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Mitsubishi A6M Zero
The quality of Japanese aircraft came as an unpleasant surprise to the Allies at the outbreak of the Pacific War, and it was personified in one type, the Mitsubishi A6M Zero.
One of the finest aircraft of all time, the Mitsubishi A6M Reisen (Zero fighter) first flew on 1 April 1939. It soon showed itself to be clearly superior to any fighter the Allies could put into the air in the early stages of the Pacific campaign. Armed with two 20mm cannon and two 7.7mm machine-guns, it was highly maneuverable and structurally very strong, despite being lightweight.
Instead of being built in several separate units, the Zero was revolutionary in that it was constructed in two pieces. The engine, cockpit and forward fuselage combined with the wings to form one rigid unit; the second part comprised the rear fuselage and the tail. The two units were joined by a ring of 80 bolts. Although the Mitsubishi Zero had some serious drawbacks in combat, the greatest of which was its inability to absorb punishment because of its lack of self-sealing fuel tanks and armor plating, its greatest assets were its maneuverability and its long range.
In 1942 the Americans allocated the code-name Zeke to the A6M, but as time went by the name Zero came into general use. During the first months of the Pacific War, the Zeros carved out an impressive combat record. For example, in the battle for Java alone, which ended on 8 March 1942, they destroyed 550 Allied aircraft. As the war progressed, however, the Zero gradually came to be outclassed by American fighters such as the Grumman F6F Wildcat and Vought Corsair. In the latter months, many were fitted with bombs and expended in Kamikaze suicide attacks.
This book provides a perfect introduction to the design and combat career of a fighter that made history. Why was the Zero conceived? What was it like to fly in combat? How did it compare with Allied types? Who were the engineers and designers who brought it to fruition and the pilots who became aces while flying it? Here is a feast for the modeler, with a wealth of technical information, photographs and color profiles.
One of the finest aircraft of all time, the Mitsubishi A6M Reisen (Zero fighter) first flew on 1 April 1939. It soon showed itself to be clearly superior to any fighter the Allies could put into the air in the early stages of the Pacific campaign. Armed with two 20mm cannon and two 7.7mm machine-guns, it was highly maneuverable and structurally very strong, despite being lightweight.
Instead of being built in several separate units, the Zero was revolutionary in that it was constructed in two pieces. The engine, cockpit and forward fuselage combined with the wings to form one rigid unit; the second part comprised the rear fuselage and the tail. The two units were joined by a ring of 80 bolts. Although the Mitsubishi Zero had some serious drawbacks in combat, the greatest of which was its inability to absorb punishment because of its lack of self-sealing fuel tanks and armor plating, its greatest assets were its maneuverability and its long range.
In 1942 the Americans allocated the code-name Zeke to the A6M, but as time went by the name Zero came into general use. During the first months of the Pacific War, the Zeros carved out an impressive combat record. For example, in the battle for Java alone, which ended on 8 March 1942, they destroyed 550 Allied aircraft. As the war progressed, however, the Zero gradually came to be outclassed by American fighters such as the Grumman F6F Wildcat and Vought Corsair. In the latter months, many were fitted with bombs and expended in Kamikaze suicide attacks.
This book provides a perfect introduction to the design and combat career of a fighter that made history. Why was the Zero conceived? What was it like to fly in combat? How did it compare with Allied types? Who were the engineers and designers who brought it to fruition and the pilots who became aces while flying it? Here is a feast for the modeler, with a wealth of technical information, photographs and color profiles.
96 pages, Paperback
Published January 18, 2021
About the author
Robert Jackson
239 books54 followersRobert Jackson was born in 1941 in the North Yorkshire village of Melsonby. A former pilot and navigation instructor, his active involvement with aviation lasted many years. Following his retirement from the RAFVR in 1977 as a squadron leader, he became a full-time aviation writer and aerospace correspondent and lectured extensively on strategic issues. He speaks five languages, including Russian, and has written more than forty nonfiction works on military affairs. He is also the author of the popular Yeoman and SAS fiction series.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
March 23, 2021
When I was a wee boy growing up in the 70s, the auld men who’d been in The War mentioned only one Japanese warplane to join the usual discussion of Spitfires and Me109s: the Zero. The men who’d fought in the Far East said they feared it like no other weapon of war. That memory flooded back to me when I opened Robert Jackson’s new book on the A6M Zero. It turns out that there was much more, or maybe less, to the Zero than the auld men spoke of.
The Japanese were slow starters in developing warplanes after World War I, but by the 1930s they were catching up fast spurred on by their growing involvement in China. Jackson points out that evolution paralleled the growth of Japan’s carrier fleet. In 1935, the Japanese Navy introduced a home designed monoplane, the A5M, and the following year the army’s Ki.27 flew for the first time. That would become the standard Japanese Army Airforce (JAAF) fighter until 1942. Jackson surveys the Japanese learning on the job against the Chinese and Soviets in Manchuria where they came off worse against the Soviet planes. The Navy, meanwhile, needed a fighter to escort its bombers in China, and the A6M Zero fit the bill nicely.
Jackson gets into the specifications for the new fighter, which contained some innovative ideas to keep the weight down while producing an elegant, uncomplicated machine. The Navy Zero first saw action in China in August 1940 with stunning results against now obsolete Chinese Soviet-built fighters. The air superiority of the Zero went ominously unnoticed in the West where they were too busy with their own affairs to notice the looming threat. But they noticed them well enough, and to America’s horror, at Pearl Harbor in December 1941, though the Zeros did not get it all their own way against US fighters, perhaps a harbinger of things to come. When the Zeros attacked in the Philippines at around the same time, the Americans in their P-40s quickly developed tactics to at least put them in the fight. Other Allied warplanes fared less well against the nimble Zeros. Jackson follows the victorious Japanese squadrons around the Pacific as the war intensified, and into the Indian Ocean against the British in early 1942. But in May and June 1942, the tides of war were about to change.
Japanese naval ascendancy crumbled at Coral Sea and collapsed at Midway. That became evident over the following months. This was the time when US Wildcats took on the Zeros with innovative tactics while correctly assessing that the Japanese pool of pilots was wearing thin – Jackson also notes how the Americans used captured Zeros to work out their weaknesses for new tactics. The US was also about to bring in new planes that finally tipped the scales for good, most notably the Corsair and Hellcat. In June 1944, the Marianas Turkey Shoot proved American dominance. In desperation, the Japanese launched kamikaze attacks, of which many were in Zeros, but all that did was waste men and machines. Jackson briefly mentions captured Zeros used by other nations after the war and lists the top Japanese aces.
So much for the history of the Zero. Jackson dwells a bit too much on context and the Allies fighting the Zeros rather than the Zero pilots in success and failure, but that is not a significant flaw in a book of this kind. The joy of this book, however, is in the artwork and modelling sections. The colour illustrations of Zeros are out the top drawer as are the many photographs of them. Jackson’s modelling section is thorough with a history of model kits and photographs of some of them built to extraordinarily high standards. Modellers interested in building a Zero will love this book, while those of us who just enjoy the aesthetics of the plane and want some background on it will enjoy this book too.
The Japanese were slow starters in developing warplanes after World War I, but by the 1930s they were catching up fast spurred on by their growing involvement in China. Jackson points out that evolution paralleled the growth of Japan’s carrier fleet. In 1935, the Japanese Navy introduced a home designed monoplane, the A5M, and the following year the army’s Ki.27 flew for the first time. That would become the standard Japanese Army Airforce (JAAF) fighter until 1942. Jackson surveys the Japanese learning on the job against the Chinese and Soviets in Manchuria where they came off worse against the Soviet planes. The Navy, meanwhile, needed a fighter to escort its bombers in China, and the A6M Zero fit the bill nicely.
Jackson gets into the specifications for the new fighter, which contained some innovative ideas to keep the weight down while producing an elegant, uncomplicated machine. The Navy Zero first saw action in China in August 1940 with stunning results against now obsolete Chinese Soviet-built fighters. The air superiority of the Zero went ominously unnoticed in the West where they were too busy with their own affairs to notice the looming threat. But they noticed them well enough, and to America’s horror, at Pearl Harbor in December 1941, though the Zeros did not get it all their own way against US fighters, perhaps a harbinger of things to come. When the Zeros attacked in the Philippines at around the same time, the Americans in their P-40s quickly developed tactics to at least put them in the fight. Other Allied warplanes fared less well against the nimble Zeros. Jackson follows the victorious Japanese squadrons around the Pacific as the war intensified, and into the Indian Ocean against the British in early 1942. But in May and June 1942, the tides of war were about to change.
Japanese naval ascendancy crumbled at Coral Sea and collapsed at Midway. That became evident over the following months. This was the time when US Wildcats took on the Zeros with innovative tactics while correctly assessing that the Japanese pool of pilots was wearing thin – Jackson also notes how the Americans used captured Zeros to work out their weaknesses for new tactics. The US was also about to bring in new planes that finally tipped the scales for good, most notably the Corsair and Hellcat. In June 1944, the Marianas Turkey Shoot proved American dominance. In desperation, the Japanese launched kamikaze attacks, of which many were in Zeros, but all that did was waste men and machines. Jackson briefly mentions captured Zeros used by other nations after the war and lists the top Japanese aces.
So much for the history of the Zero. Jackson dwells a bit too much on context and the Allies fighting the Zeros rather than the Zero pilots in success and failure, but that is not a significant flaw in a book of this kind. The joy of this book, however, is in the artwork and modelling sections. The colour illustrations of Zeros are out the top drawer as are the many photographs of them. Jackson’s modelling section is thorough with a history of model kits and photographs of some of them built to extraordinarily high standards. Modellers interested in building a Zero will love this book, while those of us who just enjoy the aesthetics of the plane and want some background on it will enjoy this book too.
September 16, 2025
extremely detailed
A bit spotty. The text is really about the Pacific war from the Allied perspective, rather than the Zero’s role in it. Still, a very nice book. The treatment of the model kits of the Zero is simply astounding.
A bit spotty. The text is really about the Pacific war from the Allied perspective, rather than the Zero’s role in it. Still, a very nice book. The treatment of the model kits of the Zero is simply astounding.
April 14, 2023
One of the most iconic aircraft of the Second World War is undoubtedly the Japanese Zero. This aircraft, extremely fast and maneuverable given its small size, was also heavily armed at least for the first part of the war. The appearance of this aircraft, combined with the experience of the Japanese pilots, gave a fair margin in air clashes during the first years of the war.
The book I am presenting to you today is part of a series that I appreciate more and more for the choice of subjects and contents. Flight Craft is in fact a series of the Pen & Sword publishing house which, like its counterparts TankCraft, LandCraft and ShipCraft, combines an excellent iconographic apparatus with the history of the vehicles (in the case of FlightCraft aircraft) and a very conspicuous part of the book focuses on the creation of models in scale of the subject treated. In this case, with the Zero I believe that the author has chosen to insist on the great variety of models available and to analyze in depth the quality and defects of all the kits available.
Robert Jackson, the prolific author of these series, also treats the historical part of the plane well, but if I have to find a fault, perhaps he uses allied sources too much, neglecting Japanese ones. In this case, therefore, we are faced with the exploits of the allied pilots against the Zero and not vice versa. But it is a small flaw that does not detract from the rest of the book.
Unfortunately it is known that the photos of the Japanese side are often ruined or unclear, but in this case they make up for many photos of Zero (of all versions) captured on the ground (most of them) or fully functional. Interesting is the story of the Zero recovered in the Aleutians and then deeply analyzed by the American forces to evaluate its strengths and weaknesses.
The central part of the book is always the one dedicated to the profiles of the plane with color drawings of this magnificent and iconic plane. There are also some captured versions.
The most substantial part of the book, however, is dedicated to the kits available on the market in various scales (1/72, 1/48, 1/32, 1/24). The plane, being one of the most popular and famous in history, has been reproduced in all scales (even the huge 1/24!) And above all by Japanese brands, although the first kits available were not state of the art. However Hasegawa and Tamiya (and other manufacturers) have remedied with some fantastic new kits that faithfully reflect the Zero and its dimensions and proportions.
The assembled kits are the most important part of the book and here we see the author at work in different scales. Particularly impressive is the latest 1/24 scale creation in which Jackson gives advice on how to improve the already beautiful model of the Trumpeter. The result can be seen in the last photos of the book.
What more can I say? The Zero (or Zeke) of Mitsubishi has been the subject of many books and memoirs (one above all "Samurai" by the ace Saburo Sakai) as well as films such as the beautiful "Eien No 0" or in UK "The Fighter Pilot" and it represents one of the immediately recognizable aircraft, with its clean line, of the Second World War. In this beautiful book the focus is more on the creation of splendid models of the aircraft in various scales than on the operational history and its pilots. All that remains is to make the most of Jackson's book and precious advice and try your hand at assembling and painting a little Zero!
The book I am presenting to you today is part of a series that I appreciate more and more for the choice of subjects and contents. Flight Craft is in fact a series of the Pen & Sword publishing house which, like its counterparts TankCraft, LandCraft and ShipCraft, combines an excellent iconographic apparatus with the history of the vehicles (in the case of FlightCraft aircraft) and a very conspicuous part of the book focuses on the creation of models in scale of the subject treated. In this case, with the Zero I believe that the author has chosen to insist on the great variety of models available and to analyze in depth the quality and defects of all the kits available.
Robert Jackson, the prolific author of these series, also treats the historical part of the plane well, but if I have to find a fault, perhaps he uses allied sources too much, neglecting Japanese ones. In this case, therefore, we are faced with the exploits of the allied pilots against the Zero and not vice versa. But it is a small flaw that does not detract from the rest of the book.
Unfortunately it is known that the photos of the Japanese side are often ruined or unclear, but in this case they make up for many photos of Zero (of all versions) captured on the ground (most of them) or fully functional. Interesting is the story of the Zero recovered in the Aleutians and then deeply analyzed by the American forces to evaluate its strengths and weaknesses.
The central part of the book is always the one dedicated to the profiles of the plane with color drawings of this magnificent and iconic plane. There are also some captured versions.
The most substantial part of the book, however, is dedicated to the kits available on the market in various scales (1/72, 1/48, 1/32, 1/24). The plane, being one of the most popular and famous in history, has been reproduced in all scales (even the huge 1/24!) And above all by Japanese brands, although the first kits available were not state of the art. However Hasegawa and Tamiya (and other manufacturers) have remedied with some fantastic new kits that faithfully reflect the Zero and its dimensions and proportions.
The assembled kits are the most important part of the book and here we see the author at work in different scales. Particularly impressive is the latest 1/24 scale creation in which Jackson gives advice on how to improve the already beautiful model of the Trumpeter. The result can be seen in the last photos of the book.
What more can I say? The Zero (or Zeke) of Mitsubishi has been the subject of many books and memoirs (one above all "Samurai" by the ace Saburo Sakai) as well as films such as the beautiful "Eien No 0" or in UK "The Fighter Pilot" and it represents one of the immediately recognizable aircraft, with its clean line, of the Second World War. In this beautiful book the focus is more on the creation of splendid models of the aircraft in various scales than on the operational history and its pilots. All that remains is to make the most of Jackson's book and precious advice and try your hand at assembling and painting a little Zero!
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews