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Originally Posted by JeffK
JoeB,
Dont forget the Spits were there to shoot down Bombers.
Also many operational losses were had due to fuel & mechanical problems,
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So were the F4F's over Guadalcanal in 1942 often engaging similar formations of A6M escorted medium bombers, but achieved about 1:1, fighter:fighter, per both sides' loss records. It's a remarkable operational comparison given a paper comparison Spit V's and F4F-4's. The site I referred to had a table (I dumbly only saved one of its two pages) IIRC only 1 J fighter loss to 20+ Spit combat losses (not including the operational losses). It's not totally at odds with other sources (for example Hata/Izawa JNAF book has 3 losses for the 202 Air Group in the period, the main opposition but not only operating over Darwin, and their JAAF book one Ki-43 loss by 59th Sentai over Darwin).
In any case does anyone know if more such info can be had at that site, or what else you get for $20 (kind of a disturbing internet trend if it's not some pretty phenomenal info!)?
Joe