Kagero Grumman F6F Hellcat vol. I

The Grumman F6F Hellcat was one of the World War II fighter planes and the US Navy's most effective fighter. It was thanks to the Hellcats that the US Navy's aviation gained air dominance over the vast areas of the Pacific, and was instrumental in defeating Japan. Volume I logo this fighter in the first year of its operation - from its combat debut over Marcus Island and Solomons in August 1943, to the end of the invasion of the Mariana Islands in the late summer of 1944. At that time, Hellcats took part, among others, in the attacks on Rabaul, Wake, Kwajalein and Truk and assisted the invasion of Tarawa (Gilbert Islands). The culmination of the first year of the Hellcats in the US Navy was the invasion of the Marianas in June 1944. During it, the largest air-sea battle in the Pacific to date took place, known as the first battle in the Philippine Sea, popularly known as "the great Marian turkey shooting". This battle cut the backbone of the Japanese fleet. During the war, the only foreign user of the Hellcats was Great Britain, which received the first planes in March 1943. Until the fall of 1944, the Hellcats of the Royal Navy operated in the waters of northern Europe and the Mediterranean Sea. in several attacks on the German battleship "Tirpitz", anchoring in the Norwegian fjord, in the invasion operations in Normandy and southern France, and in operations in the Aegean Sea.