Lockheed P-38 Lightning variant
Lockheed P-38 Lightning F-4
The F-4 was the first photo-reconnaissance version of the Lightning and the first Lightning of any kind to go into action. It was derived from the P-38E fighter: the four 12.7 mm machine guns and the 20 mm cannon were taken out of the nose and K-17 aerial cameras were installed in their place. The result was an unarmed aircraft that relied on speed, altitude and range to photograph enemy territory and bring the film home. Lockheed knew it as the Model 222-62-13, and the Army designated it F-4-1-LO. 99 were completed, some on the production line and others at modification centres. Many stayed in the United States to train reconnaissance pilots. A group crossed the Pacific with the 8th Photographic Squadron, which was operating in Australia from 4 April 1942. From there and from Port Moresby the F-4s photographed New Guinea, New Britain and the Solomons through 1942 and 1943, carrying names such as "Malaria Mabel", "Pouting Peggy" and "Alice The Goon". The Royal Australian Air Force took several F-4s under the A55 serial block and gave them to No. 1 Photo Reconnaissance Unit. The unit flew them from Hughes and Coomalie Creek in the Northern Territory over Timor and the Arafura Sea islands until 1944. The F-4 led to a long line of camera Lightnings: the F-4A based on the P-38F and, above all, the F-5 series, which made the Lightning one of the most prolific reconnaissance aircraft of the war.
- 99
- Units built
History
Origins: a call for fast reconnaissance
Colonel George William Goddard, the Air Corps' leading aerial photography specialist, observed that the United States lacked a fast, long-range photo-reconnaissance aircraft. The P-38 offered exactly that: two turbocharged engines, high speed at altitude and room in the central nacelle. English-language Wikipedia suggests that Lieutenant Benjamin Kelsey, who ran the fighter programme, may have been responding to Goddard when he signed a change order for some P-38Es to be built with cameras instead of guns. These aircraft were to be designated F-4-1-LO.
The P-38E was the first truly combat-capable Lightning, with revised electrical and hydraulic systems and staggered nose armament. The F-4 deleted that armament entirely. Sources disagree on the camera fit. The English and Spanish Wikipedia articles describe four K-17 cameras in the nose, and the French article adds an autopilot. History of War's P-38E entry instead describes two fixed vertical K-17 cameras. The production figure also varies. The variant list in English Wikipedia, which follows Andrade, and the German and French editions all give 99 aircraft. Elsewhere English Wikipedia speaks of "over 100" P-38Es converted, while the Australian encyclopedia Aeropedia says some 86. ADF Serials identifies the type as Lockheed Model 222-62-13, and its airframe records show the renaming in practice. Aircraft 41-2122 was taken on charge as a P-38E on 1 January 1942, was redesignated F-4 on 13 March and became an F-4-1 on 27 June.
After Pearl Harbor, about a hundred P-38Es went to a modification centre near Dallas, Texas, or to Lockheed's new plant B-6, today Burbank airport, to receive their cameras. All were also plumbed for drop tanks, which were essential for an aircraft that had to fly far and return alone. Most of these early reconnaissance Lightnings stayed in the United States for training. The ADF Serials records show individual aircraft moving between Long Beach, Lowry, Dallas and Sacramento through the spring of 1942.
The first Lightning in combat
According to the English and Spanish Wikipedia articles, the F-4 was the first Lightning to see active service. The first examples joined the 8th Photographic Squadron in Australia on 4 April 1942, before P-38 fighters began operating in the Aleutians at the end of May. The aircraft came by sea. ADF Serials and Aeropedia record that nine F-4s were delivered in August 1942 to the Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation at Fishermans Bend, Melbourne, to be assembled for the 8th Photo Reconnaissance Squadron. One of them, 41-2130, reached Townsville on 3 September and flew as squadron number "30", "Malaria Mabel". It was later photographed at 14 Mile Drome, Port Moresby, in bare metal with red and white striped rudders, by then serving as the squadron hack.
The Pacific Wrecks list shows what those lone sorties over New Guinea cost. An F-4 flown by Connelly went missing on 2 May 1942. Staller crashed in 41-2125 on 13 August, and Peterson went missing in 41-2098 on 14 September. Lissner's "Fainting Floozie II" (41-2123) came down on 28 November 1942. In 1943 the squadron lost Morton's 41-2140 (16 March), Blackard's "Dotin' Donna" (41-2177, 21 May), Murphy's "Hellapoppin Hepcat" (41-2137, missing 26 June), Kneeskern's 41-2014 (31 July) and Erb's "Alice The Goon" (41-2209, missing 30 December). The survivors ended their days in Queensland. "Pouting Peggy" (41-2139) and 41-2217 were struck off at Brisbane on 26 September 1944.
One of the best-known F-4s was 41-2156, called "Limping Lizzie" by Pacific Wrecks and "Leaping Lizzie" by Aeropedia. It was assembled at Fishermans Bend, flown to Townsville in September 1942 and force-landed on Hisiu Beach on 2 March 1943. After it was recovered, it flew on from Port Moresby over Gasmata, Garove Island, Goodenough Island, Talasea and Shortland Island. It appears in the opening scenes of the 1945 Errol Flynn film Objective Burma.
No. 1 Photo Reconnaissance Unit, RAAF
The Royal Australian Air Force formed No. 1 Photo Reconnaissance Unit (1 PRU) at Laverton on 8 June 1942. It had six Brewster Buffalos and a little over forty men, but no aircraft that could photograph the Japanese bases in the island arc north of Darwin and survive. The F-4 filled that gap. A55-1 (ex 41-2158, construction number 5376) had left San Francisco for the Pacific in mid-August. It was diverted to Australia on 25 August and reached No. 1 Aircraft Depot at Laverton on 31 August. A55-2 (41-2159) followed on 4 September. Both were issued to 1 PRU in mid-October, left Laverton together on 30 October and landed at Hughes, Northern Territory, the next day.
The first operational sorties were flown over Tanimbar Island between 10 and 19 November 1942. On 20 November A55-2 crashed about two miles west of Livingstone while trying to go around on one engine, killing its pilot, Flight Lieutenant Cridland. In December the unit moved to Coomalie Creek. A55-1 began reconnaissance flights from there on 2 January 1943, flown by pilots including Sinnott, Lawrie and Talberg. Its record lists photography of Dili, Penfoei, Fuiloro, Atamboea, North Goulburn Island, Cape Helvetius and Wessel Island, and many Portuguese Timor surveys that were spoiled by weather. It also lists the aircraft's mechanical problems: a failed supercharger in January 1943 and faulty intercoolers and superchargers in March. By April 1943 the unit had photographed every Japanese airfield on Timor.
A third aircraft, A55-3, was allotted to the unit from Eagle Farm, Brisbane, on 27 February 1943 and reached Coomalie Creek on 16 March. It flew sorties of around five hours over Penfoei and Dili and suffered leaking intercoolers. On 10 December 1943 it was landed wheels-up at Batchelor, and the fire that followed wrecked it. Its remains are held by the Darwin Aviation Museum. Its identity is still debated. Its service card calls it ex 41-2122, but research by Ron Cuskelly cited by ADF Serials points to 41-2144, and Pacific Wrecks records both versions.
A55-1 was the RAAF's first Lightning and also its last. In January 1944 high winds pushed it off its chocks at Coomalie Creek and into a drain. It then went through overhauls at US Fifth Air Force depots. On 1 September 1944 its starboard undercarriage collapsed on landing at Coomalie Creek. The fire destroyed the aircraft, and the pilot, Flight Lieutenant C. J. Rush, escaped with minor burns. 1 PRU, which became No. 87 Squadron in September 1944, flew Lightnings from August 1942 to August 1944.
Sources disagree on how many F-4s the RAAF had. English Wikipedia and Aeropedia say three. The French and Italian editions say five from 31 August 1942, three for the reconnaissance unit and two for No. 75 Squadron. In fact No. 75 Squadron, which was flying Kittyhawks, borrowed F-4s from the 8th Photo Reconnaissance Squadron from 16 August 1943, believed to be 41-2120 and 41-2156. Aircraft 41-2220 flew with it from Turnbull, Port Moresby and Milne Bay in September and October 1943. In February 1944 the Fifth Air Force allotted three more worn-out aircraft to the RAAF: 41-2130, 41-2139 and 41-2217. When they arrived at Amberley in May, 41-2217 and 41-2156 were rejected as being in poor condition, and the third force-landed at Rockhampton. Its identity is not recorded.
Legacy
The F-4's career was short and hard. The aircraft were unarmed, the pilots flew alone and maintenance was difficult so far from the factories. It nevertheless proved that the Lightning airframe was an excellent reconnaissance platform. It was followed by 20 F-4As based on the P-38F and then by the F-5 series. According to English Wikipedia, some 1200 Lightnings, about one in nine, ended up in the reconnaissance role.