Oops dropped out before it was sent - lucky I kept it...

Actually the Spitfire is unfortunately somewhat overrated - the Hurricane was in far greater numbers and shot down far more, especially during the Battle of Britian, it was gradually overtaken by the Spit, which was gradually outclassed by US models.

The 'best' kept changing as new developments kept happening.

The 'best fighter' at the end of the European war was the long range drop-tank US job...

There were several contenders in the Pacific too. The Zero was great in the beginning, but was eventually outclassed.

The Lanc carried far more payload than the B17 - later B models were more used in the Pacific.