In article ,
Gernot Hassenpflug writes:
"Peter" == Peter Stickney writes:

Peter Actually, it's fairly easy to see why - The Imperial
Peter Japanese Navy was only so large - they didn't have enough
Peter ships to be everywhere in the Pacific at once. /../

Peter /../ They could fly htier land-based bombers from their
Peter forward based in Indochina and Formosa, but they'd arrive
Peter without fighter escorts. The same, of course, would apply
Peter to any sea-borne invasions force - no fighter cover, and
Peter they'd be sitting ducks in the target area.

Peter /../ One of the most closely held secrets if the IJN was
Peter the unprecedented range of the A6M (Year Zero)
Peter fighter. /../

Peter Much has been made of teh Zero's maneuverability as the key
Peter to its success early in the war. /../

Sorry, but that's not true AFAIK: the fact that it came as a
surprise to some of the Allies is not the same as the IJN keeping
it a strict secret. The IJN never considered it secret, using it
in China. Chennault wrote of this fighter in 1940 and 1941, and
the Chinese certainly knew of this successor to the Type 96
'Claude'.

The existance of the Zero wasn't a secret - the fact that the Japanese
had built a single-engine fighter that could fly from Taipei to Manila
and back was. That was certainly not apparent to anybody, and the IJN
wasn't advertising that fact.

A short range fighter with extremely high performance certainly wasn't
unexpected - consider teh case of the Curtiss CW-21 "Demon" - a
lightweight short-ranged interceptor that exceeded the A6M in climb
and agility. The KNIL had a bunch of them in Java. Without the
ability to be warned in time to get off the ground and into position,
it didn't do them a bit of good.

--
Pete Stickney
A strong conviction that something must be done is the parent of many
bad measures. -- Daniel Webster