In 1942 the United States Navy decided its newest and fastest fighter could not be landed safely on a carrier and handed it to the Marine Corps instead. That aircraft was the Vought F4U Corsair, and the coral airstrips it was sent to were exactly where the Pacific air war was being decided. Within eighteen months the Japanese naval air arm had been broken in the Solomons and was never rebuilt.
This documentary follows the Corsair from the Pratt and Whitney R-2800 engine that made it possible, through the carrier rejection and the ensign eliminator reputation, to the Marine squadrons at Guadalcanal and the destruction of Japanese air power over Rabaul. It explains the Zero's design bargain, the intact Zero recovered from Akutan Island that gave American pilots exact performance figures, and the energy tactics built on them. It also examines the "Whistling Death" nickname, which has no good support in Japanese sources.
Every number in this film comes from after-action reports, loss tables and squadron records, not from legend.
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