[GuerraCivil]

I do not know if the identification of enemy plane as "best known enemy plane" has something to do with the more or less conscious desire to make air victory as "glorious" as possible?

For example shooting down a "Zero" might have been felt more glorious achievement to shoot down some obsolete "Claude" or "Nate". And about Germans it has been said that it was easier for them to recognize combat losses against Spitfire units than against Hurricane units as Hurricanes were "more scrap" and thus it was also more glorious to shoot down a Spitfire than just a Hurricane.

But still I would like to believe that it was simply putting everything Japanese flying one engined thing as "Zero" in 1941/1942 - "Zero" being practically a synonym with "one-engined Japanese aircraft".

I do not know if someone has gone through the claims and combat reports of Allied pilots of the 1941/1942 but I would not be surprised that they would show almost all of the sighted Japanese one-engined planes to be "Zeros"...