It is clear, the best was the USAAF, but with the necessary remarks for sure.
There is no doubt the arrival of the USAAF in Europe was the factor that made the grass look greener for the allied cause.
Now, the Mustang...sure, a fine aircraft manned by very well trained pilots; overhyped to some extent for sure, since it was not necessarily the ultimate marvel to fly the unfriendly skies.
Nobody will deny for sure that this particular fighter made an important contribution, perhaps essential, to get the job done. What type of job? Simple: cut bomber losses. "Seeking and destroying" the Luftwaffe wherever it could be found came later. There lies the importance of the P-51.
I agree your comments here but would add some of my own
I think "The order" was issued by Doolittle on January 11,1944 which co-incided with the Pioneer Mustang becoming officially operational in long range escort role - so actually the strategy coincided approximately with the introduction of the P-51B in ETO. Clearly the Capability to Seek and Destroy was somewhat limited - but setting the tone that both escort AND seeking out the Luftwaffe had equal priority
Now, was it that technically and technologically superior? I do not think so.
This has been debated ad nausem. It was a superb Fighter with advanced capabilities in air combat over Germay. Better in some cases, equivalent in others and inferior in a few - but possesing those qualities East of Berlin or West of Hannover - wherever it encountered German fighters.
Was it technically superior at bomber escort altitudes - pilot skill equivalent - over Me109G's and Fw 190 A's? Yes.
At low and medium altitudes? in some ways yes others no. The Fw190 would always outroll the 51 and turn with it, and the 109 would out turn it at medium to low speed and certainly climb as well or better in this regime
What is really important is the equivalency to slight superiority of the P-51 in 1944, combined with increasing populations of good to excellent fighter pilots flying them, combined with restrictive Command policies of Luftwaffe - enabling relatively small numbers to turn the control of air over Germany to US
To emphasize a point - it was not the best dogfighter in the world, not even in the ETO, not even in the US arsenal (i.e F4U, F8F)
While German losses could have a more profound impact in the ranks of the Luftwaffe, referring to the ability to replace lost/crippled pilots with the same number of properly trained ones, the losses the USAAF had to swallow were not less terrible in their impact, at all.
This is very true in fall of 1943 and winter 1943/1944. In all the 8th AF losses were roughly equivalent to US losses in Battle of Bulge - majority of which occurred before D-Day. The 8th AF losses during WWII were close to USMC to put the fury of that fight in perspective. However, the greatest bomber (and bomber crew) losses occurred in that period of 8/43 to 5/44.
The greatest fighter losses (majority of POW/KIA/MIA) occurred after D-Day due primarily to German flak, not fighters.
The war ended pretty much when it had to end for the USAAF; they could not go on bearing such losses indifinitely.
Very debateable for spring 1945. Arguable for scenario in which the Mustang failed and losses experienced through May, 1944 continued apace with no let up - that would have posed serious political consequences and may have forced USAAF to switch to night bombing.
The failure to wrest control of German air space coupled with determination to take losses would have serious consequences. But remember the US only mobiled some 14 million of its 140 Million plus population and cut off production of most equipment in late 1944 - it had huge reserves left given political will
If the Mustang had made the superb out-of-this-world craft depicted here and there, then 0% of the Bf 109 G-6/R6 bomber destroyers it confronted would have made it back to base.
You are straying a wee bit into the twilight zone here. That would suppose that the Mustang was always in sufficient strength in the right place to a.) blunt the attack, b.) have the numbers to keep track of surviving 109s in good weather or bad, c.) chase all of them until the caughts up, etc. There were NEVER enough Mustangs to fit that scenario
The converse comment would be if the 109D was such a great fighter it would have always prevailed, or Me 262, etc.??
Overall, ~70% of those G-6/R6s made it back to base after engaging the enemy, a fact the includes the fierce battles against the escorts of the bombers they tried to hunt down.
Sure that ~30% losses is a critical factor, and also means losing the war in the air.
Also my guncamera collection which was acquired in the under-world of the black markets of Moscow has taught me important lessons regarding the alleged "superb-unmatched" technical capabilities of the P-51.
Again a little over the top - the implication is that all the gun camera flim showing me 262s out of the air should teach you important lessons regarding the technical qualities of the Me262?? or Fw190. The world's finest, or great, or simply excellent sword is only as good as the wielder.
Featuring some 85 shots of Mustangs getting barbecued -pilot included- by the guns and cannons of Bf 109s and Fw 190s -and possibly a Me 262- i am more than convinced that putting aside bouncing the enemy (neither knew nor saw what killed him), there were so many Mustang pilots that tried to get the best out of their planes and found themselves uncapable to shake off the German boy pursuing them.
Ditto LW pilots in far greater numbers than the Mustang, with the uncountable examples of Fw190's (including D's) and 109s being out turned, or out climbed, deflection attained.. and aircraft blowing up - and the point is? - in both cases soembody was out flown and paid a terrible price
The vast majority of those P-51s getting shot down are P-51 D´s, you know German pilots tried to get as close as possible to ensure a kill, an indication most of the material came from German pilots flying during late 1944 and 1945.
The vast majority of the film examples perhaps, but the D's arrived in late May and June 1944 not late 1944. For my father's group, the ratio of 51D to 51B in September was probably 5:1, in December probably 10:1.
The 355th FG isn't particularly unique but it lost exactly 9 Mustangs and pilots to 'Unknown" or "confirmed air to air" or "collided with debris from destroyed German fighter" after June 7, 1944 (when it lost three to JG11). Prior to June 8 it lost 30. The same statistics for flak is 65 after June 7, 23 prior.
Actually 85 P-51s might represent the sum of nearly ALL the USAAF MUstangs shot down in Dec 1944 -VE Day period. It won't be much more than that, possibly double but I would have to check
You could also.
Kent Miller did a very good job of compiling awards and losses for 8th Fighter Command during WWII. There are errors in it but given the magnitude of the effort it is well done. I used that as a basis to analyze all the Fighter Groups with respect to scores, losses/types of losses to rank each group in 'air to air' ratios, efficiency in context of number of German a/c destroyed per mission, etc. When I did my own analysis of his loss records, any place he recorded an 'unknown' where German fighters were present I chose to record as 'air to air combat loss' rather than skew the losses too low against the LW.
You may not be suprised but the 56th FG (in P-47s) had the best air to air ratio closely followed by 357th FG and 354th FG (in P-51s) at nearly 12:1. The worst is about 2:1
The awards are based on USAF 85 and the losses based on MACR's. Overclaiming and awards are always a problem (for all air forces) but this is best historical approach..
As shown on Kurfurst´s excellent webpages, speed was marginally affected due to fitting the 109s with the MG 151/20 cannons under the wings, with a more considerable -negative- impact regarding manouverability of the craft.
Yes, and many Mustangs were handicapped with nearly full fuselage tank or wing cells, depending on the timing of combat.. so you fight or flee, depending on your circumstances, right??? 109's so equipped are at a disadvantage in an even fight - true. Is this posed as an excuse, or explanation of callous approach by LW high command regarding the lives of their fighter pilots against a 'now superior' fighter?
I have been researching many of the Gruppe's in the March-May 1944 timeframe to try to get a feel for the numbers/proportions of 109s encumbered this way.
How would you know, for example, which of I./JG3's 109G-5 or -6's were equipped with the underwing gun pods in April 1994 from the following tables? Flugzeugbestand und Bewegungsmeldungen, I./JG3