Not the technical superiority of "fighters" which can be argued for or against it was the complete superiority of allied, mostly american industry not only in technical matters but scale of production and training. It is a war it is not meant to be a fair fight.
I can easily agree with that. If the impression I got from reading the whole thread was similar, I'd never register and respond.
If you lose one on one at low speed then never fly alone or slowly.
Even 4 against 2 with energy advantage was not a forgone conclusion. I remember reading a report by one Corsair pilot. 4 Corsairs jumped 2 Zeros, the wingman started smoking after their first pass (Zeke didn't blow apart, though...). Corsairs turned around quickly to finish the Japanese leader.
What? 4 on 1 (the wingman was crippled and out of the fight) in superior planes? Sure they went after him.
And they were like "whaaaaat?" That's how quickly the Japanese flight-leader reversed on all of them and started threatening their very lives.
I don't exactly remember how it went further, but I think that they dove, extended and shot him down by dividing his attention. What I remember for sure though, is that simple numerical advantage and energy advantage was not enough. The Zero could still be a threat, as long it was not caught dreaming.
Interestingly, I remember reading a similar account when two 109-G-something pilots took on a single Yak-3. They tried their best, both experienced pilots, and at least the author a fetching personality, but it didn't work. In the end they did a Thatch weave of sorts. The wingman took fire while the flight-leader had a good shot at the Yak. Both sides suffered minor damage and disengaged, but the take home message was that Yak-3 was a better plane.
Better! Not just comparable. German pilot was willing to admit, that Soviets built a better plane.
Japan's Fatally Flawed Air Forces in World War II | History Net: Where History Comes Alive – World US History Online | From the World's Largest History Magazine Publisher
I made a comment about radio quality in japanese aircraft, if you have no radio you are fighting a ww1 battle in ww2, I think all allied pilots were authorised to turn back if the radio stopped working, it was quite common in Japanese A/C
Radio Systems in the Early A6M Zero
which says this
Very early in the war the lack of radios severely limited tactical control options that could be exercised by flight commanders. Sakai, Saburo wrote of the death of fellow pilot Miyazaki, Yoshio and the near ambush of Lt. Sasai, Junichi under circumstances where formations had drawn apart and he was unable to tell the straying aircraft that they were about to be bounced. These incidents occurred over New Guinea in May 1942. Later, during the air battles around Guadalcanal, Japanese fighter formations had great difficulty coordinating escort actions due to heavy cloud conditions degrading visibility at multiple altitudes. John Lundstrom cites this on page 192 of "The First Team and the Guadalcanal Campaign".
Better radios make sense to me. Soviet pilots praised American radios very much. They were good.