The P-39 is no slouch. While it's not a Spit or a Mustang it was just fine vs 190's and 109's below 15k in the African & Med. Theatre for the USAAF.
Extract from General Orders No. 86, War Department, Washington, D.C. 8 November 1944;"
"...citation of the following unit... is confirmed... in the name of the President of the United States as public evidence of deserved honor and distinction. The citation reads as follow:"
"The 350th Fighter Group is cited for outstanding performance of duty in action against the enemy in the Mediterranean Theatre of Operations on 6 April 1944. ......Although assigned exclusively to air defense and reconnaissance because its battle-worn and outmoded aircraft were considered dangerously inferior to enemy fighters, this group, realizing that certain primary targets could be effectively covered only by its own airplanes, voluntarily assumed full responsibility for this coverage. Of their own volition and in addition to their designated duties, personnel within the Group converted P-39 Aircraft into fighter bombers......"
".......While flying 10 missions, comprising 75 sorties, on this day the group, in the face of intense antiaircraft fire, destroyed 1 highway bridge and 2 railroad bridges, 2 air warning installation, 1 barracks building and 2 trucks, and inflicted many casualties on enemy personnel and heavy damage on numerous other military buildings and vehicles. Just as one flight of six P-39 dive bombers was completing an attack on enemy communications in the Grosseto-Pisa area, they were intercepted by 10 or more ME-109's and FW-190's. Gallantly ignoring the odds against them, and despite damage to their own aircraft, the P-39 pilots unhesitatingly turned into the larger hostile formation and attacked with such skill and determination that five enemy fighters were shot down, two were damaged and the remainder driven from the battle area. Elsewhere on the same day, elements of the 350th FG maintained vigilant fighter protection throughout their assigned areas, vigorously turning back enemy attacks upon Allied installations along the eastern Coasts of Corsica and Sardinia......"
