Thanks, Erich! Nice site! But P-38, 'the greatest warbird of all times'? Isn't that a bit exagerated? Mustang: help needed here!
No-one does this sort of thing better than the USA ! If only there was something like this for the 'Mossie'...
A question guys; I am not an aviation fanatic, so I don't know this one! Were P38s still flying in the summer of 44? I ask, because not far from my house here in France is a WW1 memorial to the Tank Corps. It is surrounded by four bronze models of WW1 tanks. One of them has a very large calibre bullet stuck in it, which the locals tell me was from a P38 that dived a German column heading to Normandy and shot it up. The road this memorial is on was once the main route to Rouen, so this figures. Do we think it was a P38?
I'm sure others will give you a more detailed response, Sommecourt, but the answer is YES. Agreed a lot had been phased out of service by this time, but certainly the 8th AF's 479th FG ( 'Riddle's Raiders' ) used P38Js from May until 27 September 1944, and they did quite a bit of strafing. There is some artwork of their P38s in Freeman's 'Mighty Eighth' and they look very fetching in their 'invasion stripes' ! The 20th, 55th and 364th FGs all also used P38Js and some -Hs until the third week of July '44.
Sommercourt/Martin and all....... The P-38 served in the ETO and MTO with the following units...... 9th AF : 367th, 370th, and the 474th Geyser Gang. PRS squarons doing recon duties. 12th AF: Recon squadrons.... 15th AF: 1st, 14th, and the 82nd fighter groups.... PRS squadrons doing recon duties. E
Sommercourt : The 8th and 9th P-38's are probably the ones the guys recall as the 12th and the 15th's operated out of Italy/North Africa areas. E
