Lockheed P-38 Lightning
The forked-tail devil the Germans called "der Gabelschwanz-Teufel."
Instantly recognisable with its twin booms and central nacelle, the P-38 was a radical design: twin-engine heavy fighter with turbochargers, tricycle landing gear, and all guns clustered in the nose for concentrated, unconvergent fire. It served in every theatre and in more roles than almost any other American fighter.
01Early combat in Europe exposed problems with high-altitude engine reliability and compressibility in dives. Later marks (J, L) fixed these issues with dive flaps, improved superchargers, and more powerful engines.
02The Lightning was supreme in the Pacific, where long overwater legs and its ability to return home on one engine paid dividends. America's two top-scoring aces — Richard Bong (40 kills) and Thomas McGuire (38) — both flew P-38s.
03P-38s executed Operation Vengeance on 18 April 1943 — the long-range intercept and shoot-down of Admiral Yamamoto's G4M "Betty" transport over Bougainville. Unarmed F-5 photo-reconnaissance variants flew some of the most important strategic intelligence missions of the war.
Theatres of operation
- ·Pacific
- ·Mediterranean
- ·Western Europe
- ·China-Burma-India
Principal operators
- ·USAAF
- ·Free French Air Force
Others in the same fight.
Supermarine Spitfire
Mk.I — Mk.24
Hawker Hurricane
Mk.I — Mk.IV
North American P-51 Mustang
P-51B / C / D / K
Republic P-47 Thunderbolt
P-47C / D / M / N