I got it in the mid 1980's there were to be others but when I wrote the author he said he had poor reviews and decided not to do any others.
That's too bad because it looks like he went through a great deal of work to arrive at his conclusions. The author probably lost a lot of folks when he called the Hellcat a mediocre airplane. This is pure nonsense as "mediocre" airplanes don't perform nearly as well as the F6F did throughout it's career. I never heard of any Hellcat pilots complaining that they were totally overwhelmed by the sheer performance of Japanese fighters, and this includes the J2M. Maybe his computer models were flawed and this caused him to lose credibility? He may have also had an ax to grind or that he simply was a huge fan of Japanese WWII aircraft. I tried to find the author's name in the publication but it seems he chose to remain anonymous. Pity.
Besides typos the most obvious error regarding the technical data presented was concerning the altitude performance of the Hellcat. By presenting an incorrect service ceiling for the F6F-5 (off by at least 6,000 feet) all of his calculations at altitude became instantly invalid. How many other incorrect performance specifications were fed into his computer, leading to erroneous results?
One other thing of note is that the author was quick to regurgitate the now thoroughly debunked fictional tale of Ensign Kaneyoshi Muto's epic "twelve against one" dogfight on 16 February 1945. In reality he wasn't flying alone but was with a mixed group of at least nine other A6Ms, J2Ms, and N1Ks from the Yokosuka Air Group when they met seven VF-82 Hellcats from the USS Bennington. Due to an overzealous Japanese press Muto was likened to a samurai warrior of old and was incorrectly given sole credit for all four Hellcats brought down over Astugi that day. Complete and utter propaganda.
Too bad the author failed to mention that Muto was eventually shot down on 24 July 1945, during his very first combat mission with the 343rd Air Group. On that day there were a total of six N1K2s lost during a furious dogfight over Bungo Channel. At least one of these was awarded to Hellcat pilot Lt Malcolm Cagle of VF-88 who was involved in the dogfight with Muto, while two others went to Lt(jg) Robert Applegate of VBF-1 flying a Corsair. A Hellcat and three Corsairs were brought down in the action as well, which included Applegate. It is highly probable that Muto and Applegate shot each other down in a head-on pass, but this cannot be fully substantiated.
Source:
Genda's Blade: Japan's Squadron of Aces, 343 Kokutai (Sakaida and Takaki)
The Japanese Navy concluded fairly early on that the N1K was superior to the J2M in most every respect and the majority of Japanese historians will agree with this notion. The author's assertion that the
Raiden was the equal of the
Shiden and could easily handle a Hellcat just doesn't hold any merit, especially when he fully admits the former would need a reliable power plant to do so.
Noted aviation historian Henry Sakaida said that many Japanese pilots openly despised the
Raiden because of it's lack of maneuverability, stating that it could not survive against a Hellcat or a Mustang in a dogfight. That's a pretty powerful statement to the overall inferiority of the J2M to other late war Japanese designs and allied types alike.