M4 Sherman vs Tiger

[Greybeard]

Hello Grumbler, Shortrengage,

Yep the P-38 was a nasty bugger - and contrary to popular vote, my favorite WW2 aircraft.. by the time the 'J' model arrived, it could compete with anything in the sky (except jets of course)..

Italy based 15th airforce and the troops in the pacific could never get enough of them.. the Germans called them the Fork-Tailed Devil for good reason..

The P-38 was originally designed for Bomber intercept work - the Military specified that enough armament was required to bring down the likes of a B-17.. Considering that the prototype flew in the late 30's, and standard armament then for the P-26, or F3F was a single 50 paired with a single .30.. the P-38 at 390mph, 30K+ ceiling, and 5 heavy guns was a huge step forwards..

The early models up thru about the 'G' model suffered problems in europe largely because the oil coolers were too efficient, and it was never intended for the '38 to spend all of it's time above 30K altitude.. the intent was to climb up quick, shoot down the bad guys, and come back home.. so the '38 was prone to engine failures in the colder ET environment.

They did not have the problem in the Pacific or based out of Italy.. warmer climate..

Another issue that didn't get solved until the arrival of the 'J' was that the '38 suffered from compressability in prolonged dives from high altitude.. this was the first aircraft that ever suffered from this issue.. and it was a big unexpected surprise..

The J and L model had hard points to carry up to 2 1600 lb bombs.. although I have seen adapters (Lockheed archive photos when I worked there) that allowed 3 500lb on each hard point.. plus they could carry 8 rockets.. if you substituted another adapter on the bomb hard-points, you could carry 6 rockets on each hard point, plus the 4 under each wing..

Another thing the Lockheed team did was develop a special 20mm cannon for the nose.. knowing that the trajectory of the .50's was different than the .20's of the day.. the skunk works came up with a requirment for a 20mm design that would match the .50 for trajectory.. out to about 1000 yards.. so the cone of fire from the nose was much more concentrated and could put a larger weight of shell into the target zone at any range that wing mounts couldn't match because of the convergance factor..wing guns were sighted in to about 300 yards.. shorter or longer and the pattern began to 'shotgun'..

Standard ammo load was 120 x 20mm, and 250 for each 50..

I wonder what the muzzle flashes looked like sitting right behind the guns like that..

Early on, Lockheed was considering using a 37mm instead of the 20.. but decided that shell size put too much of a limit on qty of ammo that could be carried.

There were few aircraft that could match the Lightning for ground work.. perhaps the most famous/best was the B-25H

The H- was a brainchild of the pacific where ground crews added firepower.. and the mods were officially incorporated into the 'H'..

A 75mm M2 cannon, upwards of 10 fwd firing .50's (2 in the dorsal turret, 4 in the nose, 4 in side packs), up to 8x 5" rockets, and 3000-4000 lbs of bombs in the bay..

Whew!!

:smg:

-GReybeard