Why Not the Hellcat?

An attractive scheme graces this F6F-5 Hellcat

The American plane with the most kills claimed in the Pacific Theater is not the Corsair, the P-40, or the P-38. It is the Grumman F6F Hellcat. Granted, the Hellcat came in at the middle point of the war in the Pacific, when Japanese aircrew quality was on the wane. Yet there seems to be not a lot of love for what amounts to be the "super Wildcat." I know have been guilty of not adding any Hellcats to my World War II collection, I think mostly because I like the earlier period of the war or oddball theaters, but I aim to rectify that.

Over the last year or so I picked up a couple of titles on the Hellcat, one being from the old Arco-Aircam series and another title published in 2008 by a Polish company (but written in English). There are of course several titles available on the Hellcat, including an In Action and Walkaround from Squadron/Signal and another I really want from Sprue Brothers, one of the Ginter Books publications, but it is a bit pricey, and even more so on the aftermarket sites. And of course there are a few titles offered by Osprey Publishing which includes one in the Dogfight series and three in the Aces series. I have since acquired Barrett Tillman's Hellcat: The F6F in World War II, Tillman's Hellcat Aces of World War 2, and Bert Kinzey's Detail & Scale offering on the Hellcat. These titles pretty much cover everything one needs to know about the Hellcat's development and war service.

I have taken the scenarios from Battles Above 1, Battles Above 3, and Desperate Measures that feature the Hellcat and have created this chart showing number of aircraft needed for each scenario.

In looking at the Check Your 6! stats for the Hellcat, it is a formidable bird and an marked improvement over its Wildcat predecessor. Taking suggestions made by now departed gamer Tom Michael on the CY6! discussion group, in which he provided details on the improvements made on the -5 model, here is how the Hellcat shakes out in game terms:

Overall, the Hellcat it is a pretty cool plane, with interesting paint schemes, good wartime performance, and going up against a lot of Japanese aircraft that are not nearly as known as the early war  Zeros, Vals, Kates, Oscars, Betties, and Nates. As a result, I will be ordering several Hellcats from Flight Deck Decals and working towards gaming some Hellcat scenarios.