P-38 or Mosquito?

[FLYBOYJ]

Well, at least Mosquitos carried sufficent bombs etc. into Germany rather than P.38's armed to protect armed bombers...At least Mossies could actually fly into Germany UNARMED and drop bombloads equivalent to the bombers the P.38's were defending...I can't think of one US variant offhand, that flew into Germany that wasn't bristling with guns, that wasn't a transport or light recce, post D-Day...
...

There were P-38 "Pathfinders," P-38s with no armament, a glass nose and a second crewmember (bombardiar). These were used on missions were a group pf P-38s carried 2 2000 pound bombs and released them on the lead plane's command, minni stategic bombing.....

 

[FLYBOYJ]

From the site "http://www.vectorsite.net/avp38.html"

"Although the Lightning didn't do so well in the air-to-air combat role in Northern Europe, it was regarded as an excellent strafer and light fast bomber aircraft. To capitalize on this capability, a number of P-38Js and P-38Ls were field-modified in the UK as formation bombing "pathfinders", fitted with a glazed nose with a Norden bombsight, with the machine guns and cannon deleted and a hatch under the nose for the bombardier. They were called "Droop Snoot" machines. A Droop Snoot pathfinder would lead a formation of other P-38s, each overloaded with two 900 kilogram (2,000 pound) bombs, and the entire formation would release when the pathfinder did. The rest would then go on to strafe the target.

The initial pathfinder raid was performed on 20 April 1944 against a Luftwaffe airfield in France. Results of pathfinder raids were good, but optical bombsight bombing was only possible in clear weather, which was not always the norm for Northern Europe. As a result, a number of pathfinders were built with an H2X radar "bombing through overcast" nose. The H2X, also known for some lost reason as "Mickey", was a crude targeting radar by modern standards, only able to pick out targets marked by lakes or confluences of rivers, but it was better than nothing."

 

[Gemhorse]

Well, I figured I would probably have to concede on some point with ''The P-38''......actually, I thought it would be the Recce variant, but since they performed their own type of pathfinder raids, how many aircraft were usually involved and how often??

The LNSF first started their raids about June 1943 when 8 Group absorbed RAF 105 139 Sqn.'s from 2 Group, the latter Sqn. gaining particular distinction for their overall service....But a little hop or two into France for what appears to have been a little ''pre-D-Day Airfield-suppression,'' when these guys were dragging tonnage to Hamburg, Essen, and spoofing to Berlin for the Peenemunde raid, [they operated 21 nights THAT month,] hardly appears to be the same calibre of mission.....

Early the following month, [Sept.] after 'windowing' for the Main Force over Berlin, they then proceeded to lay false route White-Drip flares away from the Force, a tactic designed to attract the Nachtjagd, that's pretty brassy for a WHOLE buncha unarmed Mossies....that month the Germans had developed their flak to burst at 30,000 ft. - One chap over Brandenburg that month was coned by searchlights for 10 mins and received 10 direct hits, but instead of jettisoning his load, carried on to Berlin and delivered, then limped home... [Sqn.Ldr. D.A Braithwaite].....

They were quite different aircraft I feel.......

 

[The Nerd]

Both were awesome planes, but...its the Lightning all the way.

 

[the lancaster kicks ass]

oh god that's just gonna set it all off again..........

 

[cheddar cheese]

Nah theres no point. Weve argued every concievable difference here and people can just read back through the thread for the arguments Of course, the Nerd is right though 8)

 

[the lancaster kicks ass]

meybe he's just annother of these narrow minded british people that're too patriotic towards italy to admit that a british plane's better than a yank one

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

Ha I love the way you post things Lanc sometimes. Seems me you are too narrowminded to admit that there are planes out there better British one. Not necessarily this plane in question but any plane in general.

 

[Gemhorse]

Mossies ruled in the ETO - period

P-38 was best in the PTO....

 

[the lancaster kicks ass]

Ha I love the way you post things Lanc sometimes. Seems me you are too narrowminded to admit that there are planes out there better British one. Not necessarily this plane in question but any plane in general.

well we did make the finest planes of the war

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

If you say so!

 

[book1182]

I would go with the P-38. First reason is a simple one. I'm an American and I like most American airplanes. Now to good reasons for the P-38. It might of not been the best dogfighter, but it could dogfight. I haven't heard of to many Mosquitoes being sent on fighter sweeps. Both had good armament and both carried a good arrange of weapons. So I would give it a tie. As in roles preformed look above and you will see that the P-38 provided many different roles. Some not as good as the Mosquito but it still performed them.

 

[the lancaster kicks ass]

yes and the mossie performed even more roles, but we've kinda greed we're not going to argue about thin anymore, it's the second longest running argument on the site and we're never going to settle it so we're not gonna bother this time round

 

[cheddar cheese]

No it didnt...Anything the Mossie done the P-38 done too, except any P-38 could do any mission, or thereabouts, and the Mossies had to be specially adapted...

 

[the lancaster kicks ass]

no it didn't, no moreso than the -38 did.........

 

[cheddar cheese]

Yeah it did...A standard P-38L can do anything asked of it, Bombing, ground attack, fighting, intercepting...A Mossie couldnt because theyre all vastly different...

 

[wmaxt]

Yeah it did...A standard P-38L can do anything asked of it, Bombing, ground attack, fighting, intercepting...A Mossie couldnt because theyre all vastly different...

Agreed. The P-38L not only did it but it did the job, whatever it was, on par with the best in that particular nich.

wmaxt

 

[the lancaster kicks ass]

if they changed a weel nut on the mossie they gave it a new mark designation, almost all mossies were based on the Mk.IV airframe.........

 

[RonRyan85]

Hi Guys: I'm glad we had both aircraft on our side during WW2.(I
always thought you were all heros flying or being part of the
groundcrew on any base.) All I have are models of the P-38 and a
recently built Mosquito model by Tamiya and a few pictures of
the mossie.I was surprised to find so many articles on the "wooden Wonder" on the internet.

http://www.ImageHostingOnline.com/is.php?i=6767&img=mosqto004.jpg

(Tried to show actual picture above but if you click on it it can be
seen. BTW...how do I show pics on this forum?

 

[Gnomey]

With tags like so:

[img.]http://www.ImageHostingOnline.com/image2.jpg[/img]

without the . after the first