Battle Stations: P38 Lockheed Lightning (War History Documentary)

Video from the channel Military Learning about Lockheed P-38 Lightning, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 43:56. Language: English. Video type: Documentary.

Documentary from the Battle Stations series about the Lockheed P-38 Lightning, built from archival footage, color re-enactments and interviews with former pilots and crew. It follows the aircraft from its conception to the end of World War II, with particular attention to its role in the Southwest Pacific.

In February 1937 the United States Army Air Corps issued proposal X-608 for an interceptor capable of about 400 mph and able to operate above 20,000 feet, armed with a 20 mm cannon. Clarence "Kelly" Johnson, at Lockheed since 1933, chose a twin-engine, twin-boom design with the pilot and weapons in a central nacelle. The XP-38 prototype was completed in 18 months; during an attempt at a transcontinental record between March Field and Mitchell Field it ran out of fuel and was destroyed in a forced landing on a golf course. An order for 66 aircraft followed. Britain, which had taken on an order for 667 units without turbochargers, canceled it after receiving three. Compressibility in dives and flip-overs from an engine failure on takeoff gave it a poor reputation, countered with outward-rotating propellers and demonstrations by test pilot Tony LeVier.

In Europe it performed worse at low altitude, and 99 examples were converted for photo reconnaissance. In the Pacific, on April 18, 1943, 16 P-38s of the 339th Fighter Squadron intercepted Admiral Yamamoto's aircraft. The 475th Fighter Group escorted bombers over Wewak, destroying 41 enemy aircraft against three Lightnings lost in August 1943, and later over Rabaul. In 1944 Charles Lindbergh, as a civilian observer, taught pilots to fly at 1,400 rpm, which raised the combat radius from 900 to 1,800 miles and made it possible to attack Balikpapan on October 14, 1944. Richard Bong (40 victories), Thomas McGuire (38) and Charles MacDonald (27) were its top aces; the documentary puts the number of P-38 aces at 41.