Adventures in the WAIRAPA WILD CAT

A New Zealand P-40 warrior racks up the kills

- JAMES P. BUSHA

February 1942. While the Japanese army closed in on Singapore, the Allied Forces had their backs against the wall. They tried desperately to slow the Japanese advance. If they could be stalled even for a short time, the Allies would be able to "advance to the rear" and fight another day. Coordinated attacks by Japanese air and ground forces with superior and more modern equipment gave the retreating Allies little reason to hope. A decimated RAF tried in vain to halt the aerial onslaught. Outnumbered and outgunned by 16 to one, Royal New Zealand Air Force pilots slugged it out against the enemy's Zeros.

But the Zeros did most of the "slugging." The outdated and under-powered F2A Brewster Buffalos were no match for the tightly turning, agile Zeros. Whether flying a Buffalo or a Kittyhawk, though, one Allied pilot exploited a weakness in Japan's aerial tactics. The account that follows is from 11-kill-ace Flight Officer Geoffrey Fisken RNZAF, who fought during the early days of WW II in the South Pacific.

To be successful against the Japanese, especially the Zero, you had to have an altitude and attitude advantage. I thought the Buffalo was a delight to fly-a beautiful airplane but a bit under-powered. The Zeros were too fast, and they could turn inside of us. If you got into a dogfight with them, you were committing suicide.

Being young I still had aspirations of growing old back in New Zealand, but being somewhat foolhardy, when we saw a flight of Japanese fighters coming in, we climbed to attack-as high as we could get above them. As they drew closer, we pushed the old Buffalos over-throttles to the stops-and went screaming down, firing through them. We were always outnumbered, but to me, this was an advantage, as it gave me more targets to pick from!