Cracking the Zero Mystery: How the U.S. Learned to Beat Japan’s Vaunted WWII Fighter Plane

For six months after Pearl Harbor the nimble Japanese Zero-sen plane dominated the Pacific air war. Then, on June 4, 1942 a Zero crashed on tiny Akutan Island in the Aleutians. It lay there for five weeks until spotted by an American plane. Hauled back to California, the Zero revealed its secrets in a series of tests and analyses. Fast, but lacking protection for the pilot as well as a self-sealing gas tank which all U.S. planes had, the Zero lost its predominance for the rest of the war. Rearden tells for the first time in detail the exciting events leading to this crucial intelligence breakthrough, as important as the breaking of the Japanese naval code. An appendix analyzes the vital statistics of the Zero versus U.S. planes.