Thanks to lyric1 for his usual sleuthing to get info on this one.
This is P-38L-1-LO "Little Redhead II" (s/n 44-24008) of the 318th FG 73rd FS, 7th AF on Saipan. The pilot of this aircraft is unknown but a 27 November 1944 photo caption showing three pilots in front of it lists them as Lieutenants Heagney, McCaul, and Shepard (Lt. McCaul was later KIA.) The saga of the P-38s in this squadron is quite interesting and the photo documentation in a couple of the stories (a dual engine failure followed by a bailout and rescue; a pilot hit by flak and flying nearly five hours to home base on one engine with a hole in the wing; a pilot hit by flak and nearly losing the entire left tail boom but for a few bits of sheet metal, etc.) is fascinating.
During 1944 the 318th was equipped with Republic P-47D Thunderbolts and during the Marianas campaign, working closely with Marine ground forces, advanced the concept of close infantry support and the tactical use of napalm. On Saipan the 318th (along with the 21st Fighter Group on Iwo Jima) was one of the only Army Air Force units to engage in ground combat. The squadrons of the 318th Fighter Group were attacked by Japanese ground forces in June 1944 on Aslito Airfield, Saipan (later named Isley Field), sustaining some casualties.
Although known primarily as a P-47 Thunderbolt outfit, they would acquire P-38s for Very-Long-Range (VLR) escort missions having destroyed all air opposition within range of their current equipment.
The 318th was the first unit to receive the new long range P-47Ns in early 1945 before moving to Okinawa on Ie Shima.
Airmen of the Seventh AF pioneered Very Long Range (VLR) fighter operations across the Pacific with missions of historic length and duration: Kauai to Midway Atoll, Midway to Kaneohe and Makin to Jaluit and Maloelap. By late 1944, Lockheed P-38s of the 318th were routinely flying missions to Truk and Iwo Jima from Saipan—1,500-mile (2,400 km), 8-hour trips. And by 1945, with new long range P-47Ns, VLR sorties were the rule rather than the exception for the Seventh's fighters.
During the summer of 1945, the 318th Fighter Group was reassigned to the Twentieth Air Force and continued its fighter sweeps against Japanese airfields and other targets, in addition to flying long-range B-29 escort missions to Japanese cities, until the end of the war. On 13 August 1945, the 318th flew 1,680 statute miles (2,700 km) from le Shirna to Tokyo and back, an 8½ hour non-stop flight.
The 318th Group was officially credited with 164 air combat victories by 15 August cease fire, with 5 pilots shot down by enemy planes.
