Ad: This forum contains affiliate links to products on Amazon and eBay. More information in Terms and rules
1. The pilots had VERY little to no training. The P-38 required a lot of actions to get from cruise to combat ready condition. The early guys were probably shot down while trying to accomplish this task.
My thoughts are that the P-38 suffered from 4 basic faults ... until they were fixed.
1. The pilots had VERY little to no training. The P-38 required a lot of actions to get from cruise to combat ready condition. The early guys were probably shot down while trying to accomplish this task.
Colonel Rau's letter very much illustrated the ridiculous number of steps required to clean up the P-38 and go to 'fight' condition with respect to dropped tanks, throttle jump, and get out of the way of a bounce
2. The early Allison had an issue with the intake manifold that took some months to sorts out; the solution was simple and easy, but they had to FIND it ... and did.
3. The issue with European fuel versus American fuel wasn't understood until we GOT some European fuel. After that, the "fix" was a simple jetting change.
4. The "fix" for the poor cockpit heater was also simple; use an electric heater.
The late model P-38's HAD the fixes are were dangerous opponets to any air force, Japanese or German. The cirtical mach number didn't change but WAY too much hads been made of that. Had tghey been used as escort fighters that mach number thing would be of little import.
Greg - it was very significant as the LW pilots knew that a.) they could split s and dive away with impunity because the P-38 max speed and onset of compressibility at 20,000+ feet (escort altitude) was a very narrow velocity window and basically locked the controls of the 38, and b.) could evade in the early stages of a dive because the P-38 couldn't maneuver in that state. You might recall that the primary role of the P-38 in the ETO Was escort and only changed for 9th AF in ground support role.
The idea is to get the enemy fighters wasy from the bombers and if they dive away at high much, the task is automatically accomplished. The enemy HAS to stay and fight at the bomber's altitude to be effective since that's where the bombers are. If they don't ... defacto mission accomplished.
Kind of opposite. Once the P-38 started into the dive, it stayed there for the next 15,000 feet whereas the 190 and 109 quickly evade and quickly recover to climb back. In many cases they didn't but it took a lot longer for the P-38 to climb back to escort heights and re-join. Additionally, the P-38 was much easier to spot because it was so big and so easy to identify in contrast to the 51 and 47 - which gave the 'spotter' time to think out 'fight or flee'. Last, the LW wasn't very much afraid of the P-38 in the ETO and often stuck around to fight.
The armament was always good since it didn't have to be aimed to converge. I think thay would have dome just fine with pilot training and the bugs fixed. After the P-38J-20, they also had hydraulic aileron boost to materially increase the roll rate. That HAD to help.
Obviously this is a "what if," but it's a good one that hasn't been largely explored. I posutlate that the late model P-38's would have been effective. As effective as the P-51's? Hard to say. They set a high mark. I think it would depend on who was using them and how they were employed. Had the same people flying the P-51's been flying the P-38's in amanner to exploit the P-38's strengths, perhaps the results would have been siimilar. The job would have gotten done.
The late model P-38J-25 and L series would have been more effective - both in air to air combat as well as operationally. In my mind there is no question about that. Having said that, the prime mission for the 8th AF when Doolittle took command was Destroy the LW and the P-38 despite its range advantage over the P-47 was seriously deficient in whittling LW day fighter strength before D-Day to the P-47D, much less so than the P-51B. The role of escort was both protect the bombers and destroy the LW. The role of the bombers was a,) to destroy German industry, notably aircraft related including airframe, engines and fuel, and b.) to provide 'bait' for the LW to come and fight and be destroyed.
Thing is, P-38 fan thougn I am, I am ALSO a big P-51 fan. So I wouldn't want to deprive the world of the immortal P-51 to achieve better P-38 success. Tough "what if" to actually wish for.
My thoughts are that the P-38 suffered from 4 basic faults ... until they were fixed.
1. The pilots had VERY little to no training. The P-38 required a lot of actions to get from cruise to combat ready condition. The early guys were probably shot down while trying to accomplish this task.
2. The early Allison had an issue with the intake manifold that took some months to sorts out; the solution was simple and easy, but they had to FIND it ... and did.
3. The issue with European fuel versus American fuel wasn't understood until we GOT some European fuel. After that, the "fix" was a simple jetting change.
4. The "fix" for the poor cockpit heater was also simple; use an electric heater.
...
Re #1: By late 1943, the W. Allies were using the same fuel - 100/130 grade? The different fuels were thing of 1938-41 era?
That would be the fastest way to get yourself killed......The answer is simple to me, don't dive away with the Germans until problems set in ... stay around and fight...