here's what I know about the zero's. they were indeed bad ass planes. they were more vulnerable to bullets though than the Mustang. but they were fast and very maneuverable and in the beginning had very talented pilots. we lost a lot of planes and pilots due to them (ask Bush Sr.) the Mustangs were protected better due to thicker steel and we covered our gas tanks with thick rubber where a bullet wouldn't explode the plane. in the end, we whipped them with numbers and planes that could withstand bullets much better than the zero and we ended up killing their experienced pilots. thus , in the end, they had to resort to suicide bombers. we also learned a lot about zeros when we confiscated a crashed one in the Aleutian islands.