In the early years, there can be only one choice for best WWII fighter plane:
The Japanese "Zero", officially the Mitsubishi A6M5, or Imperial Japanese Navy Type 0 carrier-borne fighter.
It is hard for us to understand just how dominant the Zero was in the early years of the Pacific War. No Allied plane could stand against it. This includes the British Spitfire and Hurricane, which were shipped to Australia fresh from their victory in the Battle of Britain, and slaughtered when they tried to dogfight with the Japanese Zero fighters. Obsolete Brewster Buffaloes, and the sleek looking but comparatively low performance Bell P-39 fared even worse. The best of the early American Army fighters was probably the Curtiss P-40, and the early models of this fighter were distinctly inferior to the Zero. At sea, the situation was hardly much better. The U.S. Navy's Grumman F4F Wildcat was out classed by the Zero, although it probably provided the best competition of any of the Allied fighter in the theater. Navy and Marine pilots used the stubby fighter's maneuverability to good advantage in the desperate early battles in the Pacific.
Not only could the Zero out fight any Allied fighter, it also out-ranged them. Many people do not realize that the Zero was the world's first long range escort fighter. Zeros flew long range bomber escort missions during the war in China, before the Pacific war even began, and throughout WWII Japanese carrier air groups out-ranged their US counterparts, primarily because of the great range of the Zero fighter.
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