Thanks for posting the interview, appreciated.
Here's a list of
American fighter aces from WWII, with 20 or more kills to their credit (there are slight tally differences on different sites, I don't mean for this to become a disagreement of personal kill totals, I just picked one source). I looked up the U.S. pilots, their victory totals, aircraft used and branch of service. I've broken down the aircraft used into two categories: A) early war production fighter planes (P-38, P-39, P-40, F4F Wildcat) and B) late war production fighter planes consisting of the P-38, P-47, P-51, F4U Corsair, F4F Hellcat. There's always an exception, with a Hurricane and a couple of Spitfires in the mix.
Name • Victories • Aircraft • Branch
*
Maj. Richard I. Bong • 40 • P-38 • USAAF
Maj. Thomas B. McGuire • 38 • P-38 • USAAF
Capt. David McCampbell • 34 • F6F Hellcat • U.S. Navy
Maj. Francis S. Gabreski • 28 • P-47 • USAAF
Maj. Robert S. Johnson • 27 • P-47 • USAAF
Col. Charles H. MacDonald • 27 • P-38 • USAAF
Maj. George E. Preddy • 26.83 • (P-40) P-51 • USAAF
Maj. Joseph J. Foss • 26 • (F4F Wildcat) F4U Corsair • U.S. Marine Corps
1st Lt. Robert M. Hanson • 25 • F4U Corsair • U.S. Marine Corps
W/Cmdr. Lance C. Wade • 25 • (Hurricane, Spitfire) • RAF
Maj. Gregory Boyington • 24 • (P-40) F4U Corsair • U.S. Marine Corps
Lt. Col. John C. Meyer • 24 • P-47, P-51 • USAAF
Lt. Cecil E. Harris • 23 • (F4F Wildcat) F6F Hellcat • U.S. Navy
Lt. Eugene A. Valencia • 23 • F6F Hellcat • U.S. Navy
Col. David C. Schilling • 22.5 • P-47 • USAAF
Col. Gerald R. Johnson • 22 • (P-39, P-40) P-38 • USAAF
Col. Neel E. Kearby • 22 • P-47 • USAAF
Maj. Jay T. Robbins • 22 • (P-39) P-38 • USAAF
Capt. Dominic S. Gentile • 22 • (Spitfire) P-47, P-51 • USAAF
Capt. Fred J. Christensen • 21.5 • P-47 • USAAF
Maj. Raymond S. Wetmore • 21.25 • P-51 • USAAF
Capt. Kenneth Walsh • 21 • F4U Corsair • U.S. Marine Corps
Capt. John J. Voll • 21 • P-51 • USAAF
Lt. Col. Walker M. Mahurin • 20.83 • P-47, P-51 • USAAF
Capt. Donald N. Aldrich • 20 • F4U Corsair • U.S. Marine Corps
Col. Thomas J. Lynch • 20 • (P-39) P-38 • USAAF
Lt. Col. Robert Westbrook • 20 • (P-40) P-38 • USAAF
The idea was to count up how often each late war U.S. production fighter was used among the top American aces. There are 27 names here, but I'll remove Lance Wade from the equation as he flew with the RAF using British aircraft. I've bracketed the early war production planes (P-39, P-40, F4F Wildcat, and the British aircraft) and am not counting those. If a pilot used two different late model fighters (Meyer, Gentile and Mahurin for example), then I've counted each type with a 1/2 point. Not including Wade, of the remaining 26 aces:
P-38 is listed: 7 times
P-47 is listed: 6-1/2 times
F4U is listed: 5 times
P-51 is listed: 4-1/2 times
F6F is listed: 3 times
Just to note, the P-38 holds three of the top six spots, with 105 kills of the 194 destroyed by the top six aces.
To quote the interviewer speaking with Steinhoff, "Of all the Allied fighters you encountered, which was the most difficult to handle
with a good pilot at the controls?" Every WWII fighter had it's strengths and weaknesses, as they've been discussed in innumberable threads here... turning radius this, dive speed that, altitude performance here, firepower there, etc. The Lightning was no different, being better at some things, limited in others. Pilot competence was one part of the interviewer's question. Steinhoff's answer seems to take that into account, and perhaps he saw (experienced) some of the dangers a Lighting brought to a fight when it was in the hands of a skilled pilot. Quoting Wiki on
the P-38 "Clustering all the armament in the nose was unlike most other U.S. aircraft which used wing-mounted guns with trajectories set up to crisscross at one or more points in a "convergence zone." Guns mounted in the nose did not suffer from having their useful ranges limited by pattern convergence, meaning good pilots could shoot much farther. A Lightning could reliably hit targets at any range up to 1,000*yards (910*m), whereas other fighters had to pick a single convergence range between 100 and 250*yards (230*m). The clustered weapons had a "buzz saw" effect on any target at the receiving end, making the aircraft effective for strafing as well."
"Good pilots could shoot much farther." Steinhoff mentions being shot down from long range by a P-38 in 1944, and I would think he had no defense against that. The Me-262 wasn't the war's perfect fighter, taking into account it's limited range, short engine life, sluggish acceleration and average handling. But with it's high top speed and clustered nose cannon it was certainly a dangerous plane with a capable pilot at the controls. If you were flying a P-47 this very moment in WWII, and you and a good German pilot spotted each other from a mile away, would you rather the German be in a Bf-109 or a Me-262? I think this is part of the context of Steinhoff's answer. Aside from the P-38s handling and speed (which he compliments) the P-38 had an extended firing range. Put that advantage into the hands of a good pilot....
For the fork-tailed devil discussion, I mentioned that nickname once to a German friend of mine about 20 years ago. His father had been a soldier in the Wehrmacht, and the father had told him they called the P-38 "man jaeger" (man hunter). The reason being, was that pilots of some P-38s would strafe individual soldiers caught out in the open, even if it were a single man crossing a field. I imagine they would because of their armament being in the nose without a convergence pattern. They wouldn't have to wait for the right range to pick off an individual man, just make sure they had him in line. My friend's father considered the P-38 as the last plane he wanted to see strafing his position.