THE ZERO FIGHTER

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 6, Issue 82, 18 June 1943, Page 4

THE ZERO FIGHTER

IN the early stages of the struggle in the South-west Pacific the Japanese fighter aircraft, the Zero, was said to have a higher ceiling and greater powers of manoeuvre than any Allied plane. But with the arrival on the scene of the latest types of Allied aircraft whatever superiority the enemy had enjoyed vanished at once. In many hotly contested fights the: losses of the Japanese have far outnumbered those of the Allies, and in some instances whole •enemy units have, been practically wiped out. But the fight over Lae recently probably saw our airpower at its best. The bombers included Flying Fortresses, which have proved over and over again their capacity to deal with Japanese fighters. The big planes seem to be correctly named. The Allied fighters included some with splendid records,and a bag of 85 enemy craft destroyed, 29 probably destroyed and 19 damaged constitutes a record for the .Pacific thus far. With landing grounds so few and far between the prospects of a damaged plane reaching safety would be remote. In that prolonged fight the Japanese probably had to write off over 100 aircraft and that! represents a serious loss. Their output is not large and they cannot afford to sustain losses at that rate.