Originally posted by LEADPIG
Some interesting pilot accounts i found from various books that survivng WW2 aces have written about their accounts with the P-38 during the war.
Wouldn't be complete without these excerpts from Roger Freeman's book on Zemke.
- oldman (I copied them down some years ago as part of an argument, might as well make them available for this one.)
From “Zemke’s Wolf Pack,” as told to Roger Freeman, Airlife Publishing Ltd. 1988, U.S. printing by Crown Publishers, Inc., ISBN 0-517-57330-X.
[On August 11, 1944 command of the 479th FG became available and was offered to Dave Schilling, the second in command of the 56th. Zemke told Schilling (at pp. 189-190):]
“I’ve got a group for you.” Dave’s face sparkled. “The 479th,” I continued. “Riddle went down.” There was an abrupt change of attitude: “Hell no, not P-38s.” I told him they were about to transition to P-51s but his disquiet at the prospect of commanding the 479th was expressed in a few choice four-letter words. This was the response I had anticipated. “Okay, Dave, I’ll tell you what we’ll do. You take the 56th and I’ll go to the 479th.”
[So Zemke took over the 479th. At pages 192-193:]
A careful look at the 479th’s operational record was a first step. The group had come to England in May [1944] and had set a record by going operational in eleven days, although I suspected it might have been hustled so as to have some missions under its belt by D-Day. In two and a half months the group had shot down ten enemy aircraft while losing some 35 of its own pilots killed or missing. True, most of the combat losses had been to ground fire during strafing raids. Even so, they appeared excessively high and I suspected a weakness in technique and general leadership.
A contributory factor to these high losses was the type of aircraft. The Lockheed P38 Lightning was heralded as a wonder fighter when it first appeared in 1939, faster than anything else in the sky, very manoeuvrable and with good firepower. It transpired that the design had some inherent weaknesses that were never fully overcome. The most serious was tail buffeting in high speed dives which led to restrictions that were a handicap in combat. Due to the peculiarities of the design aerodynamics, at very high speeds air flow over the cockpit and wing centre section became turbulent and hammered round the tailplane linking the two fuselage booms. Lockheed and the Air Force tried in vain to cure this: they never succeeded as far as I know.
A large plane for a fighter, the P-38 could turn as well as most single-engine interceptors at low altitudes and it had good speed. In the Pacific our people developed a successful technique of employing it against Japanese fighters with great success. It was popular there by virtue of its range being superior to other American pursuits available during the early war years and, with plenty of over-water flying, two engines were a comfort. The same should have applied in Europe but the operational circumstances and climatic conditions were different. Here the P-38 was a big flop, although the Air Force would never admit it as they believed their own propaganda.
The Allison engines were the main trouble. At low and medium altitudes they were fine, at high altitude they were hopeless. The design just couldn’t take the combination of extreme cold and high humidity that characterized flight over Europe, especially in winter. Engine failure had been rife during the winter of 1943-44 when the P-38s really began to see action. The position had improved, but they still were not 100 per cent. There was a standing joke that the P-38 was designed with two engines so you could come back on one. A P-38 mechanic’s life was not easy, the type demanded a hefty maintenance load.
There were several good points about the type. Without doubt it was an excellent gun platform. All five guns - four 50s and a 20 mm cannon - were in the nose compartment ahead of the pilot. This made the estimation of range much less critical as, unlike the P-47 and P-51 with their wing mounted guns, the fire didn’t converge.
[On August 25, 1944 the 479th flew a mission “way out near the Baltic coast.” At pages 196-197:]
On the same mission I experienced one of the P-38's known problems. We had just arrived above the B-24s we were to support when a small gaggle of Me 109s was seen below. Pressing the R/T button and giving my flight the order to follow me, an abrupt roll into a dive was made and as the speed built up the throttles retarded so as not to exceed the given dive limitations for the aircraft. To my astonishment both engines cut out. Thrusting the throttles open brought them to life again only to produce engine over-speeding. As I wrestled with the power settings the revolutions on one and then the other engine fluctuated wildly. All consideration of engaging the enemy in combat was given up as attempts were made to master the bucking Lightning. It took a great deal of sky and a much lower and warmer altitude to effect stability. What had happened was that the oil in the hydraulically controlled turbo-supercharger regulators had jellified in the low temperatures, the sluggish operation leading to imbalance. A not uncommon happening with P-38s in high-altitude operations over Europe. I wasn’t the only member of my group to fly home streaming blue smoke that day - the air was blue inside my cockpit too.
[About a week later the 479th began transitioning to P-51s.]
