I had a guy do something similar not long ago. I had a P-38J, and was in enemy territory, at about 15-18K. I saw a Spit, a 16 I think, climbing to me. I actually let him get co-alt for a while and level for speed. When we merged, I went vertical and tried to take him up. He'd go up a little, then dive way trying to drag me down, probably hoping I'd lock up in a dive. I just went back up. This went on until I ran low of fuel 2 sectors from base. I had started with tanks and even held them, but let them go and ran the 50% internal. When I finally tired of him diving away, especially to a couple of friends, I climbed up and rtb'd. I waited till I got to base to descend, and spiraled down with about 3 -5 minutes of fuel left. As I came out of the spiral and burned enough speed to land, here comes the Spit for the vulch. I throttled up to WEP and tried to turn into him, but I was down to around 75 knots and at idle when I saw him. He went for a from quarter shot (looking for the HO) and I pinged him as he went by, and the AAA finished him. But wait, there's more. His buddies both showed up to try for the vulch, I shot one down, and one augered trying to HO me, so I landed three kills. Sad, but sort of funny, I guess. I had film, but I can't get it until I rescue my old hard drive.