What was the best American fighter in Europe, the P-51, hands down. The P-47 was the best American ground attack plane in WWII. The P-38 was the best land based fighter in the Pacific. The reason the P-51 was the best fighter in Europe was that it did very well against German fighters. Same with the P-38 against the Japanese. The P-51 was the fastest American fighter, was more manueverable, had better performance throughout the altitude ranges, had a longer range, and had the advanced laminar flow wing.

__________________
MUSTANGS FOREVER
FACTS ARE JUST THERE TO ARGUE YOUR OPINIONS

Welcome to the forums, Mustang! (forgot to say that earlier...)

You did this on porpouse, you mischievous guy! [img]tongue.gif[/img] Of course it was the P-51 and that's all I have to say...

__________________
"War is less costly than servitude, the choice is always between Verdun and Dachau." - Jean Dutourd, French veteran of both world wars

"A mon fils: depuis que tes yeux sont fermes les miens n’ont cessé de pleurir." - Mère française, Verdun

I do think that the range was the thing that made the difference for Battle of Germany in the air. The Luftwaffe was totally bound to the defence of bombings, and as Mustangs could cover the bombers all the way to Berlin, it made a lot of problems for Luftwaffe. I remember having read as the Mustangs for the first time ( 1944? ) covered the bomber squads the Germans were so unused to it that by sheer surprise the Me´s were easy prey and lost several planes.
The Mustang was a great plane but by simply overnumbering the Germans they needed not show all the best performances except for single battles.

__________________

In addition, the Luftwaffe's finest...hah ! "Fatty" made it very clear in writing that all heavy Fw 190 units would carry the zusatztank in battle. Not drop the stupid thing when in combat with the Allied bombers or in the life/death struggle with Allied escorts. Another point that is quite often overlooked destroying once again the performance of this fighter. Another big edge for the P-51 high flyers.

EB

The P-51 came onto the scene in late 1942. Which is very early in the war considering the P-51 maintained it's dominance in the air throughout the course of the war.

__________________
MUSTANGS FOREVER
FACTS ARE JUST THERE TO ARGUE YOUR OPINIONS

But that I have heard, the Mustangs only appeared over Europe on early 1944, I think January... Because 1943 was a very bad year for Allied bombers because of the lack of adequate escorts...

__________________
"War is less costly than servitude, the choice is always between Verdun and Dachau." - Jean Dutourd, French veteran of both world wars

"A mon fils: depuis que tes yeux sont fermes les miens n’ont cessé de pleurir." - Mère française, Verdun

Actually the RAF was the first to use it and then the 9th Air Forces famous Pioneer Mustang group the 354th(which knowbody seems to know jack about), took it took the Germans in late 1943. They were the first to use the B variant in the bomber protection role, and a marvelous job they did besides mixing it up with Luftwaffe fighters before , during and after the bombers were over the target. The top scoring P-51 group for the USA during WW 2. First mission was over St. Omer to catch some flak on December 1, 1943. In it's career in WW 2 the unit logged up 1834 seperate missions, destroyed 701 a/c in aerial combat. At least 41 aces, more than any other group in the ETO. 187 pilots KIA......

E

Actually-I would have to say-for nimbleness, absolutely-the P-51, but for its ruggedness, and great flying ability-the "JUG"-P47-D...

__________________
"GARRY OWEN"-Traditional war-cry of the US 7th Cavalry.
"CURRAHEE"-War-cry of the US 506th PIR.
"Everybody thinks that they are going to get the chance to punch some Nazi in the face at Normandy-and those days are over, they are long gone"-Lt Chris Burnett

Your right Erich, the P-51 came onto the scene in 1943 not 1942. [img]redface.gif[/img] Man! You've always got to prove me wrong don't you? Friedrich, the P-51B
came onto the scene in late 1943. The P-51D came in early 1944. The P-51D was better than the B model.

__________________
MUSTANGS FOREVER
FACTS ARE JUST THERE TO ARGUE YOUR OPINIONS

No that was not my intent Mustang ! I just have been studing the air war over Germany for over 37 years and know many vets.

check this and have some fun on a break.

www.homestead.com/354thfightergroup/

www.354th.com

enjoy and check the pics....

E

The P-47 was a good fighter aircraft, and a very good fighter-bomber, but if you are just looking for the best US fighter aircraft in europe,it has to be the P-51D [img]smile.gif[/img]

__________________
if in doubt....Panic!!!!

Hey, looks like me and redcoat are on the same page My thoughts exactly redcoat. Except that you fogot to mention that the P-47 was a very, very, very, very, very good air to ground B-1-RD.

__________________
MUSTANGS FOREVER
FACTS ARE JUST THERE TO ARGUE YOUR OPINIONS

Erich, Crazy, could someone come and say something about German aircraft, that they were the best, by example?

__________________
"War is less costly than servitude, the choice is always between Verdun and Dachau." - Jean Dutourd, French veteran of both world wars

"A mon fils: depuis que tes yeux sont fermes les miens n’ont cessé de pleurir." - Mère française, Verdun

Friedrich :

Start a thread then ? The best German fighter....

why not

E

Set one up yesterday. I read this post and thought that I might as well set one up for him. I really don't know much about the German Luftwaffe, but I think that the best German fighter would be either be one of the Messerschmit models, Folke-Wolfe models or Junkers Models.

__________________
MUSTANGS FOREVER
FACTS ARE JUST THERE TO ARGUE YOUR OPINIONS