Thach Weave
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The Thach weave is an aerial combat tactic that was developed by naval aviator John S. Thach and named by James H. Flatley of the United States Navy soon after the United States' entry into World War
An example of the Thach weave: An enemy following planes A or B is vulnerable to attack from C and D.
Saburō Sakai
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Saburō Sakai was a Japanese naval aviator and flying ace of the Imperial Japanese Navy during World War II. Sakai had 28 aerial victories, including shared ones, according to official Japanese records
Thach Weave
…Wildcats from Henderson Field on Guadalcanal also adopted the Thach weave. The tactic initially confounded the Japanese Zero pilots flying out of Rabaul. Saburō Sakai, the famous Japanese ace, relates their reaction to the Thach weave when they encountered Guadalcanal Wildcats using it: For the first time Lt. Commander…
Sakai posing in front of the hinomaru on his Mitsubishi A5M Type 96 fighter (Wuhan, 1939).
Saburō Sakai as a petty officer wearing a life jacket
Sakai in flightsuit
Rabaul, 8 August 1942: A seriously-wounded Sakai returns to Rabaul with his damaged Zero after a 4 h 47 min flight over 560 nmi (1,040 km; 640 mi). Sakai's skull was creased by a machine-gun bullet, he was blind in one eye, and his face was swollen and burned by exposure to the wind through his shattered canopy. Sakai walks towards the flight operations building as he insisted on making his mission report before accepting medical treatment.