - - 52 - - 124 - - 124
Sep-42 - - - 111 - - 111 - - 111
Oct-42 57 - - 164 - - 221 - - 221
Nov-42 32 - - 70 - - 102 - - 102
Dec-42 - - - 17 - - 17 - - 17
Total 1942 285 - - 440 - - 725 - - 725

Jan-43 11 - - 49 - - 60 - - 60
Feb-43 4 - - 14 - - 18 - - 18
Mar-43 - - - - - - - - - -
Apr-43 - - - 17 29 - 17 29 - 46
May-43 - - - - 15 - - 15 - 16
Jun-43 - - - 41 87 - 41 87 - 128
Jul-43 - - - 52 123 - 52 123 - 175
Aug-43 - - - - 112 - - 112 - 112
Sep-43 - - 5 - 72 24 - 72 29 101
Oct-43 1 - 42 - 56 9 1 56 51 108
Nov-43 1 - 167 - 79 8 1 79 175 256
Dec-43 - - 37 - 63 30 - 63 67 130
Total 1943 17 - 251 173 636 71 190 636 322 1,148

Jan-44 - - 51 - 291 53 - 291 104 395
Feb-44 - - 158 - 131 9 - 131 167 298
Mar-44 - - 108 - 11 3 - 11 111 123
Apr-44 - - 91 - 2 - - 2 91 93
May-44 - - 2 - - - - - 2 2
Jun-44 45 1 736 - 1 - 45 2 736 782
Jul-44 7 - 107 - - - 7 - 107 114
Aug-44 - - 26 - - - - - 26 26
Sep-44 45 - 321 - - - 45 - 321 365
Oct-44 131 - 1,016 - 1 - 131 1 1,016 1,148
Nov-44 - - 264 - - - - - 264 264
Dec-44 7 - 106 - 55 - 7 55 106 168
Total 1944 234 1 2,985 - 491 65 234 492 3,051 3,777

Jan-45 17 7 218 - 5 - 17 11 218 246
Feb-45 40 79 309 - 1 - 40 80 310 429
Mar-45 28 120 197 - 1 - 28 121 197 346
Apr-45 90 241 718 - 128 12 90 369 730 1,189
May-45 9 67 198 - 184 36 9 251 234 494
Jun-45 3 4 10 - 99 20 3 102 31 136
Jul-45 - 27 36 - 16 2 - 43 37 81
Aug-45 - 29 38 - 3 - - 31 38 69
Total 1945 187 573 1,724 - 435 71 187 1,008 1,795 2,990

Grand Total 723 574 4,961 613 1,563 207 1,336 2,137 5,168 8,641