Lockheed P-38 Lightning P-38F

Once 210 P-38Es had been completed, Lockheed's production line switched in 1942 to the P-38F. The English Wikipedia places the start in February 1942, the Spanish one in April of that year; either way, this was the version that arrived just as the United States needed long-range fighters on several fronts at once. French Wikipedia sums up its role neatly: heavier than earlier models but fitted with more powerful engines, the P-38F was the first Lightning considered fit for combat. The Italian article adds that while the P-38Es had mostly served in home defence, the P-38Fs were the first true reference models of the type.

A total of 527 were built, with twin Allison V-1710-49/53 engines rated at 1325 hp (988 kW) according to German Wikipedia. Some of them came from a cancelled foreign contract: the 524 aircraft the Royal Air Force had ordered as the Lightning II, with F-series V-1710 engines, were never delivered, and the rest of the order was completed for the American air arm as P-38F-13-LO, P-38F-15-LO and the equivalent G-series blocks. The P-38F also spawned a photo-reconnaissance derivative, the F-4A, of which 20 were built.

What set the P-38F apart was its pair of underwing racks, mounted inboard of the engines, which could carry fuel tanks or a total of 2,000 lb (910 kg) of bombs. The idea owed much to Lieutenant Benjamin Kelsey, who in late 1941 had persuaded Lockheed to provide for external tanks despite an official doctrine that frowned on long-range fighters; P-38Fs were modified along the same lines. In March 1942 General Arnold ordered trials with larger tanks of 300 to 310 US gallons, and Kelsey reported a ferry range of 2,500 miles (4,000 km). Because of limited supply, however, the transatlantic plan ended up relying on the smaller 150 to 165 gallon tanks.

From the P-38F-15 sub-series onwards, the Fowler flaps gained a combat manoeuvre position: lowered to 8°, they let the Lightning out-turn many contemporary single-engine fighters at the cost of some added drag. It did not cure every vice, since early P-38s had heavy aileron forces and a slow initial roll rate and demanded experienced pilots, which was one reason Lockheed sent its own representative to England and later to the Pacific.

In the spring of 1942 Arnold remarked that fighters could dodge the U-boats by flying across the Atlantic instead of sailing, and President Roosevelt pressed the point. On 23 June 1942 the first seven P-38s, shepherded by two B-17s and each carrying two small drop tanks, left Presque Isle in Maine for Scotland, staging through Goose Bay, the rough Greenland strip of Bluie West One and Keflavik in Iceland. Bad weather, poor visibility, radio trouble and navigation errors cost some aircraft, but in July and August 1942 nearly 200 P-38Fs, plus a few modified Es, made the crossing, making the P-38 the first USAAF fighter to reach Britain and the first fighter ever delivered across the Atlantic under its own power. Kelsey flew one himself, landing in Scotland on 25 July.

The 1st Fighter Group's aircraft staged through Iceland, and it was there that a milestone fell. On 14 August 1942, while two P-38s of the 27th Fighter Squadron were mock-dogfighting a P-40 of the island's defence force, a Focke-Wulf Fw 200 Condor was spotted gathering weather and shipping information. Second Lieutenant Joseph Shaffer of the 33rd Squadron hit it first; Second Lieutenant Elza Shahan finished it off in P-38F-1-LO serial 41-7540, and the four-engined aircraft went down into the sea. It was the first Luftwaffe aircraft destroyed by the USAAF, and both pilots were awarded the Silver Star.

In England the P-38F was not universally admired. It was heavier and burned more fuel than its forerunners, its engines had reliability problems, and without external tanks, still scarce while the Battle of the Atlantic hung in the balance, its range shrank. Even though it was the longest-ranged fighter available in numbers to the 8th Air Force, bomber planners viewed it warily. General Spaatz defended it in a well-known remark, saying he would rather have an aircraft that went like hell with a few faults than one with faults that did not.

After 347 sorties without meeting the enemy, the 1st and 14th Fighter Groups moved to the 12th Air Force for Operation Torch. Their range let them cross the Bay of Biscay, skirting Spain and Portugal, and refuel in Morocco; based at Tafaroui in Algeria, they went into action on 11 November 1942. On 22 November Lieutenant Mark Shipman of the 14th scored the first P-38 kill in North Africa, an Italian twin-engined aircraft, and later added a Bf 109 and a huge Me 323 transport. By December the 14th had been so depleted that the 82nd Fighter Group was flown in from the UK to fill the gap; its first kill came on 7 January 1943, by William Sloan. After further heavy losses in January the 14th was withdrawn to reorganise and did not return until May.

On 5 April 1943, 26 P-38Fs of the 82nd Fighter Group claimed 31 enemy aircraft destroyed, a day that helped secure air superiority over Tunisia. The supposed German nickname der Gabelschwanz Teufel, the fork-tailed devil, dates from this period. Lockheed tells of a downed German pilot near Tunisia repeating the phrase while pointing at the sky; English Wikipedia cautions, however, that the story was spread by Life magazine in August 1943 with the obvious aim of restoring the P-38's reputation, and that no earlier independent German attestation exists.

According to French Wikipedia, the P-38F had its baptism of fire in August 1942 in the Aleutians, and its first large-scale use came with the North African landings and the New Guinea operations that autumn. In the South Pacific, P-38s were shipped disassembled and reassembled on arrival. P-38F-15-LO 43-2178, for example, served with the 339th Fighter Squadron of the 347th Fighter Group, 13th Air Force, carrying nose number 143 and the name Velma G on its left engine cowling; flown by George T. Chandler, it operated from the Fighter 2 (Kukum) strip on Guadalcanal. By then the F was less powerful than the P-38G that succeeded it, yet in June 1943 Murray Shubin used one he called Oriole to shoot down five confirmed and possibly six Zeros over Guadalcanal, becoming an ace in a day.