From: (WaltBJ)

Dutch Roll, on purpose - use ailerons to roll the airplane from side
to side while using coarse rudder to yaw the nose in the direction of
roll. (Sort of a reverse to a falling leaf maneuver.) The aircraft
tail describes a horizontal figure eight, size depending on pilot's
energy. Accidentally - some aircraft will do this by themselves if
given the right conditions. (707/KC135 on final following gross use
of aileron to correct heading; F102 with a failed yaw damper at
transsonic speeds.) This maneuver can give problems to a fighter not
right on one's tail. The lead required to hit a crossing target is
generally quite underestimated by inexperienced gunners. Also, IMHO
the Zero pilots generally used the MGs to determine proper lead by
hitting the target - then brought in the 20 mms. No doubt the pilot in
question jinked wildly and irregularly and his pursuer didn't close in
for a kill so obviously the maneuver worked.
Walt BJ

That probably nails it.
The pilot in question, Edwin Gilmore, earned his wings in 1940, flew P-26As
before transitioning to P-35As. He had been flying P-40Bs for several months
when the combat in question happened. His flight leader was Joe Moore, in
later years CO of the 4th Tactical Fighter Wing. Moore, Gilmore and Randall
Keator scrambled from Clark, intercepted 9 Zeros of the Tainan Kokutai, led by
Sachio Maki. Moore attacked Maki and Maki's wingman, Yoshio Hirose, came after
Moore. Keator shot down Hirose, killing him, as confirmed after the war, and
then the whole Zero formation, according to Gilmore, "exploded like a covey of
quail" and the P-40Bs became definitely on the defensive, but none were shot
down or even hit (although Gilmore thought that he had been during the fight).
Gilmore on a later date shot down a Zero directly over Del Carmen Field. He
went with a group of other pilots to Australia at the end of the month to
collect more P-40s to bring back to the Philippines, but they were diverted to
Java. After being driven out of there, he helped out in Australia for a while,
briefing incoming crews on what to expect from the Japanese, returned to the
States to a training command, then did a second tour in the MTO.


Chris Mark