Mitsubishi A6M Reisen
'Zero'
Aircraft Series
Introduction
Genesis and Development
War Prize
The Lean Years
Aircraft Identity
Colour Schemes
Power Plant
Armament
Avionics
Zero and its Opponents
Preserved Zeros
Links
References & Acknowledgments
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All text material on this site is
© Peter Lewis
1985, 1999
unless otherwise acknowledged
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The Zero and its Opponents
In comparison with its earliest opponents - Chinese Polikarpov
1-15 biplanes and 1-16 monoplanes, RAF Buffalos, USAAF P-36 Mohawks
- the Zero was in a different league, able to outperform its opponents
in every spectrum of performance. Due to its low wing loading. it could
even out-turn slower biplanes in classic dogfight situations.
The only
early combatants of the Zero able to maintain any show of equality were
the P40B Tomahawk and the Hawker Hurricane. However, pilots of both
these aircraft had to dictate the terms of the fight - any attempt on
their behalf to dogfight a Zero had only one certain ending, Instead,
hit and run tactics were essential. Diving into Japanese formations,
chewing off one or two aircraft, and running were the tactics employed
by Chennault's Flying Tigers with considerable success.
The downfall
of the Zero was its lack of development and replacement. Against the
P-38 Lightning and the F4F Wildcat, the match was more even, The P-38
pilot could select the moment when he wanted to fight, with superior
speed, firepower, altitude ability and ruggedness. The F4F was more
manoeuverable than the P38, but given pilots of equal skill,the Zero
still had the advantage in a dogfight.
The third generation of American fighters
attempted to combine this advantage in power, speed and strength with
the ability to manouvre with the Zero. The F4U Corsair and. more particularly,
the F6F Hellcat could take on the Zero under any conditions. Coupled
with overwhelming numerical superiority, this performance advantage
relegated the Zero to such short-term employment as dive bombers and
Kamikaze attacks. It was left to the small number of higher performance
Japanese fighters to defend the Home Islands against the B29s and their
supporting P51 Mustangs.
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