he vowed to change the name of the ladder's top tongue, rubbal to rubble. destroying it wouldn't be easy. for the first six months of the war, the zero fighter ruled the skies over the pacific. >> it could climb like an angel and was very nimble at most speeds. the lower speed the better. so it could basically turn on a dime. >> the zero was battle tested over china more than a year before pearl harbor. it proved to be a lethal fighter. >> the place you got killed is when they were climbing out. when you got over their base before they had organized their squadrons into formation. >> 22-year-old lieutenant jack bolts saw his first zero in september of '43 and learned that dogfighting one on one in close quarters rarely ended well. >> most of the time you got in behind one, they would see you getting into that shooting position and they would break away and we didn't follow them. we never did. it was fatal to do so. >> japanese pilots favored a defensive technique. >> sometimes there would be a mess of planes making a big circle. so each person protected the