Flying Formations - Vic Formation and Finger Four

[Redhugh]

So for our Battle of Britain campaign, each RAF player has a three plane section since the RAF was flying in a Victory "Vic" formation and each Luftwaffe player has a four plane schwarm since the Germans used a Finger Four formation. I know the RAF and later USAAF adopted the Finger four and organzied their squadrons as such after the lessons learned on the Battle of Britain.

My question is in early war, what did other countries us as a base formation? I believe that the Japanese were organized into a used a three plane shotai and the U.S. Navy and USAAF flew in pairs and later developed the Thatch Weave to counter the Japanese.

Did the Italians, French and Soviets also fly in three plane Vic formations until everyone adopted the Finger Four by late war?

[zippyfusenet]

Before WWII, the three plane vic was the standard formation for fighters in all air forces except the Luftwaffe. Condor Legion pilots flying Bf 109s in the Spanish Civil War pioneered the four plane schwarm flying in finger-four formation, and brought the tactic back to Germany.

Finger-four was a looser formation than the vic. Spread out like the fingers of a hand, pilots could watch more sky, but could not always see every other plane of the formation. For this reason, finger-four could only be flown effectively by fighters with closed cockpits and voice radio, to stay in contact with their leaders.

Italian and Russian fighters retained open cockpits into the 1940s. Even after fighters with canopies and radios came into service, it took time to recognize the advantage of the two-plane element and the four-plane division and to re-train for the new tactics. The Japanese A6M2 Zero had a canopy and a radio, but the radio didn't work. The designers had placed it too close to the engine and failed to shield it, so electrical interference from the engine drowned voice communication with static. The useless radios were often removed to save weight, and the Zeros continued flying in vics until late in the war. I don't have detailed information on the Japanese Army fighters, but believe they also continued to fly in vics.

[Redhugh]

Excellent info, thank you. Maybe this is why Ares produces planes with three variations for the most part. I wish there was a fourth variant of the P-51 and FW-190 since I want to have four of each.