The P-38 was one of America's WWII fighters that was built in smaller numbers than any of the other major players. Probably due to having two engines that made production slower than a single engine plane. It was initially issued to the 1st FG in April of 1941 and this was the E model, also received by the 14th and 82nd FG during 1941/42. In late 1942 the  20th, 55th and 78th FG all got their Lightnings and were sent over to the UK to be part of the 8th Air Force.

However, things did not go quite as expected as Operation Torch put the war for America in North Africa. Pretty much all the Lightning units were either sent to North Africa or had their planes sent there as attrition replacements. One of the benefits of the P-38 was that its range allowed it to fly from the UK to bases in North Africa, while other planes had to be shipped in.

However, it wasn't North Africa where the P-38 found its most ardent supporters. That was the southwest Pacific where the range of the P-38 and the safety of the second engine was greatly appreciated, especially when flying over a lot of water. It is this theater of operations that produced not only the highest scoring P-38 pilots, but also America's highest scoring aces. Other areas that used the P-38 were the Aleutians, China (where Chennault did not like the P-38 and generally underutilized it), and in the CBI.

This book is on the early P-38s, the P-38E,F,G, and H versions. The most potent P-38's were the J and L, which had all the deficits of the earlier planes taken care of (for the most part), and were aircraft that were considerably superior to the older versions. However, most P-38 aces either scored all their victories, most of their victories or started on their ascendency to acedom in the earlier versions.

In line with other books in this series, the author covers all of the combat P-38 units and their pilots. We get what makes this series such a great read, lots of pilot stories, as well as a look at the men and planes themselves. This is done via a goodly number of period photographs as well as Osprey's usual full color profiles. In this case, there are a few more that just show the work on the center fuselage as often the engine booms block a clear view.

It is a book that I very much enjoyed reading and is one that I can highly recommend to the P-38 fan out there.

August 2014

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