Originally posted by bbosen
Ah.... yes. P38s rarely fought P51s. Interestingly, there is at least one well-documented record of a P38 that attacked several B17s (and some B25s and B24s I think). It had been captured by an Italian who flew with the Axis powers and it was devastating because the American airmen who saw it coming didn't know it was flown by the enemy. The story of the way the Americans eventually tracked this guy down and defeated him is amazing (they baited him with nose art showing his WIFE, who was living in an Italian city that had been liberated).
Anyway....
You also asked "how did you make the gunfire look so real"?
Are you talking about MY gunfire at Pigface? Or his gunfire at me?
-Peabody-
Might want to get that hook out of your mouth as it is a false story.
http://64.233.187.104/search?q=cache:gDkYQDVZD04J:[url]www.aviation-booklist.com/interviews/ferdinando.html[/url]
Booklist:
In Martin Caidin's "Fork-Tailed Devil: The P38" he recounts an incident regarding a captured P38 flown by a Captain Rossi and American intelligence efforts to lure it to destruction by means of his wife's picture painted on the nose of a YB-40. Please separate fact from fiction and give the true details of this "incident."
Ferdinando D'Amico:
Personally, I think people are probably bored with this topic, but you're doing right by discussing it in hopes that it might be possible to set the record straight once or all (I doubt we'll be successful as fiction is always more fascinating than facts, at least many think so...).
The whole matter is a textbook example of how "hearsay", stereotypes and no research could lead to a completely fabricated history.
The article (and later or earlier, the book and chapter) of Martin Caidin, was nothing else than the reprint of an even older article by Glenn Infield titled "One Of Our Own Planes Is Shooting Us Down!" (sic) and I must confess that IMHO it is the kind of "historical" research that causes more damage to history than anything else.
The P-38 mentioned in Caidin's "story" was captured on 12 June 1943 in Sardinia where a ferrying US pilot landed by mistake due to the malfunctioning of the compass. Thus, it became "property" of the Regia Aeronautica and was soon brought to the Italian Test Center of Guidonia (near Rome). This aircraft was flown - with Italian markings - by Col. Angelo Tondi (Chief test pilot of the center) in the Summer of 1943 in half a dozen scrambles against USAAF bombers attacking Rome and Central Italian targets.
On 11 August 1943 Col. Tondi intercepted off the coast the B-17F s/n 42-30307 of 419th BS, 301st BG and shot it down at 12.00 hrs*. This was the only successful interception completed by this aircraft and soon after the P-38 was grounded due to the bad quality of the Italian petrol that had corroded the fuel tanks.
* (cfr. Missing Air Crew Report n.490 available at the US National Archives - I own a copy of it)
All the above is also proved by photographic evidence, by the accounts of Col. Tondi and by the documents of the Guidonia Test Center reporting all the scrambles effected by the P-38. This material is available to researchers at the Italian Air Force Historical Branch, where I consulted it personally.
The "Captain Guido Rossi", the YB-40 and the soap-opera story of the former romance between the wife of the YB-40 pilot and the Italian pilot (!!) clearly are a joke, or should be... instead they were taken seriously and developed a life of their own. This should tell us a lot about the dangers of writing and spreading information that has not been checked or researched.
Unfortunately, not everyone is willing to accept this or to behave accordingly...
