P 38 wish

[Avanti]

I wish that the P-38L could carry 2x 250lb and 2x 500lb on it's outer hardpoints, 2x 2000lb on it's inner hardpoints and 4x M10 three-tube 4.5 rockets like they used to be able to

Avanti

[gyrene81]

Are you sure it was able to carry that much ordnance at one time? Cite your sources.

[Avanti]

Well it's Maximum bomb load is 4000lb's

Maybe HTC could put in a new system that allows a larger variety of ordnance but restricts the weight?
Being able to carry 4 bombs would be great for gv killing and taking out small targets and having the 2000 pounders would be great for attacking cv groups and destroying hangers

Avanti

[cobia38]

  ah yes.....the lil bomber that could     next thing you will want is 4 50s and a 20 mm so you can dogfight in it too i supose  

[uptown]

Ahhh, you don't need all that crap on the wings. The soft sounds of Taps playing in the background while flying in a B38?...now that's a wish 

[oakranger]

And why do you want a P-38 to carried that kind of load? 

[Ack-Ack]

It was rare for a P-38L or any other P-38 for that matter to carry the 2,000lb bomb, pilots felt the 1,000lb bomb was more than sufficient.  Another note, just because a plane might have had the capacity to carry XX pounds of ordnance doesn't mean they actually did. 

Also, the P-38L utilized the "Christmas Tree" rocket mounts, not the tube mounts the earlier P-38 models used.


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[gyrene81]

I think junior has been mis-reading specifications. If you look real close in the hangar, you can carry 4 bombs and a good number of rocket...but the biggest bombs are 1000 lbs.

[Soulyss]

Yes the 38 could carry a heavier load than what is currently represented in game (including the ability to carry two torpedoes), but what we have in game is much more representative (as near as I can figure) to what WAS used.  

I just quickly flipped through Bodie's book on the 38, the 474th, 8th and 475th group histories and did not see any photo's of bombs being carried outside of the booms.  I will admit that if it was done it would probably have occurred in the MTO or ETO where the 38 was used more in the fighter-bomber role than seems to be the case in the PTO and my library here is a little thin on that subject (oh to have more disposable income...)  

I believe that 2000lbs were used on occasion but required sway braces to be fitted, weren't terribly popular with air and ground crews who felt the 1000lbers were easier to deal with and were sufficient to do the job in most cases.

I dropped a PM over to Guppy/Corkyjr to see if he has anything in his collection that may differ with what I've found.


 

[Vadjan-Sama]

Well it's Maximum bomb load is 4000lb's

Maybe HTC could put in a new system that allows a larger variety of ordnance but restricts the weight?
Being able to carry 4 bombs would be great for gv killing and taking out small targets and having the 2000 pounders would be great for attacking cv groups and destroying hangers

Avanti

Isn't about how much they can carry or the ordenance system on HTC, is about how they used them in WWII in real, this is the same like asking field mods on GV's... sorry I got like 1hr searching in inet for some reference about what u ask but I keep reading almost the same:

"The P-38L was the first Lightning fitted with zero-length rocket launchers. Seven high velocity aircraft rockets  (HVARs) on pylons beneath each wing, and later, ten rockets on each wing on "Christmas tree" launch racks. The P-38L also had strengthened stores pylons to allow carriage of 2,000 lb (900 kg) bombs or 300 USgal (1,100 l) drop tanks."

And nothing more, or maybe are you talking about some of those weird variants like the P-38L "Super Strafer"  but those ones are after the end of the war.

[Captain Virgil Hilts]

Such a loadout has never been available in AH I or AH II, at least best I can remember, having been here off and on for about a decade or so, so there is no "like they used to be able to".

There's no need for it, either. I suppose, as a compromise of sorts, the 2K# bombs could be made available, as I have seen pictures of them loaded. As stated above, few people liked them, but they were used. A pair of 2K# bombs and the "Christmas Tree" rockets would be plenty of ordnance, and almost certainly the maximum loadout used on any sort of "regular" basis. The case "could" be made that a damage increase due to a diving delivery could be given. For example, a 50% or more increase in damage to shipping due to diving delivery might be something to look at.

I doubt anyone would use such a loadout (as proposed in/by the OP), at least not more than once, even if it were available. You'd need a bomber length runway, and all of it, just to get it off the ground. You'd be so vulnerable that you would require a serious escort, and the climbout/air speed gain would be so long that no one would want to invest the time. The P-38L is already used as a suicide ordnance truck already anyway.

[Guppy35]

I wish that the P-38L could carry 2x 250lb and 2x 500lb on it's outer hardpoints, 2x 2000lb on it's inner hardpoints and 4x M10 three-tube 4.5 rockets like they used to be able to

Avanti

Which outer hardpoints are you referring to?  There were no outer wing hard points.  The rocket trees were on the L.  2000 pounds bombs were the max carried and that was very limited and on the wing hard points.  Again no outer wing hard points.

What you are asking never happened, never was, never could have been based on the 38s.  I'm curious where you got this idea from?

[Krusty]

I think it's a misunderstanding calling the field-mod bomb shackles "outer hardpoints"....

But overall the 2000lb bombs weren't used much, and neither were the 1000lb bombs. In real life the 250lb and 500lb bombs were way way way more common.

[oakranger]

Correct me on this if i am wrong.  Despite the paid load of the P-38, didn't the U.S. felt that the P-47 was more successful to ground attacks than the P-38.  Thus, not having the P-38 as a ground attack roll but more of air combat roll. 

[Ack-Ack]

Correct me on this if i am wrong.  Despite the paid load of the P-38, didn't the U.S. felt that the P-47 was more successful to ground attacks than the P-38.  Thus, not having the P-38 as a ground attack roll but more of air combat roll. 

I know many felt, along with the USAAF brass that the Jug was the better ground attack aircraft of the two but it didn't cause the P-38 to be pushed out of that role.  It was used to great affect as a ground attack aircraft in three of the four theaters of combat, so much so that in the tail end of the war that was primarily what the Lightning did.

The one thing I find ironic about this thread is that the dedicated P-38 flyers are the ones that are wholeheartedly against this wish, while the ones that don't fly it very much are in favor.


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