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It was the best at what the USA wanted for its strategy. If a "what if" is constructed without the P-51B/C then it must include the USA doing something else, like more and longer ranged P-47s arriving sooner.Good as the Merlin powered Mustang was, hard to see it as THE decisive factor for air superiority during the Normandy landings.
It was the best at what the USA wanted for its strategy. If a "what if" is constructed without the P-51B/C then it must include the USA doing something else, like more and longer ranged P-47s arriving sooner.
Or use a different strategy, remove anything that looks like an airfield with strategic and tactical bombers P-47s, P-51A/ A-36 Typhoon and Spitfires from the Benelux and 150 miles from the French coast.Of course. More P-38's and P-47's, with more and bigger drop tanks? Bombing raids only as far as escorts can reach? And, if there's no prospect of a Merlin Mustang, maybe the Americans will develop a 2S2S supercharger for the Allison? If nothing else, kidnap Stanley Hooker and have him design it.
Without the Merlin Mustang, maybe the big week isn't such a success as it historically was. But a failure to the extent that the Germans can achieve air superiority over Normandy? I'm finding it hard to imagine.
The Mustang just edged out the later P-38s in timing. It was only a matter of a few weeks. The Mustang was undoubtedly the better choice. Not only was plane actually better, by spring/summer of 1944 they were making several hundred more per month than P-38s (large, expensive)Of course. More P-38's and P-47's, with more and bigger drop tanks? Bombing raids only as far as escorts can reach? And, if there's no prospect of a Merlin Mustang, maybe the Americans will develop a 2S2S supercharger for the Allison? If nothing else, kidnap Stanley Hooker and have him design it.
Without the Merlin Mustang, maybe the big week isn't such a success as it historically was. But a failure to the extent that the Germans can achieve air superiority over Normandy? I'm finding it hard to imagine.
I think we would see the air war in the west begin to look more like the air war in the east. Greater emphasis on tactical combat and concentrations of air forces over specific combat areas to gain temporary air superiority.Or use a different strategy, remove anything that looks like an airfield with strategic and tactical bombers P-47s, P-51A/ A-36 Typhoon and Spitfires from the Benelux and 150 miles from the French coast.
The arrival of the P-38s in August 1943 (for ops in Oct and Dec 1943) and January for ops in March 1944 - gives good but inadequarte escort deep in Big Week. Suffer greater losses but fewer bomber losses. The 367th which went to 9th AF goes to 8th, bringing Long Range escort to 4 groups.Can they resume the LR bombing campaign as far as the P-47 escort allows it, like trying to bomb the Ruhr in the stone age for starters?
There were not as many P-38s in the SWPA at the end of 1943 as might be imagined. A total of 6 and a bit squadrons worth spread across 4 FG.The arrival of the P-38s in August 1943 (for ops in Oct and Dec 1943) and January for ops in March 1944 - gives good but inadequarte escort deep in Big Week. Suffer greater losses but fewer bomber losses. The 367th which went to 9th AF goes to 8th, bringing Long Range escort to 4 groups.
The attrittion for 8th AF is much higher but the toll on LW will still be significant. I suspect absent P-51B that more P-38 FGs will be pulled from SWP and MTO in January 1944.
There already was a 2 stage (But not 2 speed - the auxiliary stage was run by a variable speed hydraulic coupling, like that of a Daimler-Benz) Allison. It's first operational use was as the engine in the P-63, albeit in that installation, without an intercooler for the best performance. If Packard hadn't been building 2-Stage Merlins, There would probably been more effort placed in the 2-stage Allison (Allison was always short of Engineers, and co-production would have been pursued.Of course. More P-38's and P-47's, with more and bigger drop tanks? Bombing raids only as far as escorts can reach? And, if there's no prospect of a Merlin Mustang, maybe the Americans will develop a 2S2S supercharger for the Allison? If nothing else, kidnap Stanley Hooker and have him design it.
Without the Merlin Mustang, maybe the big week isn't such a success as it historically was. But a failure to the extent that the Germans can achieve air superiority over Normandy? I'm finding it hard to imagine.
Agreed, but if you can't reach it you can't hit it. You end up with aerial combat that looks like eastern front with airfields out of reach of opposing forces and highly dynamic and contested air combat over the ground front. When the 8th AF was able to extend effective fighter coverage throughout the ETO there was no place for the Luftwaffe to seek shelter. The long range fighter was essential for that coverage.There already was a 2 stage (But not 2 speed - the auxiliary stage was run by a variable speed hydraulic coupling, like that of a Daimler-Benz) Allison. It's first operational use was as the engine in the P-63, albeit in that installation, without an intercooler for the best performance. If Packard hadn't been building 2-Stage Merlins, There would probably been more effort placed in the 2-stage Allison (Allison was always short of Engineers, and co-production would have been pursued.
It must be noted that a single aircraft type isn't what achieved Allied Air Superiority. It was the RAF 2 TAF, and the U.S. 8th AF Fighters, Light and Medium Bombers, and USAAF and RAF Photo Recon assets, that found, the German airfields, Supply Dumps., Assembly Areas, road and rail traffic, and shot it down, strafed it, and pounded it flat.
The types is less relevant than the fact that the Allied Air Forces were a swarm of heavily armed hornets hanging up on anything they could hit.
A 2-stage Allison engined Mustang would have had the same, or better range (The Allison, had a somewhat better Specific Fuel Consumption) and altitude performance as the 2-stage Merlin powered version. There are already 2-stage Allisons in combat - the P-38s. With electronic Turboregulators, Dive Recovery Flaps, hydraulically boosted ailerons, and effective cockpit heating, (In real life, 3 out of 4), they were very effective air-to air fighters. In either case, you end up with what was achieved by the Merlin Mustangs - a fighter that could fly from England to Czechoslovakia, meet the Luftwaffe's fighters once there, and even if they could only flight them to a standstill, still be able to run them out of gas and then fly home.Agreed, but if you can't reach it you can't hit it. You end up with aerial combat that looks like eastern front with airfields out of reach of opposing forces and highly dynamic and contested air combat over the ground front. When the 8th AF was able to extend effective fighter coverage throughout the ETO there was no place for the Luftwaffe to seek shelter. The long range fighter was essential for that coverage.
A 2-stage Allison engined Mustang would have had the same, or better range (The Allison, had a somewhat better Specific Fuel Consumption) and altitude performance as the 2-stage Merlin powered version.
There are already 2-stage Allisons in combat - the P-38s. With electronic Turboregulators, Dive Recovery Flaps, hydraulically boosted ailerons, and effective cockpit heating, (In real life, 3 out of 4), they were very effective air-to air fighters. In either case, you end up with what was achieved by the Merlin Mustangs - a fighter that could fly from England to Czechoslovakia, meet the Luftwaffe's fighters once there, and even if they could only flight them to a standstill, still be able to run them out of gas and then fly home.
Armed recon missions above Germany proper - how often were these undertaken by Mustang Is vs. the missions over the occupied Western Europe?The basis was there in 1942 - The RAF's Mustang Is were flying Armed Recce missions over Germany, strafing anything interesting, and able to engage or disengage from the Fw 190s that they'd encounter.