So tell us, which US or USSR fighters were competitive with the Me109f/g in 1942? What was the alternative to the Hurricane as an air superiority fighter against the Luftwaffe? What US or USSR fighter was superior to the Spitfire V in 1942? Wasn't the USAAF flying the Spitfire V in 1942-43? I wonder why they were using UK built fighters?
It depends on how one defines "competitive" i suppose. Properly fought, any modern or even semi-modern fighter plane can be competitive. The UK by 41-42 ranked it's fighters in competitive order (based on fighting mainly in the desert) as Spitfire, Kittyhawk, Tomahawk, Hurricane. (best to worst in terms of taking on the Experten in their 109's) The German pilots from what i read agreed with this generalization. It gets blurred of course depending on situaiton. They considered the "Curtiss" (P-40) fighter at it's most dangerous at med-low to low altitude and Experten warned their less experienced bretherin to "never dogfight a Curitss" (aka....get into a turning fight) Its interesting to note that US and Commonwealth experiences with the P-40 frame were notably different....similar to the notable difference with Airacobra (USAAF vs VVS pilots), and of course the Brewster experience. The Russians (at least per Loza's book on the 216th Fighter Regiment) considered the P-39 to be the best fighter for their new tactics which stressed vertical maneuvers, of which they considered it to be slightly better at than the 109F or G. They also felt the 39 preformed better "at altitude" than the P40. There's not much mention (as of yet) of the Spit's attributes (some being present and used in the 216th during the Kuban campaign) but the 39's regularily flew top cover as high as 16-19 thousand feet.
So over Darwin the P40s were intercepting at exactly the same altitude as the Spitfires?
IIRC, the Darwin situation was mentioned in Bergerud's book on South Pacific air combat. It's alleged that the incoming Spit pilots were warned not to use "the usual tactics" against Zeros but these warnings were not heeded with the expected results. SpitVIII's, despite their technical superiority also had problems with Ki-43 drivers in Burma. At one point operationally they were stalemated....neither side being able to gain air superiority over the other.