Military Hardware Thread [Split]

[Jun aka Pekto]

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.

They still gave as good as they got, having a better than a 1:1 kill ratio against ETO axis aircraft. It was mostly just the 8th Air Force P-38s who experienced big problems with the Lightning during long-range bomber excort missions. The pilots in the Mediterranean, Pacific, and C-B-I Theaters seems to have done quite well with their P-38's.

Also as mentioned in the link I provided earlier, both the Me-110 and dH Mosquito aren't build to take the same stress the P-38 can during dogfights. The P-38 would have a field day against both aircraft. I think it's main fault were the mechanical faults of early models and the need for a really experienced pilot to fly it to its fullest similar to the B-26 Marauder and the F4U Corsair. By the time the late model P-38L arrived, all the faults have been ironed out and those pilots flying them were more experienced as Galland found out when that lone P-38L almost took him out....

A Luftwaffe ace with over 100 kills in a FW-190D "Dora" almost get killed by a lone eager USAAF pilot in a P-38L and who's probably not even an ace but knows his mount really well. That says a lot.