The Mitsubishi Zero is one of the great legendary fighter aircraft ever
to have graced the skies. Symbolic of the might of Imperial Japan, she
represented a peak of developmental prowess in the field of aviation
during the early years of the Second World War. Engineered with
maneuverability in mind, this lightweight, stripped-back aircraft had a
performance that left her opponents totally outclassed. The dogfights
she engaged in with the Chinese, British, Dutch and American warplanes
in the 1941-42 period are the stuff of aviation legend. The Zero fighter
had four major assets - agility, long-range, experienced and war-blooded
pilots and, most importantly of all, a total inability of the Allies,
particularly in the Pacific Theater of operations, to believe that Japan
could produce such a machine. Despite a whole series of eyewitness
reports from China, where she had swept the skies clean of all
opposition, western minds were closed, and remained so until the brutal
facts imposed themselves on their biased mindsets. All aircraft designs
are a compromise of course, and the Zero had faults as well as
strengths, two of which were to finally doom her; one was her lack of
armor protection and the other was the inability of the Japanese to
match the overwhelming production strength and innovation of Allied
aircraft construction. Even so, she remained a potent threat until the
end of the war, not least in her final role, that of a Kamikaze
aircraft, in which she created as much havoc on the sea as she had done
earlier in the air.
Peter C. Smith takes the reader on a journey from inspired inception to
the blazing termination of this unique aircraft, the first Naval fighter
to be superior to land-based aircraft. It describes in detail the many
victories that punctuated the early days of its operational career as
well as the desperate dying days of the Second World War which witnessed
her final demise. Smith also lists the preserved Zero aircraft on
display today. This is a fast-paced and fascinating history of a fighter
aircraft like no other.
