International panel of judges? Paula Adul and Simon Cowel?
The P-51 'score' should be weighted and reduced by a factor of 4. The P-51B wasn't present in any significant numbers till January 1944 having flown a few tentative missions in mid december 1943. The earlier Allison P-51A made no significant impact both in numbers and missions due to the limmitations of its high altitude performance.
Not entirely clear what you mean by 'score should be reduced by a factor of 4'. If you mean victory credits in the ETO then the same review panel was used for all victory credits and the P-38/P-47 scores would be impacted in the same way. If you are merely exaggerating to make a point then you are entitled to your opinion but perhaps need to do a little more research,
First, the P-51A, A-36 and Mark I and II's were in combat in the roles the AAF and RAF assigned them in Africa, CBI and ETO before the P-47 saw combat.
The P-47D-25 and newer variants had a wet wing and arrived in ETO in June, 1944 after the Long Rang Escorts (P-38/P-51) had crippled LW defenses over Germany - a battle that P-47s were largely watching from the short range sidelines.
It's also clear that P-47 improvements in fuel tankage were capable of not only matching but exceding P-51 range and that these improvements could also have been accelerated. Furthermore the P-38 was also being improved and had overcome its technical bugs around the time the P-51B started its first missions.
Not true, particularly for ETO. If you want to compare P-47N to P-51D you have a point but the role of the P-47N in the PTO was less than the P-51D in all respects and it did not have the performance of the 'same generation' P-51H.
As th the P-38J, the necesary Intercooler and dive flap mods didn't come into the ETO until June 1944 and boosted ailerons until a month later with the arrivals of J-25's. Very few P-38L's ever flew in 8th AF and only served in three squadrons in the 9th and several in the MTO. By that time the Battle over Germany was pretty much 'done'
I would say even the P-40 was more important than the P-51. It held the line and it is clear that the US and UK would have suffered many defeats without it that may not have been reversible.
Out of curiosity what did you have in mind regarding 'irreversible defeats' - and in what context did you value the P-40 over say the F4F in 1942 had the AAF had a need to fill a vacuum not served until P-38 or even P-51A was available?
Last but not least. While the first victory credits belonged entirely to the 354th FG in ETO and only scored 9 in December 1943, the combined four (4th, 354th, 355th and 357th FG) scored nearly as many credits as ALL of the ETO (8th and 9th AF) P-47 groups in the 1st Qtr, and by end of June the 7 Mustang Groups had scored as many all All the P-47 groups in ETO for All of the P-47 Group's combat record from early 1943 forward - over Germany and deep targets while the Jugs were relegated to Penetration and Withdrawal support.
Even though the P-38, per se, was not particularly successful compared to the Mustang, the combined long range escort capabilities of the two fighter types compared to the contemporary P-47D enabled the long range effort over German targets to destroy almost as many through March (and crossed over in April) as All the 9th and 8th AF Jug groups.
To perhaps put it in perspective for you the combined P-47 Fighter groups that were operational from January 1944 and flying escort missions were (4th, 56th, 78, 352nd, 353rd, 355th, 356th, 358th, 359th, 361st, 362nd). The combined Mustang Groups were 354th. At the end of March, the 4th, 357th, 354th, 355th and 357th had fully converted to Mustangs in February and March while the 9th added the 366th, 368th and 405th FG's
So, despite a nearly 4:1 operational sortie advantage to the P-47 FG's versus Mustang sorties, the P-51 was outscored 560 to 390. during the next two months the Mustang Groups outscored the P-47 (8th and 9th) approximately 850 to 320 in the battles leading up to D-Day... mostly over Brunswick, Hannover, Berlin, Leipzig, Munich, Augsburg, Magdeburg where the P-47s could not play.
Note: I am busy breaking out the entire ETO Victory credits by a/c by group, by month so the number above is an estimation backed out from end of June.
There were always more P-47s than P-51s in the ETO and the P-47 flew twice the sorties as the Mustang - yet from December 1943 though April 1945, the P-51 outscored the Jug 4179 to 2658 in the ETO (P-38s scored a total of 451).
This does not take into account aircraft destroyed on the ground where the results are far more lopsided in favor of the Mustang, nor have the RAF totals been considered, which skews the resulys even more.
So how was the Mustang overated?