Germany Suffered Big Losses at the Hands of the P-38

Video from the channel Smithsonian Channel about Lockheed P-38 Lightning, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 3:25. Language: English. Video type: Documentary.

The video recounts the Allied air offensive against the German airlift that supplied its troops in North Africa in the spring of 1943, with the P-38 Lightning as the protagonist.

With Mediterranean sea routes cut off, Germany gathered around 500 transport aircraft to carry matériel from Italy to Africa. P-38 pilots exploited their superior climb rate to gain altitude, dive to attack, and break away quickly.

On 11 April 1943, 19 P-38s intercepted an escorted formation of 20 Ju 52 transports over the sea. They shot down 27 German aircraft, 18 of them Ju 52s, and lost two; their leader, Alex Hamrick, was declared missing. Within a month, the Allies shot down more than 400 German aircraft and lost 36.