"We can only reveal this now..." as the old newsreels might have said. Mid-1943... high above an airstrip somewhere in Australia. I imagine those present below grimaced again and again as the black-nosed Mitsubishi A6M3 fighter closed too easily for the "kill" at lower altitude. Somewhere else this would require letters be written to next-of-kin- but here, far behind the front, perhaps all that happened was that the "Zero" pilot (a bit too enthusiastically?) shouted "Ratatatata..." into his radio as the Spitfire dived away. This was a staged dogfight between a A6M3 reconstructed by the Technical Air Intelligence Unit and an RAAF Spitfire VC (Trop), this remarkable "airshow" saw the manual for Spitfires in the Pacific re-written, ironically to closely resemble tactics first used against "Zeroes" by the "Flying Tigers" and their gutsy Curtiss P40 Warhawks. But if everyone loved Spitfires, how could the RAAF ensure the test would be as close fought as possible? Easy, there was a RAAF P40 pilot at the controls of the Mitsubishi. Having no doubt endured too many tales in the mess about how the Spitfires back in Blighty could "dance..." there could only be one valid response from a P40 pilot at the controls of an A6M3 each time the Spitfire filled his sights... "Ratatatata..." Rendered in Vue 8 Esprit Assets Motokamishi's A6M3 with my attempt at a texture for TAIU's reconstructed "Hamp." Bazze's Spitfire Vb with my "Trop" filter and RAAF texture Thanks for viewing and comments