Quote Originally Posted by Jun aka Pekto
The P-38 is a favorite because my dad actually witnessed a dogfight between Zeros and P-38's over Manila Bay (while he was catching fish) where the P-38 ace Macdonald may have been present.

Also some of the most savage air battles between P-38's and Japanese aircraft took place in the Philippines starting with the Leyte landings.....
My dad, being the usual uzisero Pinoy that he is (and I proudly am ), said they used to climb up to the roof to watch the dogfights. They were nice to watch daw cuz, aside from the excitement, all the tracers flying around were like fireworks. Also, what made it even better for him was to watch all them Zeros being shot down.


He's seen lotsa terrible things then, but some great things, too. Here's one of em:

When they were fleeing to Laguna, my dad saw a convoy of 3 USAFFE trucks on the highway. Unfortunately for them, a Japanese plane spotted them, too. Lucky for the USAFFE boys, they saw the plane come in for a strafing run and they all took cover... except for one crazy American with a BAR (I assume it was a BAR cuz my dad said it was a machinegun with no belt).

You guessed it, he climbed on a truck's roof and sprayed that plane. The plane got him... but he got the plane, too. It crashed and blew up in a field, just like the movies daw. Amazing, you can't help but admire the guy.

The trucks were a mess, and our Buick got hit, too. Buti nalang running board lang... 3 hits. It's times like those you know God is around.


Back to the planes:
I'm not saying the P38 was a bad plane, just that it was a little outclassed for air superiority hence the ground attack role in Europe. One very distinct advantage it did share with the Mosquito was its great durability cuz of the two engines.

The Me110 was a large twin-engine night-fighter... more for hunting bombers than actual dogfighting.

Sir straight, Benz yung Bf109 e... ehehe.