ORIGINAL: mdiehl
[A fair point but it's still A2A. Similar sorts of events make the A6M look pretty good against the Dutch P-40s in the NEI. Something like 20 Dutch P40s lost in A2A there, but of those (IIRC dim recesses of memory), something like 8 were shot down in one engagement when bounced in their landing pattern.
They weren't Dutch and they wern't in a landing pattern. Americans of the 17th Provisional Pursuit Squadron.
They engagead an element of the Tainen air group that was escorting some bombers. 7 P-40's were shot down in exchange for 1 A6M. 2/19/42.
