Btw the Story of the P-38 shooting down B-17 and B-24 is just a myth...
No, this is a true story. But only one B-17 was ever shot down.
"It happen in 1943, a P-38G flown by an inexperienced pilot landed by mistake at Capoterra airfield in Italy on the 12 of June 1943. The P-38 was transferred to the Regia Aeronautica's Test and Research Center at Guidonia. COL Tondi developed a plan to use the captured P-38 to intercept and destroy American bombers enroute to targets in Italy. The P-38G was in Italian national insignia and markings. On 11 Aug. 1943 COL tondi, with an escort of Macchi 202's, took off on the first mission. They felt that with the P-38 he would be able to close in on the bombers before his identity was discovered. A formation of Twelfth Air Force B-17's was spotted and Tondi attacked. A firing pass from the 5 o'clock position sent machine gun bullets and cannon shells into the starboard side of the last B-17. Two 20MM shells exploded inside the cockpit killing the co-pilot and starting a fire in the instrument panel. The 17 crashed in the sea near Torvajanica and the survivors took to their life rafts, being rescued the following day by a PBY. The crew reported to the startled Group Intelligence officer that they had been shot down by a rogue P-38. Warnings were immediately issued to the 12th Air Force Bomber Groups to be on the alert for a lone P-38. Any such aircraft approaching their formation was to be fired on. Fighter escort Groups issued instructions to P-38 Squadrons that fighters separated from their formations were to cease the practice of joining on bomber formations until the matter fo the rogue P-38 was resolver.
The Italian P-38 was used on several occasions to conduct further attacks on Allied bombers, but COL Tondi was unable to gain another victory with his Trojan P-38G. The use of lower octane Italian fuel eventually caused serious damage to the lighting's engine's finally grounding the P-38G. Tondi's single kill remains the only documented case of a captured American fighter flown by an enemy shooting down an American bomber."
This is word for word out of the Book: "Strangers In A Strange Land" by Hans-Heiri Stapfer. Squadron/signal publications.
Yes it did happen, but only one bomber was ever shoot down.
Jag 34 Dover Dawgs.
[ 10-01-2001: Message edited by: Jag34 ]
[ 10-02-2001: Message edited by: Jag34 ]
