Ivor, IIRC it was just before the fix came to be. Indeed the Bettys did mill around without doing anything overly destructive. I thought they were heading to one of the other fields or we "interrupted" them. Maybe we were their trigger and got off too quickly? The only damage was from the strafers. I got the Zero when he was coming off the target and I had about 4 thousand feet on him. (I used to cheat the all knowing AI by opening up just before convergence so they wouldn't break at the magic moment). Getting sniped was one of those "Oh, bullshit" moments. I was 90 degrees off the tail of that Betty probably 200 yards, bang, bang, oil all over the windscreen. I was lucky in being almost lined up on final so I got it on the ground before it quit. Any further out and I'd have chucked it and gotten another one.
Anyway, please keep writing those AARs. They are always first rate and an excellent read!