Exactly, it was scary dangerous! It took pilots like Thatch and O'Hare to come up with successful strategies to deal with the Zeros obvious superiority. Flying Tigers paved the way with General Chennault's strategy for dealing with highly maneuverable Japanese fighters, boom and zoom!
Jap ace Saburo Sakai wrote an excellent autobio called 'Samurai', where he extensively details the characteristics of Jap and American planes during battle. Highly recommend.
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