I suppose that most anyone with a deep – or even passing – interest in WW II aviation has their own, “favorite” aircraft. In my case, this has long been Lockheed’s P-38 Lightning. Perhaps the reason is the aircraft’s singularly distinctive design, configuration, and near art-deco-appearance, which by definition distinguished it from conventional single-seat, single-engine fighter aircraft. Alternatively, the reason could be simpler: As a former plastic modelling enthusiast, one of the first model kits I ever built (…to be honest, attempted to build…!) was Monogram’s 1/48 P-38, which was easily a multiply quantum jump over Aurora’s 1953 release. Monogram’s P-38 embodied that company’s realization (as it did for other kit manufacturers to greater or lesser degree) that plastic model kits were transitioning from crude, toy-like, knick-knack-ish approximations to – in terms of the manufacturing technology then becoming available – dimensionally accurate representations of original subjects, whether they were aircraft, military vehicles, automobiles, or spacecraft. Regardless, the P-38 was, is, and remains my favorite. (The P-51 Mustang? Ho-hum.)
Though my interest in the P-38 was not the impetus for my series of eleven blog posts about Major Milton Joel, who commanded the 55th Fighter Group’s 38th Fighter Squadron, my exploration of his life and fate inevitably entailed delving into the 55th’s use of this aircraft as an escort fighter, from October through November of 1943. It was in this regard that I recently discovered – at Greg’s Airplanes and Automobiles – his video “The P-38 Lightning and the Bomber Mafia’s Failure in World War Two”, which centers upon overlapping topics such as fighter range, Lockheed’s design and development of drop tanks, the adaptation and use of drop tanks by USAAF fighters, comparison of the P-38 with other USAAF in terms of range, and the varied perspectives of the “Bomber Mafia” concerning the very need for fighter escorts. Typical of Greg’s videos, his discussion is very thorough, detailed, and well-presented visually and informationally. He approaches this particular subject from vantage points encompassing the design, engineering, and use of drop tanks by the P-38 and other USAAF fighters, to pre- and early-war USAAF doctrine (ideology?!) concerning the very use of escort fighters, with the “human factor” not far behind.
You can view the video, uploaded on March 11, below.
And relevantly otherwise?
From my list of references in my posts about Major Joel, here are links to an article by Carlo Kopp – and several posts by Trent Telenko (at Chicago Boyz) – concerning the P-38, and, the use of fighter drop tanks by the 8th Air Force, with an interesting perspective on the P-51.
Dr. Carlo Kopp’s Der Gabelschwanz Teufel – Assessing the Lockheed L-38 Lightning (Technical Report APA – TR – 2010 – 1201), at Air Power Australia (ausairpower.net) (December, 2010; Updated April, 2012)
The P-51 Mustang Historical Narrative, American Fighter Drop Tanks, and Air Superiority over Nazi Germany
(Articles by Trent Telenko at Chicago Boyz)
History Friday – MacArthur’s Fighter Drop Tanks (July 12, 2013)
History Friday: Deconstructing the P-51 Mustang Historical Narrative (September 27, 2013)
History Friday – Revisiting the P-51 Mustang Historical Narrative (December 16, 2016)
Big Week, Day 5, Feb. 24, 1944, Plus 75 Years (February 24, 2019)
A Thumbnail History of the American Fighter Drop Tank 1923-2000 (April 7, 2019)
How Air Superiority Over Nazi Germany was Really Won (September 1, 2019)