wmaxt
Staff Sergeant
First the P-38 kept the daylite raids going before the appearance of the P-51 escorts by themselves for the first two months and parity of the P-51/P-38 was not reached untill the end of May '44. The P-51 after that and was adopted fir two reasons it was easier to build in numbers and the desire to cut as much out of the logistics demand as possible (as confirmed by Doolittle himself the man who the final decision in the ETO), period.
The P-51 came at a time that gave the 8th an excuse for not escorting the bombers from the start, that the P-38 wasn't used but was available was an embarassment that would have otherwise cost Arnold, Eaker and Spatz their jobs.
One example of the attitude was that only 165gal drop tanks were ever used in the ETO Though 300 gallon tanks were available and in use everywhare else in the world, this limited the range of the early P-38 just enough to give the P-51 an ~ 100mi range advantage.
The P-38, as an example, had better performance every where except cruise speed, In the 8th (the only place we have a direct comparison) a better kill/loss record (twice the P-51) and was 3.82 times (adjusted for sorties) more likely to come home. The P-38 escort in the 8th was against a more experianced foe who also had numerical superority.
As for cost, even today a pilot is the most expensive part of a fighter, the loss of 4 P-51 pilots for each P-38 pilot is a lot. The P-51 was cheapper to buy and fuel.
The P-51 was the worst of the AAF fighters from a ground attack point of view even including the P-40 that could carry about as much and less suceptable to ground fire.
The P-51 was a competant fighter that had numerical superiorority over a diminished enemy. The P-51 smothered the German fighters more than out fought them. Very Overrated.
wmaxt
The P-51 came at a time that gave the 8th an excuse for not escorting the bombers from the start, that the P-38 wasn't used but was available was an embarassment that would have otherwise cost Arnold, Eaker and Spatz their jobs.
One example of the attitude was that only 165gal drop tanks were ever used in the ETO Though 300 gallon tanks were available and in use everywhare else in the world, this limited the range of the early P-38 just enough to give the P-51 an ~ 100mi range advantage.
The P-38, as an example, had better performance every where except cruise speed, In the 8th (the only place we have a direct comparison) a better kill/loss record (twice the P-51) and was 3.82 times (adjusted for sorties) more likely to come home. The P-38 escort in the 8th was against a more experianced foe who also had numerical superority.
As for cost, even today a pilot is the most expensive part of a fighter, the loss of 4 P-51 pilots for each P-38 pilot is a lot. The P-51 was cheapper to buy and fuel.
The P-51 was the worst of the AAF fighters from a ground attack point of view even including the P-40 that could carry about as much and less suceptable to ground fire.
The P-51 was a competant fighter that had numerical superiorority over a diminished enemy. The P-51 smothered the German fighters more than out fought them. Very Overrated.
wmaxt