Fighter Combat - Tactics and Maneuvering

DIVISION TACTICS 269
unacceptably high loss rates. It was found that only air superiority supplied
by fighter escort could provide the bombers with the protection necessary
for the successful completion of their mission. Fighter-versus-fighter combat
had returned!
This revelation, however, was not readily apparent to those nations
which did not participate actively in these pre-World War II conflicts.
Even the Russians, who took an active part in both wars, seemed to have
missed the point. They, in addition to the British and the French, continued
to retain the rigid vie doctrine into World War II. The Germans
seem to have made best use of their experience, emerging from the Spanish
Civil War employing the loose pair (rotte) and the division of four fighters
composed of two pair (schwarm}. The Japanese generally retained the
division of three fighters, known as a shotai, and arranged them in vies, in
echelons, or in a loose, staggered trail formation. This last formation
(illustrated in Figure 7-2) provided better visual defense by allowing the
wingmen to maintain looser positions on the leader; often they would
weave back and forth to check the rear quarter. Once they were engaged,
the aircraft in the shotai stayed together, falling into trail for hit-and-run
attacks, or broke apart, with each aircraft fighting independently.
The German schwarme normally deployed in a "finger-four" formation,
Figure 7-2. Japanese Shotai