From page 44 of the 8th AF News June 2000
Lt.Gen Johnnes Steinhoff, Luftwaffe fighter pilot. 176 victories.
Interviewer: "Of all the Allied fighters you encountered, which was the most difficult to handle with a good pilot at the controls?"
Steinhoff: "The Lightning. It was fast, low profiled and a fantastic fighter, and a real danger when it was above you. It was only vunerable if you were behind it, a little below it and closing fast, or turning into it, but on attack it was a tremendous aircraft. One shot me down from long range in 1944. That would be the one, although the P-51 was deadly because of it's long range, and it could cover any base in Europe. This made things difficult, especially later when flying jets."
In a personal letter to Trevor Constable, Macky Steinhoff responds to a similar question:
"I would state, without reservation, that the toughest Allied fighter was the Lockheed Lightning. Many of my war time comrades have stated that they found the Lightning to be an easy victory. Perhaps this is true if you were able to attack without being detected. My experience has been that if the Lightning was attacking you, you were in serious trouble. The Lockheed was faster than our Messerschmitt of Focke Wulf. Never was I able to match this large fighter in a tight turn. When in trouble, a common tactic was to begin a tight climbing spiral. This was a sure method to dislodge the P-51 and the Thunderbolt. They could do nothing to counter this other than try quick shots at very poor angles. But, if you attemped to escape the Lightning by this method, you would be shot down in short order because the Lockheed could follow you while climbing at a greater angle and turning a much tighter spiral."
"In every encounter I had with the Lightning, I came away very thankful to be alive. When I recall that I was shot down by a Lockheed and had two of my ships damaged beyond repair on other occations, I am grateful to the Americans that these fighters were not deployed in greater
numbers."
Steinhoff has also written:
"....the Lightnings loomed up terrifyingly fast in front of me, and it was only for the space of seconds that I was able to get into firing position behind one on the outside of the formation. And, as if they had received prior warning, they swung around smartly as soon as I opened fire."
".... I tried to follow a Lightning's tight turn, but gravity pressed me down on my parachute with such force that I had trouble keeping my head in position to line up the sight on him... Then a shudder went through my aircraft as my leading edge flaps sprang out: I had exceeded the permissible gravity load."
".... If a Lightning turned into your attack, it was advisable to continue on
past. If you chose to try to follow the Lightning's turn, you would find the
American behind you within seconds. At this point, only poor gunnery would allow you to escape unharmed."
In his book, the First and the Last, Adolf Galland compared the P-38 to the Me 110. This is somewhat surprising when you consider that Galland never shot down a P-38 where the pilot saw him. In two instances, once he was sotted sneaking in, Galland had to fight like hell to escape the P-38.
Steinhoff commented on Galland's remarks:
"I cannot understand Galland's comments
on the Lightning, Especially when he was nearly killed by this fighter several times."
Lt.Col. John Lowell had an encounter with Galland while flying his P-38J-15-LO. The following is Lowell's account of the action,
courtesy of a friend.
(John Lowell's account of his fight with Galland P-38J vs Fw 190D-9)
"One of our last P38 missions was a flight to protect bombers
on a mission near Berlin. My squadron was flying top cover. We
were attacked from above, out of the sun by sixteen long nosed
FW 190s. I was alerted by a flight leader in our squadron. I saw
a flight of four Focke-Wulfs coming in from too high to effectively
fire on my flight so I quickly slowed the flight as we opened up
laterally for a defensive break and a head on attack that the
Germans never wanted when they were fighting P38s. The lead German
flight passed very close over me with throttles back trying to slow
down.
I looked up at the German plane. The pilot was looking down at
me as he eased ahead and close above me into sure death, unless he
could take violent evasive action. He split-Sed and I followed him.
He nearly got out of my sight because the P38 high-speed
compressibility problem kept me from staying with him in a vertical
dive. I stayed out of trouble by doing a vertical barrel roll to
pull several Gs and keep my speed under control. Finally he turned
to find me, and I cut across to close with him.
Then the fight started.
He was a fantastic, wild, talented pilot who pulled all the tricks
I had ever seen. But finally I got into a tight Lufbery with him
and used my clover-leaf surprise to get a few strikes. None of them
harmed the power unit. The long-nosed 190 had methyl injection that
was usable for ten-second spurts. Then a pilot had to quit using it
for a while because the twenty-six percent added boost to the engine
would burn it up if used too long. This pilot used his methyl
injection very advantageously to keep me from shooting him down.
When his methyl was gone, he dived to the deck and dropped into a
tar pit that was about 500 feet deep and wide enough to fly a fighter
in a tight turn. I got a few more strikes on him. A portion of his
vertical stabilizer and one wingtip flew off. Unfortunately I was
getting low on gas and had to break combat and head for the North Sea,
and England. After two more circles in the pit I pulled up and flew
away to the west. I looked back over my shoulder to see the FW-190
going the opposite way, waggling his wings as if to say, "I'll see
you tomorrow and we'll go at it again."
A few years ago the American Fighter Aces had their annual reunion
at Maxwell AFB near Montgomery, Alabama. The base commander invited
five of the top living German Aces. The first day I arrived in a
large hall where over one hundred Maxwell and AFA officers were
gathered. Ace Gabreski, the highest scoring living USAF ace, who is
a friend and a man that I admire to the hilt, was talking with the
German Aces, along with several other US Aces. One subject was the
German attitude and tactics relating to the P38. Gabby saw me come
to the opposite side of room, waved and hollered for me to come over.
He introduced me as the highest scoring P38 Aces in Europe.
When I shook hands with German General Adolf Galland, I said, "Adolf,
did you ever shoot down a P38?"
He said, "Yah, I shoot down eight."
Then I asked him if any of his pilots told him about a fight in a
long nosed FW190 in late 44 against a P38 that wound up in a huge
pit with water and two crashed P38s on the bottom. I described what
had happened and the strikes I got on the long nosed 190, then told
him that when I ran low on gas and had to leave, the German pilot had
waggled his wings as he flew away in the opposite direction. I was
using my hands and looking down as I talked and wasn't watching
Galland. When I looked up, he was pale white.
He said, "You son of a squeak! You dom neer keel me dat day!"
Holy Mackeral! All the pilots that heard our conversation bellowed
their surprise, including me. Adolf wouldn't let me out of his sight
for the rest of the day, asking me how I got the P38 to do what I had
explained was my clover leaf in a tight Lufbery "Fight to the death"
tactic. He wanted to know how I trained our pilots and had many
other questions about tactics."
Lt Col John H. Lowell 364th FG, 384th FS
More to follow at a later date.
My regards,
Widewing
