dtango, lets use a contemporary example, Su27 and Cobra manouvre. It suddenly gains great AOA just pulling the stick violently and chopping throttle, the wings and body of the plane act like a big airbrake and the plane almost stops in the air pointing up. Being the Flanker smaller (smaller wings and body), the "brake" effect would be less noticeable. Now, at a much minor scale, that should be present also with WW2 planes.