Air Force from 1907 to the 21st Century.
. Of Men and Stars: A History of Lockheed Aircraft Corporation, 1913–1957.
Fighter Tactics and Strategy 1914–1970.
The .60 in (15.2 mm) caliber cartridge had been developed early in the war for an infantry anti-tank rifle, a type of weapon developed by a number of nations in the 1930s when tanks were lighter but, by 1942, armor was too tough for this caliber. Another P-38L was modified after the war as a "super strafer," with eight .50 in (12.7 mm) machine guns in the nose and a pod under each wing with two .50 in (12.7 mm) guns, for a total of 12 machine guns.
At the end of the war, orders for 1,887 more were cancelled. ==Design and development== Lockheed designed the P-38 in response to a February 1937 specification from the United States Army Air Corps (USAAC).
It was also the first military airplane to fly faster than in level flight. ===XP-38 and YP-38 prototypes=== Lockheed won the competition on 23 June 1937 with its Model 22 and was contracted to build a prototype XP-38 for US$163,000, though Lockheed's own costs on the prototype would add up to US$761,000.
Construction began in July 1938, and the XP-38 first flew on 27 January 1939 at the hands of Ben Kelsey. Kelsey then proposed a speed dash to Wright Field on 11 February 1939 to relocate the aircraft for further testing.
The First and The Last: The Rise and Fall of the German Fighter Forces, 1938–1945.
Construction began in July 1938, and the XP-38 first flew on 27 January 1939 at the hands of Ben Kelsey. Kelsey then proposed a speed dash to Wright Field on 11 February 1939 to relocate the aircraft for further testing.
However, on the basis of the record flight, the Air Corps ordered 13 YP-38s on 27 April 1939 for US$134,284 each.
The success of the aircraft design contributed to Kelsey's promotion to captain in May 1939. Manufacture of YP-38s fell behind schedule, at least partly because of the need for mass-production suitability making them substantially different in construction from the prototype.
Later variants received modifications (such as electrically heated flight suits) to solve these problems. On 20 September 1939, before the YP-38s had been built and flight tested, the USAAC ordered 66 initial production P-38 Lightnings, 30 of which were delivered to the (renamed) USAAF in mid-1941, but not all these aircraft were armed.
Nothing came of this conversion either. ==Variants== XP-38 United States Army Air Force designation for one prototype Lockheed Model 22 first flown in 1939. YP-38 Redesigned pre-production batch with armament, 13 built. P-38 First production variant with 0.5 in guns and a 37 mm cannon, 30 built. XP-38A Thirtieth P-38 modified with a pressurised cockpit. Lightning I Former Armée de l'air order for 667 aircraft (being reduced to 143 Lighting I's) which was taken by the Royal Air Force.
Flying American Combat Aircraft of WWII: 1939–45.
The Secret Years: Flight Testing at Boscombe Down, 1939–1945.
Lehmanns Verlag, 1939. Scutts, Jerry.
The first YP-38 was not completed until September 1940, with its maiden flight on 17 September.
The P-38D's main role was to work out bugs and give the USAAF experience with handling the type. In March 1940, the French and the British, through the Anglo-French Purchasing Committee, ordered a total of 667 P-38s for US$100M, designated Model 322F for the French and Model 322B for the British.
After the fall of France in June 1940, the British took over the entire order and gave the aircraft the service name "Lightning." By June 1941, the War Ministry had cause to reconsider their earlier aircraft specifications based on experience gathered in the Battle of Britain and The Blitz.
Aerei jugoslavi, inglesi, statunitensi, belgi 1940–1943.
Further armament experiments from March to June 1941 resulted in the P-38E combat configuration of four M2 Browning machine guns, and one Hispano 20 mm (.79 in) autocannon with 150 rounds. Clustering all the armament in the nose was unusual in U.S.
The 13th and final YP-38 was delivered to the Air Corps in June 1941; 12 aircraft were retained for flight testing and one for destructive stress testing.
During a test flight in May 1941, USAAC Major Signa Gilkey managed to stay with a YP-38 in a compressibility lockup, riding it out until he recovered gradually using elevator trim.
In late June 1941, the Army Air Corps was renamed the U.S.
Army Air Forces (USAAF), and a total of 65 Lightnings were finished for the service by September 1941 with more on the way for the USAAF, the Royal Air Force (RAF), and the Free French Air Force operating from England. By November 1941, many of the initial assembly-line challenges had been met, which freed up time for the engineering team to tackle the problem of frozen controls in a dive.
On 4 November 1941, Virden climbed into YP-38 #1 and completed the test sequence successfully, but 15 minutes later was seen in a steep dive followed by a high-G pullout.
Lockheed still had to find the problem; the Army Air Forces personnel were sure it was flutter and ordered Lockheed to look more closely at the tail. In 1941 flutter was a familiar engineering problem related to a too-flexible tail, but the P-38's empennage was completely skinned in aluminum rather than fabric and was quite rigid.
After the fall of France in June 1940, the British took over the entire order and gave the aircraft the service name "Lightning." By June 1941, the War Ministry had cause to reconsider their earlier aircraft specifications based on experience gathered in the Battle of Britain and The Blitz.
British displeasure with the Lockheed order came to the fore in July, and on 5 August 1941 they modified the contract such that 143 aircraft would be delivered as previously ordered, to be known as "Lightning (Mark) I," and 524 would be upgraded to US-standard P-38E specifications with a top speed of at guaranteed, to be called "Lightning II" for British service.
Everything changed after the 7 December 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor after which the United States government seized some 40 of the Model 322s for West Coast defense; subsequently all British Lightnings were delivered to the USAAF starting in January 1942.
Lieutenant Kelsey, acting against this policy, risked his career in late 1941 when he convinced Lockheed to incorporate such subsystems in the P-38E model, without putting his request in writing.
This was done to ensure a straight ammunition-belt feed into the weapons, as the earlier arrangement led to jamming. The first P-38E rolled out of the factory in October 1941 as the Battle of Moscow filled the news wires of the world.
The Eagle and the Rising Sun: The Japanese–American War, 1941–1943, Pearl Harbor Through Guadalcanal.
Everything changed after the 7 December 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor after which the United States government seized some 40 of the Model 322s for West Coast defense; subsequently all British Lightnings were delivered to the USAAF starting in January 1942.
The USAAF lent the RAF three of the aircraft, which were delivered by sea in March 1942 and were test flown no earlier than May at Cunliffe-Owen Aircraft Swaythling, the Aeroplane and Armament Experimental Establishment and the Royal Aircraft Establishment.
These three were subsequently returned to the USAAF; one in December 1942 and the others in July 1943.
Every Lightning from the P-38G onward was capable of being fitted with drop tanks straight off the assembly line. In March 1942, General Arnold made an off-hand comment that the US could avoid the German U-boat menace by flying fighters to the UK (rather than packing them onto ships).
Because of available supply, the smaller drop tanks were used to fly Lightnings to the UK, the plan called Operation Bolero. Led by two Boeing B-17 Flying Fortresses, the first seven P-38s, each carrying two small drop tanks, left Presque Isle Army Air Field on 23 June 1942 for RAF Heathfield in Scotland.
Nearly 200 of the P-38Fs (and a few modified Es) were successfully flown across the Atlantic in July–August 1942, making the P-38 the first USAAF fighter to reach Britain and the first fighter ever to be delivered across the Atlantic under its own power.
They joined the 8th Photographic Squadron in Australia on 4 April 1942.
Three F-4s were operated by the Royal Australian Air Force in this theater for a short period beginning in September 1942. On 29 May 1942, 25 P-38s began operating in the Aleutian Islands in Alaska.
On 14 August 1942, Second Lieutenant Elza Shahan of the 27th Fighter Squadron, and Second Lieutenant Joseph Shaffer of the 33rd Squadron operating out of Iceland shot down a Focke-Wulf Fw 200 Condor over the Atlantic.
P-38s were first involved in North African combat operations on 11 November 1942.
After this painful experience, the American leadership changed tactics, and in February 1943 the P-38 was given free rein in its battles. The first German success against the P-38 was on 28 November 1942 when Bf 109 pilots of Jagdgeschwader 53 claimed seven Lightnings for no loss of their own.
This was Rollwage's first victory over a P-38, and his 35th claim at the time. The two squadrons of the 14th Fighter Group were reduced so badly in December 1942 that the 82nd FG was flown from the UK to North Africa to cover the shortage.
Kenney, commander of the USAAF 5th Air Force operating in New Guinea, could not get enough P-38s; they had become his favorite fighter in November 1942 when one squadron, the 39th Fighter Squadron of the 35th Fighter Group, joined his assorted P-39s and P-40s.
The Lightnings established local air superiority with their first combat action on 27 December 1942.
Most of these early reconnaissance Lightnings were retained stateside for training, but the F-4 was the first Lightning to be used in action in April 1942. ===P-38Fs and P-38Gs=== After 210 P-38Es were built, they were followed, starting in February 1942, by the P-38F, which incorporated racks inboard of the engines for fuel tanks or a total of of bombs.
Nonetheless, General Spaatz, then commander of the 8th Air Force in the UK, said of the P-38F: "I'd rather have an airplane that goes like hell and has a few things wrong with it, than one that won't go like hell and has a few things wrong with it." The P-38F was followed in June 1942 by the P-38G, using more powerful Allisons of each and equipped with a better radio.
This production block and the following P-38L model are considered the definitive Lightnings, and Lockheed ramped up production, working with subcontractors across the country to produce hundreds of Lightnings each month. There were two P-38Ks developed from 1942 to 1943, one official and one an internal Lockheed experiment.
There were concerns that saltwater spray would corrode the tailplane, and so in March 1942, P-38E 41-1986 was modified with a tailplane raised some , booms lengthened by two feet and a rearward-facing second seat added for an observer to monitor the effectiveness of the new arrangement.
The final version was used for a quick series of dive tests on 7 December 1942 in which Milo Burcham performed the test maneuvers and Kelly Johnson observed from the rear seat.
Navy proved to have enough sealift capacity to keep up with P-38 deliveries to the South Pacific. Still another P-38E was used in 1942 to tow a Waco troop glider as a demonstration.
The .60 in (15.2 mm) caliber cartridge had been developed early in the war for an infantry anti-tank rifle, a type of weapon developed by a number of nations in the 1930s when tanks were lighter but, by 1942, armor was too tough for this caliber. Another P-38L was modified after the war as a "super strafer," with eight .50 in (12.7 mm) machine guns in the nose and a pod under each wing with two .50 in (12.7 mm) guns, for a total of 12 machine guns.
This and other aircraft were used by a handful of Lockheed test pilots including Milo Burcham, Jimmie Mattern and Tony LeVier in remarkable flight demonstrations, performing such stunts as slow rolls at treetop level with one prop feathered to dispel the myth that the P-38 was unmanageable. ===Glacier Girl=== On 15 July 1942, a flight of six P-38s and two B-17 bombers, with a total of 25 crew members on board, took off from Presque Isle Air Base in Maine headed for the UK.
The recovered P-38, dubbed "Glacier Girl", was eventually restored to airworthiness. ==='Maid of Harlech'=== This plane crashed in September 1942, and is buried in the sea off the coast of Harlech, Wales, United Kingdom.
To Command the Sky: The Battle for Air Superiority Over Germany, 1942–1944.
P-38 Lightning Aces 1942–43.
In February 1943, quick-acting dive flaps were tried and proven by Lockheed test pilots.
The flaps did not act as a speed brake; they affected the pressure distribution in a way that retained the wing's lift. Late in 1943, a few hundred dive flap field modification kits were assembled to give North African, European and Pacific P-38s a chance to withstand compressibility and expand their combat tactics.
These three were subsequently returned to the USAAF; one in December 1942 and the others in July 1943.
The upgraded aircraft were deployed to the Pacific as USAAC F-5A reconnaissance or P-38G fighter models, the latter used with great effect to shoot down Admiral Yamamoto in April 1943.
Murray "Jim" Shubin used a less powerful F model he named "Oriole" to down five confirmed and possibly six Zeros over Guadalcanal in June 1943 to become ace in a day. One result of the failed British/French order was to give the aircraft its name.
After this painful experience, the American leadership changed tactics, and in February 1943 the P-38 was given free rein in its battles. The first German success against the P-38 was on 28 November 1942 when Bf 109 pilots of Jagdgeschwader 53 claimed seven Lightnings for no loss of their own.
Further one-sided German victories were noted on several occasions through January 1943.
The first kill by the 82nd was during a bomber escort mission on 7 January 1943 when William J.
Known for his maverick style, Sloan racked up 12 victories by July 1943.
After another heavy toll in January 1943, 14th FG had to be withdrawn from the front to reorganize, with surviving pilots sent home and the few remaining Lightnings transferred to the 82nd.
The 14th was out of action for three months, returning in May. On 5 April 1943, 26 P-38Fs of the 82nd claimed 31 enemy aircraft destroyed, helping to establish air superiority in the area and earning it the German nickname "der Gabelschwanz Teufel" – the Fork-Tailed Devil.
On 25 August 1943, 13 P-38s were shot down in a single sortie by JG 53 Bf 109s.
Herbert Kaiser, eventually a 68-kill ace, shot down his first P-38 in January 1943.
Johann Pichler, another high-scoring ace, said that the P-38 in 1943 was much faster in a climb than the Bf 109.
They were easy to outmaneuver and were generally a sure kill". On 12 June 1943, a P-38G, while flying a special mission between Gibraltar and Malta or, perhaps, just after strafing the radar station of Capo Pula, landed on the airfield of Capoterra (Cagliari), in Sardinia, from navigation error due to a compass failure.
On 11 August 1943, Tondi took off to intercept a formation of about 50 bombers, returning from the bombing of Terni (Umbria).
The P-38Hs of the 55th Fighter Group were transferred to the Eighth in England in September 1943, and were joined by the 20th Fighter Group, 364th Fighter Group, and 479th Fighter Group soon after.
Despite their small force, Lightning pilots began to compete in racking up scores against Japanese aircraft. On 2–4 March 1943, P-38s flew top cover for 5th Air Force and Australian bombers and attack aircraft during the Battle of the Bismarck Sea, in which eight Japanese troop transports and four escorting destroyers were sunk.
In one notable engagement on 3 March 1943 P-38s escorted 13 B-17s as they bombed the Japanese convoy from a medium altitude of 7,000 feet which dispersed the convoy formation and reduced their concentrated anti-aircraft firepower.
A B-17 was shot down and when Japanese Zero fighters machine-gunned some of the B-17 crew members that bailed out in parachutes, three P-38s promptly engaged and shot down five of the Zeros. ====Isoroku Yamamoto==== The Lightning figured in one of the most significant operations in the Pacific theater: the interception, on 18 April 1943, of Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, the architect of Japan's naval strategy in the Pacific including the attack on Pearl Harbor.
War Production Board planners were unwilling to sacrifice production, and one of the two remaining prototypes received the new engines but retained the old leading edge intercoolers and radiators. As the P-38H, 600 of these stop-gap Lightnings with an improved 20 mm cannon and a bomb capacity of were produced on one line beginning in May 1943 while the near-definitive P-38J began production on the second line in August 1943.
An F-5A was modified to an experimental two-seat reconnaissance configuration as the XF-5D, with a plexiglas nose, two machine guns and additional cameras in the tail booms. ===P-38J, P-38L=== The P-38J was introduced in August 1943.
This production block and the following P-38L model are considered the definitive Lightnings, and Lockheed ramped up production, working with subcontractors across the country to produce hundreds of Lightnings each month. There were two P-38Ks developed from 1942 to 1943, one official and one an internal Lockheed experiment.
The AAF took delivery in September 1943, at Eglin Field.
In March 1944, 200 dive flap kits intended for European Theater of Operations (ETO) P-38Js were destroyed in a mistaken identification incident in which an RAF fighter shot down the Douglas C-54 Skymaster (mistaken for an Fw 200) taking the shipment to England.
Back in Burbank, P-38Js coming off the assembly line in spring 1944 were towed out to the ramp and modified in the open air.
The flaps were finally incorporated into the production line in June 1944 on the last 210 P-38Js.
On the morning of 10 June 1944, 96 P-38Js of the 1st and 82nd Fighter Groups took off from Italy for Ploiești, the third-most heavily defended target in Europe, after Berlin and Vienna.
Nichols and a squadron of his P-38 Lightnings attacked Field Marshal Günther von Kluge's headquarters in July 1944; Nichols himself skipped a bomb through the front door.
The 370th later operated from Cardonville France and the 474th from various bases in France, flying ground attack missions against gun emplacements, troops, supply dumps and tanks near Saint-Lô in July and in the Falaise–Argentan area in August 1944.
The 474th operated out of bases in France, Belgium, and Germany in primarily the ground attack missions until November–December 1945. After some disastrous raids in 1944 with B-17s escorted by P-38s and Republic P-47 Thunderbolts, Jimmy Doolittle, then head of the U.S.
Although many failings were remedied with the introduction of the P-38J, by September 1944, all but one of the Lightning groups in the Eighth Air Force had converted to the P-51 Mustang.
On 3 March 1944, the first Allied fighters reached Berlin on a frustrated escort mission.
In the second half of 1944, the P-38L pilots out of Dutch New Guinea were flying , fighting for fifteen minutes and returning to base.
Flying a new Lightning named "Snafuperman", modified to full P-38J-25-LO specifications at Lockheed's modification center near Belfast, LeVier captured the pilots' full attention by routinely performing maneuvers during March 1944 that common Eighth Air Force wisdom held to be suicidal.
It entered service with the USAAF in June 1944, in time to support the Allied invasion of France on D-Day.
During and after June 1948, the remaining J and L variants were designated ZF-38J and ZF-38L, with the "ZF" designator (meaning "obsolete fighter") replacing the "P for Pursuit" category. Late model Lightnings were delivered unpainted, as per USAAF policy established in 1944.
On 28 July 1944, Lindbergh shot down a Mitsubishi Ki-51 "Sonia" flown by the veteran commander of 73rd Independent Flying Chutai, Imperial Japanese Army Captain Saburo Shimada.
On 12 August 1944, Lindbergh left Hollandia to return to the United States. ===Charles MacDonald=== The third-ranking American ace of the pacific theater, Charles H.
He received 11 medals and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross twice for missions that were integral to Allied victory at the Battle of the Bulge. ===Antoine de Saint-Exupéry=== At midday on 31 July 1944, the noted aviation pioneer and writer Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (Night Flight, Wind, Sand and Stars and The Little Prince) vanished in his P-38 of the French Armée de l'Air's Groupe de Chasse II/33, after departing Borgo-Porreta, Corsica.
On 12 April 1944 he took off in a P-38 with others to photograph targets in Germany.
All 121 were used as advanced trainers; a few were still serving that role in 1945.
The 370th participated in ground attack missions across Europe until February 1945 when the unit changed over to the P-51 Mustang.
The 474th operated out of bases in France, Belgium, and Germany in primarily the ground attack missions until November–December 1945. After some disastrous raids in 1944 with B-17s escorted by P-38s and Republic P-47 Thunderbolts, Jimmy Doolittle, then head of the U.S.
Both men were awarded the Medal of Honor. McGuire was killed in air combat in January 1945 over the Philippines, after accumulating 38 confirmed kills, making him the second-ranking American ace.
He was killed on 6 August 1945, the day the atomic bomb was dropped on Japan, when his Lockheed P-80 Shooting Star jet fighter flamed out on takeoff. ===Charles Lindbergh=== The famed aviator Charles Lindbergh toured the South Pacific as a civilian contractor for United Aircraft Corporation, comparing and evaluating performance of single- and twin-engined fighters for Vought.
Encyclopedia of US Air Force Aircraft and Missile Systems: Volume 1 Post-World War II Fighters 1945–1973.
A total of 100 late-model P-38L and F-5 Lightnings were acquired by Italy through an agreement dated April 1946.
In 1957, five Honduran P-38s bombed and strafed a village occupied by Nicaraguan forces during a border dispute between these two countries concerning part of Gracias a Dios Department. P-38s were popular contenders in the air races from 1946 through 1949, with brightly colored Lightnings making screaming turns around the pylons at Reno and Cleveland.
Two other examples are F-5Gs which were owned and operated by Kargl Aerial Surveys in 1946, and are now located in Chino, California at Yanks Air Museum, and in McMinnville, Oregon at Evergreen Aviation Museum.
Six F-5s and two unarmed black two-seater P-38s were operated by the Dominican Air Force based in San Isidro Airbase, Dominican Republic in 1947.
During and after June 1948, the remaining J and L variants were designated ZF-38J and ZF-38L, with the "ZF" designator (meaning "obsolete fighter") replacing the "P for Pursuit" category. Late model Lightnings were delivered unpainted, as per USAAF policy established in 1944.
The last P-38s in service with the United States Air Force were retired in 1949.
In 1957, five Honduran P-38s bombed and strafed a village occupied by Nicaraguan forces during a border dispute between these two countries concerning part of Gracias a Dios Department. P-38s were popular contenders in the air races from 1946 through 1949, with brightly colored Lightnings making screaming turns around the pylons at Reno and Cleveland.
Darby, Pennsylvania: DIANE, 1997, First edition 1949.
From the 1950s on, the use of the Lightning steadily declined, and only a little more than two dozen still exist, with few still flying.
Delivered, after refurbishing, at the rate of one per month, they finally were all sent to the Aeronautica Militare by 1952.
P-38s in distant theaters of war were bulldozed into piles and abandoned or scrapped; very few avoided that fate. The CIA "Liberation Air Force" flew one P-38M to support the 1954 Guatemalan coup d'etat.
On 27 June 1954, this aircraft dropped napalm bombs that destroyed the British cargo ship , which was loading Guatemalan cotton and coffee for Grace Line in Puerto San José.
New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1954.
The Italian P-38s were phased out in 1956; none survived the scrapyard. Surplus P-38s were also used by other foreign air forces with 12 sold to Honduras and 15 retained by China.
In 1957, five Honduran P-38s bombed and strafed a village occupied by Nicaraguan forces during a border dispute between these two countries concerning part of Gracias a Dios Department. P-38s were popular contenders in the air races from 1946 through 1949, with brightly colored Lightnings making screaming turns around the pylons at Reno and Cleveland.
Burbank, California: Lockheed Aircraft Corporation, 1958. Schiff, Stacy.
Caler Publications, 1968. Dimensione cielo.
19, Fallbrook, California: Aero Publishers, Inc., 1968. Mason, Tim.
Rome: Edizioni Bizzarri, 1973.
Washington, D.C.: Office of Air Force History, 1978.
New York: Crescent Books, 1980.
Fallbrook, California: Aero publisher Inc., 1980.
In June 2004, the recovered parts and fragments were given to the Air and Space Museum of France in Le Bourget, Paris, where Saint-Exupéry's life is commemorated in a special exhibit. In 1981 and also in 2008, two Luftwaffe fighter pilots, respectively Robert Heichele and Horst Rippert, separately claimed to have shot down Saint-Exupéry's P-38.
New York: Ballantine Books, 1983.
Cambridge, UK: Patrick Stephens, 1983.
Tokyo: Bonanza Books, 1984.
Air Enthusiast, Thirty-three, July–November 1986.
Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio: Air Force Museum Foundation, 1987. Villagrán Kramer, Francisco.
Paul, Minnesota: Motorbooks International, 1988.
New York: Random House, 1991.
Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1991.
The earliest-built surviving P-38, Glacier Girl, was recovered from the Greenland ice cap in 1992, fifty years after she crashed there on a ferry flight to the UK, and after a complete restoration, flew once again ten years after her recovery. ==Production== Over 10,000 Lightnings were manufactured, becoming the only U.S.
New York: Simon & Schuster, 1993.
Guatemala City: Guatemala: Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales (FLACSO), 1993.
New York: Henry Holt 2006, First edition 1994.
Oxford, UK: Osprey Publishing, 1994.
Stockton, California: Lamm-Morada Publishing Co., 1996.
Etobicoke, Ontario, Canada: Prospero Books, 1997.
Darby, Pennsylvania: DIANE, 1997, First edition 1949.
Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, Fiftieth Anniversary Commemorative edition 1997.
New York: Osprey, 1997.
Squadron/Signal Publications, 1998.
London: Osprey Publishing, 1998.
Did not enter production. P-38F Production variant with inboard underwing racks for drop tanks or 2000 lb of bombs, 527 built. P-38G Production variant with modified radio equipment, 1082 built. P-38H Production variant capable of carrying 3200 lb of underwing bombs and an automatic oil radiator flaps, 601 built. P-38J Production variant with improvements to each batch, including chin radiators, flat bullet proof windscreens, power-boosted ailerons and increased fuel capacity, 2970 built.
He was on a flight over the Mediterranean, from Corsica to mainland France, in an unarmed F-5B photoreconnaissance variant of the P-38J, described as being a "war-weary, non-airworthy craft". In 2000, a French scuba diver found the partial remnants of a Lightning spread over several thousand square meters of the Mediterranean seabed off the coast of Marseille.
Nashville, Kentucky: Turner Publishing Company, 2000.
Ramsbury, Marlborough, UK: The Crowood Press, 2000.
Aerei Nella Storia n.21, December 2000. Sims, Edward H.
Hayesville, North Carolina: Widewing Publications, 2001 [1991].
London: Osprey Publishing, 2001.
Nashville, Tennessee: Turner Publishing, 2002.
Paul, Minnesota: Salamander Books, 2002.
Dulles, Virginia: Potomac Books, 2003.
New York: Ballantine Books, 2003.
In April 2004, the recovered component serial numbers were confirmed as being from Saint-Exupéry's F-5B Lightning.
In June 2004, the recovered parts and fragments were given to the Air and Space Museum of France in Le Bourget, Paris, where Saint-Exupéry's life is commemorated in a special exhibit. In 1981 and also in 2008, two Luftwaffe fighter pilots, respectively Robert Heichele and Horst Rippert, separately claimed to have shot down Saint-Exupéry's P-38.
Abingdon, Oxford, UK: Routledge, 2004.
New York: Stackpole, 2004.
Dulles, Virginia: Potomac Books (formerly Brassey's, Inc.), 2004.
New York: Henry Holt 2006, First edition 1994.
London: The Crowood Press, 2006.
Torino: La Bancarella Aeronautica, 2007.
In June 2004, the recovered parts and fragments were given to the Air and Space Museum of France in Le Bourget, Paris, where Saint-Exupéry's life is commemorated in a special exhibit. In 1981 and also in 2008, two Luftwaffe fighter pilots, respectively Robert Heichele and Horst Rippert, separately claimed to have shot down Saint-Exupéry's P-38.
Minneapolis, Minnesota: Zenith Imprint, 2008.
Hersham, Surrey, UK: Ian Allan Publishing, 2008.
Crowborough, UK: Hikoki Publications, 2010.
London: Pen & Sword Aviation, 2011.
Voyageur Press, 2016.
It has been granted protected status in November 2019 for its historic and archaeological interest by Cadw. ==Surviving aircraft== ==Noted P-38 pilots== ===Richard Bong and Thomas McGuire=== The American ace of aces and his closest competitor both flew Lightnings and tallied 40 and 38 victories respectively.
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