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IIRC they did have radios but those were so unreliable due to poor quality of vacuum tubes that many pilots chose not to use them, sometimes to the point of rem
by fishnchips 6y ago
IIRC they did have radios but those were so unreliable due to poor quality of vacuum tubes that many pilots chose not to use them, sometimes to the point of removing the antenna mast.
- openasocket 6y agoThe Japanese had a variety of issues with radios. Some Type 0 pilots did remove their radio system, to save weight, but only on land-based fighters. For carrier-based ships radios were still essential, because they used radio direction finding for navigation. Japanese carrier-based operations also suffered issues because they tended to use a single radio frequency for all air operations (meaning the channel could get disorganized). Japanese carriers also had their antennas on the sides of the ships rather than at the top of the island, which meant they often couldn't receive longer ranged transmissions, so it would be up to escorting cruisers to receive messages and then transmit them to the carrier. The book "Shattered Sword: The Untold Story of the Battle of Midway" has some good information about some of these nitty-gritty details.