Grumman F4F

While today's jet aircraft are fast and sexy, I still go for the workhorses of WWII. Today's Grumman F4F was the stalwart of Navy and Marine Corps squadrons throughout the war. The plane was not as fast as or as maneuverable as the Japanese Zero, but it was tougher.

The Japanese ace Saburo Sakai described the Wildcat's capacity to absorb damage:

I had full confidence in my ability to destroy the Grumman and decided to finish off the enemy fighter with only my 7.7 mm machine guns. I turned the 20 mm cannon switch to the "off" position, and closed in. For some strange reason, even after I had poured about five or six hundred rounds of ammunition directly into the Grumman, the airplane did not fall, but kept on flying. I thought this very odd—it had never happened before—and closed the distance between the two airplanes until I could almost reach out and touch the Grumman. To my surprise, the Grumman's rudder and tail were torn to shreds, looking like an old torn piece of rag. With his plane in such condition, no wonder the pilot was unable to continue fighting! A Zero which had taken that many bullets would have been a ball of fire by now.
The F4F was relegated to escort carriers after the Grumman F6F was introduced to the fleet, but the F4F was in the thick of battle flying ground support missions to Marines throughout the Pacific.  In the battle of Leyte Gulf, two deck loads of F4F fighters and 5 navy destroyers turned back a vastly superior Japanese surface fleet and saved the landing forces.

Just below is a deck full of F4Fs on board the USS Wasp in 1942.

Below is a Marine squadron of F4Fs on Guadalcanal in 1942.

F4F in flight.