Pacific Life Simple Ira: Fill & Download for Free

There isn’t anything in Russia that we want.After World War II we decided some land was going to be American. We gave the rest back and came home. Pictures are attachedHere’s the source.The only land we ever asked for was enough land to bury our dead....The Netherlands American Cemetery and Memorial is the only American military cemetery in the Netherlands. The cemetery site has a rich historical background, lying near the famous Cologne-Boulogne highway built by the Romans and used by Caesar during his campaign in that area. The highway was also used by Charlemagne, Charles V, Napoleon, and Kaiser Wilhelm II. In May 1940, Hitler's legions advanced over the route of the old Roman highway, overwhelming the Low Countries. In September 1944, German troops once more used the highway for their withdrawal from the countries occupied for four years.The cemetery's tall memorial tower can be seen before reaching the site, which covers 65.5 acres. From the cemetery entrance the visitor is led to the Court of Honor with its pool reflecting the tower. At the base of the tower facing the reflecting pool is a statue representing a mother grieving her lost son. To the right and left, respectively, are the Visitor Building and the map room containing three large, engraved operations maps with texts depicting the military operations of the American armed forces. Stretching along the sides of the court are Tablets of the Missing on which are recorded 1,722 names. Rosettes mark the names of those since recovered and identified.Within the tower is a chapel. The light fixture in the chapel and the altar candelabra and flower bowl were presented by the government of the Netherlands and by the local Provincial administration. Beyond the tower is a burial area divided into 16 plots, where rest 8,301 of our military dead, their headstones set in long curves. A wide, tree-lined mall leads to the flagstaff that crowns the crest.The Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial in France is located on the site of the temporary American St. Laurent Cemetery, established by the U.S. First Army on June 8, 1944 and the first American cemetery on European soil in World War II. The cemetery site, at the north end of its ½ mile access road, covers 172.5 acres and contains the graves of 9,387 of our military dead, most of whom lost their lives in the D-Day landings and ensuing operations. On the Walls of the Missing in a semicircular garden on the east side of the memorial are inscribed 1,557 names. Rosettes mark the names of those since recovered and identified.The Ardennes American Cemetery and Memorial. The 90-acre cemetery contains the graves of 5,329 of our military dead, many of whom died in the 1944 Ardennes winter offensive (Battle of the Bulge). The headstones are aligned in straight rows that form a Greek cross on the lawns and are framed by tree masses. The cemetery served as the location of the Central Identification Point for the American Graves Registration Service of the War Department during much of the life of the Service.The Brittany American Cemetery and Memorial in France covers 28 acres of rolling farm country near the eastern edge of Brittany and contains the remains of 4,410 of our war dead, most of whom lost their lives in the Normandy and Brittany campaigns of 1944. Along the retaining wall of the memorial terrace are inscribed the names of 498 of the missing. Rosettes mark the names of those since recovered and identified.The Cambridge American Cemetery and Memorial site in England, 30.5 acres in total, was donated by the University of Cambridge. It lies on a slope with the west and south sides framed by woodland. The cemetery contains the remains of 3,812 of our military dead; 5,127 names are recorded on the Tablets of the Missing. Rosettes mark the names of those since recovered and identified. Most died in the Battle of the Atlantic or in the strategic air bombardment of northwest Europe.The Florence American Cemetery and Memorial site in Italy covers 70 acres, chiefly on the west side of the Greve "torrente." The wooded hills that frame its west limit rise several hundred feet. Between the two entrance buildings, a bridge leads to the burial area where the headstones of 4,402 of our military dead are arrayed in symmetrical curved rows upon the hillside. They represent 39 percent of the U.S. Fifth Army burials originally made between Rome and the Alps. Most died in the fighting that occurred after the capture of Rome in June 1944.At the Henri-Chapelle American Cemetery and Memorial in Belgium, covering 57 acres, rest 7,992 of our military dead, most of whom lost their lives during the advance of the U.S. armed forces into Germany. Their headstones are arranged in gentle arcs sweeping across a broad green lawn that slopes gently downhill. A highway passes through the reservation. West of the highway an overlook affords an excellent view of the rolling Belgian countryside, once a battlefield.To the east is the long colonnade that, with the chapel and map room, forms the memorial overlooking the burial area. The chapel is simple but richly ornamented. In the map room are two maps of military operations, carved in black granite, with inscriptions recalling the achievements of our forces. On the rectangular piers of the colonnade are inscribed the names of 450 missing. Rosettes mark the names of those since recovered and identified. The seals of the states and territories are also carved on these piers.The cemetery possesses great military historic significance as it holds fallen Americans of two major efforts, one covering the U.S. First Army's drive in September 1944 through northern France, Belgium, Holland and Luxembourg into Germany, the second covering the Battle of the Bulge. It was from the temporary cemetery at Henri-Chapelle that the first shipments of remains of American war dead were returned to the U.S. for permanent burial. The repatriation program began on July 27, 1947 at a special ceremony at the cemetery when the disinterment began. The first shipment of 5,600 American war dead from Henri-Chapelle left Antwerp, Belgium the first week of October 1947. An impressive ceremony was held, with over 30,000 Belgium citizens attending along with representatives of the Belgium government and senior Americans.The Lorraine American Cemetery and Memorial in France covers 113.5 acres and contains the largest number of graves of our military dead of World War II in Europe, a total of 10,489. Their headstones are arranged in nine plots in a generally elliptical design extending over the beautiful rolling terrain of eastern Lorraine and culminating in a prominent overlook feature. Most of the dead here were killed while driving the German forces from the fortress city of Metz toward the Siegfried Line and the Rhine River. Initially, there were over 16,000 Americans interred in the St. Avold region, mostly from the U.S. Seventh Army's Infantry and Armored Divisions and its Cavalry Groups. St. Avold served as a vital communications center for the vast network of enemy defenses guarding the western border of the Third Reich.The Luxembourg American Cemetery and Memorial, 50.5 acres in extent, is situated in a beautiful wooded area. The cemetery was established on December 29, 1944 by the 609th Quartermaster Company of the U.S. Third Army while Allied Forces were stemming the enemy's desperate Ardennes Offensive, one of the critical battles of World War II. The city of Luxembourg served as headquarters for General George S. Patton's U.S. Third Army. General Patton is buried here.Not far from the cemetery entrance stands the white stone chapel, set on a wide circular platform surrounded by woods. It is embellished with sculpture in bronze and stone, a stained-glass window with American unit insignia, and a mosaic ceiling. Flanking the chapel at a lower level are two large stone pylons upon which are maps made of various inlaid granites, with inscriptions recalling the achievements of the American armed forces in this region. On the same pylons are inscribed the names of 371 of the missing. Rosettes mark the names of those since recovered and identified.Sloping gently downhill from the memorial is the burial area containing 5,076 of our military dead, many of whom lost their lives in the "Battle of the Bulge" and in the advance to the Rhine. Their headstones follow graceful curves; trees, fountains and flower beds contribute to the dignity of the ensemble.The Manila American Cemetery and Memorial in the Philippines occupies 152 acres on a prominent plateau, visible at a distance from the east, south and west. It contains the largest number of graves of our military dead of World War II, a total of 17,202, most of whom lost their lives in operations in New Guinea and the Philippines. The headstones are aligned in 11 plots forming a generally circular pattern, set among masses of a wide variety of tropical trees and shrubbery.The chapel, a white masonry building enriched with sculpture and mosaic, stands near the center of the cemetery. In front of it on a wide terrace are two large hemicycles. Twenty-five mosaic maps recall the achievements of the American armed forces in the Pacific, China, India and Burma. On rectangular Trani limestone piers within the hemicycles are inscribed the Tablets of the Missing containing 36,285 names. Rosettes mark the names of those since recovered and identified.The Netherlands American Cemetery and Memorial is the only American military cemetery in the Netherlands. The cemetery site has a rich historical background, lying near the famous Cologne-Boulogne highway built by the Romans and used by Caesar during his campaign in that area. The highway was also used by Charlemagne, Charles V, Napoleon, and Kaiser Wilhelm II. In May 1940, Hitler's legions advanced over the route of the old Roman highway, overwhelming the Low Countries. In September 1944, German troops once more used the highway for their withdrawal from the countries occupied for four years.The cemetery's tall memorial tower can be seen before reaching the site, which covers 65.5 acres. From the cemetery entrance the visitor is led to the Court of Honor with its pool reflecting the tower. At the base of the tower facing the reflecting pool is a statue representing a mother grieving her lost son. To the right and left, respectively, are the Visitor Building and the map room containing three large, engraved operations maps with texts depicting the military operations of the American armed forces. Stretching along the sides of the court are Tablets of the Missing on which are recorded 1,722 names. Rosettes mark the names of those since recovered and identified.Within the tower is a chapel. The light fixture in the chapel and the altar candelabra and flower bowl were presented by the government of the Netherlands and by the local Provincial administration. Beyond the tower is a burial area divided into 16 plots, where rest 8,301 of our military dead, their headstones set in long curves. A wide, tree-lined mall leads to the flagstaff that crowns the crest.

P-38 Lightning! (Get over it, Hollywood historians).Is there some algorithm that periodically spits out this …best fighter of WWII …best plane of WW2 …best fighter plane of WWII question? It seems like I've already climbed into the cockpit of my trusty word processor half a dozen times to flame flawed pop culture logic. IJS. But once again into the breech. Tally ho!The best fighter plane, in fact the best warplane of any type, during WWII was the Lockheed P-38 Lightning. Because of petty politics within the U.S. military and the general lazy-mindidness of pre-war commanders, the plane was not developed with a sense of urgency even as the country counted down to war. Didn't matter. Except for the Eastern Front, the Lightning took on and defeated all opponents in every theater of battle around the world. And it did this from early in the war to the last day of the war.“Lightning Strikes” Smithsonian: Air&Space Collector's Edition, Summer 2018 , 65.Firstly, I must qualify my answer for the geographically challenged. Europe was not the only continent on Planet Earth during WWII, and the Atlantic was not even the biggest ocean. When taking the world war into consideration, the P-38 was not only the best fighter plane, it was the best warplane of any sort. PERIOD.The P-38 first flew in February of 1939, making it the only U.S. fighter to serve throughout WW2, (Actually, I kinda think that honor should go to the P-40 Warhawk since a P-51 Mustang is nothing but a souped up P-40). The P-38 is the only war-winning airframe that was in place early enough to have actually shortened the war in Europe. First the stats for the P-38F, which is the first combat ready version:Max speed: 390 MPH at 20,000 ft.Combat range 245 miles on internal stores.Time to 20,000 feet: 7 minutes.Armament: 4 fifty caliber machine guns and 1 twenty millimeter cannon, all firing through the nose.Power: 2 Allison V-1710 twelve-cylinder, liquid-cooled inline enginesCrew: 1And here is another critical statistic that explains more than any other number the difficulties faced by the P-38. Number of P-38 assembly lines: 1. Any combat aircraft, no matter how good it is, will ALWAYS struggle if it is ALWAYS outnumbered and thus ALWAYS outgunned, and that is very much the story of the P-38 Lightning during WWII, especially in Europe.Next a little background… At the beginning of WWII, and in fact up until about 1944, pursuit planes, which we now call fighters, were considered defensive weapons. The offensive weapon was the bomber. Even an escort fighter was there to defend the bombers and allow them to complete the mission. The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) was focused on bombers, not fighters.When the P-38 first flew in February of 1939, it was obvious after only a couple of test flights that the P-38 was the fastest thing in the sky. General Henry H. (Hap) Arnold had been chief of the Air Corps for less than six months. Arnold was an incorrigible promoter of air power, and he decided, as a publicity stunt, on using the one-of-a-kind, hand-built P-38 prototype to break Howard Hughes’ cross country speed record. The plane easily broke the record and then, for reasons which to this day are still unclear, crashed while landing in New York.Tony LaVier, one of the great test pilots of this country, and for years the chief test pilot in the P-38 program laid it out candidly:“I have always said, and I suppose many people realize it but forget it, that when you are dealing with experimental airplanes, you are dealing with something that can mean an awful lot to the security of our country, especially in time of war. If test pilots and the flight test crew don't take every precaution to keep it from being damaged, it could cause serious loss to the country. I've seen it happen through the years and it is happening today.“For example, in World War II, the Army grabbed our first P-38 to set a new transcontinental speed record. It was a grand idea, but the only thing a speed record would give them was some newspaper headlines for a day and that's about all. Instead of waiting a few weeks until we knew more about the airplane, they took it when it had hardly been tested. The engines failed going in for a landing at New York…and the airplane fell short of the field and crashed. What did that do? It set the P-38 back about two years, because we had to start from scratch and build another prototype airplane and run a whole new test program, and as it was the best fighter airplane we had at that time, that incident may very well have lengthened the war.” (Martin Caiden, Fork-Tailed Devil:THE P38 [I could go on here (And in other articles, I have) until a definite pattern is established. Suffice it to say that under competent AF leadership, the so-called problems of the P-38 would have been nothing more than the normal teething problems of a new airplane. Unfortunately, if the P-38 Lightning was Super Plane, then Hap Arnold, not the Germans or the Japanese, was its kryptonite. Arnold was a bomber man. He did not like the P-38.The original specification filled by the P-38 called for a high-speed interceptor capable of cruising at maximum power for an hour. Max power gobbles up fuel, so extra fuel was added, which meant that the Air Force had inadvertently created a long range fighter when the plane was flown at normal cruise settings. The airframe was extremely stable and versatile, but it didn't look right. In the dogma, rather than data, dominated thinking of the old men of the Air Corps, pursuit planes were supposed to have a single engine. Medium bombers had two engines, and in the U.S. anyway, heavy bombers had four engines.As an aside... The Navy was no better. At the same time the Army was evaluating the P-38, the Navy was evaluating the F5F-1 Skyrocket, another long-range twin-engine design. In level flight, the F5F-1 was faster than the P-38, and if the P-38 climbed like a homesick angel, the F5F-1 climbed like a bat outta hell. Unfortunately, like the P-38, the F5F-1 didn't look right. Grumman originally designed the plane with no nose.To get an idea of how the admirals felt about a plane with no nose, play that old Joe Tex song, "Skinny Legs and All". Listen to the song a couple of times and then substitute "plane" for "woman" and "no nose" for "skinny legs". The F5F-1 was nonstarter. The Navy made Grumman put a nose on the plane.And despite the properly proboscissed prototype's superlative performance, when it crashed, the Navy cancelled the program.Come to think of it, maybe Hap Arnold's publicity stunt actually saved the P-38. Once the press learned the Army had a plane that fast, they couldn't cancel it.The idea of a multi-role pursuit plane; i.e., a fighter bomber, hadn't caught on. The commanders of the USAAF actually feared multi-role aircraft because they wanted the Air Force to be independent of the Army, and they feared that ground officers would seize on fighters performing attack and close air support missions as an excuse for keeping the Air Force under the control of the Army.But the tactical advantages of a long range pursuit plane could not be ignored. The United States anticipated going to war with Japan long before it expected to have to engage the Third Reich, and because of its range, the P-38 was the perfect land-based fighter for war in the Pacific.Which brings me to my first point. The Spitfire and the Bf 109 of the Battle of Britain, which is where these planes established their reputations, were only formidable machines when they were fighting in the close quarters of Europe. In the Pacific, against the long-range fighters of the Japanese, they would have been as useless as mammary glands on a boar hog.The P-38 did suffer from one important disadvantage. All WWII aircraft were susceptible to phenomenon called compressability. Compressability is the interruption of smooth airflow over the wing of an aircraft as the aircraft approaches the speed of sound. The interruption of the airflow over the wing caused shockwaves that buffeted the tail of the airplane and caused the controls to freeze. The phenomenon was amplified in the P-38 because of its large tail plane. At high altitudes, where the speed of sound is slower, compressability could literally tear a diving P-38 apart. The speed of sound is called Mach 1. Most WW2 pursuit planes could fight up to about Mach 0.8 before compressability became a factor. The P-38 could only fight up to about Mach 0.7.The denser the air, the faster the speed of sound. At medium to low altitudes, compressability was not a factor in air to air combat. At high altitudes, it gave enemy fighters an easy escape from a P-38. They could simply dive away. The P-38 couldn't follow. The compressability issue was solved by the middle of 1942. The ludicrously simple solution consisted of installing a dive flap under each wing. With dive flaps, a P-38 could dive quite safely, but the fix wasn't implemented on the assembly line until 1943. There was only one P-38 assembly line. Demand for the Lightning was so high, the War Production Board refused to shut down the assembly line just to implement a design revision that would save the lives of hundreds of aircrew. Planes could still be modified in the field, but the goddamned British accidentally shot down the transport plane carrying the modification kits for the fighters in Europe and no more kits were sent.Fortunately, even without the modification kit, a P-38 was quite capable of protecting itself at all altitudes. With its speed in level flight, it could fight or escape at will. It was dominant at medium to low altitudes, but at high altitudes, an enemy aircraft could easily dive away from it.Armies fight on the ground. The best place to destroy enemy aircraft is while they're parked on the ground. Most reasonable people would consider the ground low altitude. P-38s performed well at medium and low altitudes. Theater ground commanders were begging for P-38s. They couldn't have cared less about the compressability issue. In the Pacific, Generals George Kenney and Douglas MacArthur were happy with the plane as long as it got over the Owen-Stanley mountains of New Guinea.Hap Arnold didn't think a high altitude pursuit plane, let alone a long-range one, was needed in Europe either. He thought his heavily armed B-17 Flying Fortresses could take out the Luftwaffe in the air. Besides, the P-47 Thunderbolt was his fighter. He had personally ordered that the P-47 be built with an air-cooled radial engine. Problems with the engine, tail-buffeting, and yes, compressability, all slowed the deployment of the P-47. And yet, the only P-38s Arnold was interested in were the photo-recon versions, which found potential targets for his bombers, and that was a low level mission. The reason compressability—something that could easily have been dealt with a year before it was—wasn't solved earlier was because nobody in a command position in the USAAF, or anywhere else in the U.S. Army, gave a shit until the shit hit the fan in 1943.There were two reasons the P-38 did not dominate in Europe, and the second reason is a direct result of the first. The first reason is poor leadership. The commander of the Eighth Air Force was Hap Arnold's yes-man, Ira Eaker. Only Arnold's yes-men got commands in the European theater. If you disagreed with Arnold, it was a sign of disloyalty to the mission, and you were exiled to the Pacific. And the mission was not to win the war. The Allies always knew that short of Germany getting the atomic bomb first, they were going to win WWII. The mission, which demanded absolute loyalty, was the establishment of an independent American Air Force.The method by which the United States Army Air Forces was going to liberate itself from the Army was strategic bombing. The goal of the Eighth Air Force was to knock the Third Reich out of the war through strategic bombing alone. The U.S. Air Force intended on forcing a surrender before a ground invasion of Fortress Europa could be launched, which would, of course, obviate the need for both the Army and the Navy. Like Athena springing fully formed and armed from the head of Zeus, the newborn United States Air Force, USAF, would rise supreme from the ashes of Europe. Bwa ha ha ha ha! Bwa ha ha ha ha! (Yeah, right).Of course Arnold's plans didn't work out. But one casualty of them was P-38 development and timely deployment. Except for the P-47 Thunderbolt, all resources had to go to bombers. And then, rather belatedly, the pressing need for transport was realized, which also almost killed the P-38. The second reason the P-38 didn't dominate in Europe is simply because there weren't enough of them, which was the curse of having to incorporate all design changes on a single production assembly line without being permitted to stop the assembly line. Lockheed essentially built the P-38 while flying it.Until the P-47 was brought up, the Lightning was the United States’ only first-rate, front-line fighter. Until the Merlin-engined P-51 was brought up, the Lightning was the United States’ only long range fighter-bomber. From day one of WWII, there should have been at least two factories producing P-38s. Three P-38 plants would have made more sense, and four would not have been unreasonable. The following is a list of missions P-38s performed capably in the areas where they were in capable hands:High altitude interceptorPursuitDive bomberLight bomberPhoto-reconnaissanceAir ambulanceAttackLong range naval patrolPathfinder for heavy bombersClose air supportNight fighterEscort fighterWhy was there no second assembly for this plane? I'll say it again. Multi-role aircraft were a threat to Army Air Force dogma. Hap Arnold banned external fuel tanks for army fighters because the same hard points could be used for carrying bombs, which meant the Army could use fighters for attack and close air support missions. Arnold did not believe in supporting the troops.Lieutenant Ben Kelsey, the P-38 project officer, and in many ways the father of the P-38, put his career on the line by making a verbal request for external fuel tanks. If he had put the request in writing, he would have been court marshalled. Lockheed passed the hard points off as some sort of wing stiffening. If Kelsey hadn't risked his career, the P-38 might not have been able to save the daylight bombing campaign over Germany in 1943.When it became obvious after the first Schweinfurt raid that things were going downhill fast for unescorted B-17s over Germany, Robert A. Lovett called for the P-51 Mustang to be developed as a long range escort fighter. Lovett held the high-fallut'n title of Assistant Secretary of War for Air. In reality he was the increasingly erratic Hap Arnold's babysitter. That is literally true. Arnold was a high-profile and heroic figure even though he had never flown a combat mission in his life. Firing him would have been like firing General MacArthur. Something had to be done, and that something was Robert Lovett.While the P-51 was getting extra fuel tanks, the P-38 was called on to perform the long-range escort mission. Except for photo-recon, the plane had been out of the European Theater for almost a year. No thought was given to acclimating it for high altitude combat in Europe. There just wasn't time. The Eighth was on the verge of losing the daylight bombing campaign.No way in hell were there ever enough P-38s in the skies over Germany to take on the Jadgwaffe, the Luftwaffe’s fighter arm. There weren't enough P-38s in existence to take on the Jadgwaffe. In order to provide proper air escort, the ratio of fighters to bombers should be at least two to one. The ratio of P-38s to B-17s was hardly ever even .5:1, and the Lightnings were required to fly close escort, which was the very same tactic that got the Bf 109s (another plane that is a legitimate contender for the best fighter of WWII) shot up over England during the Battle of Britain. Without getting torn up nearly as badly as the 109s had, the P-38s brought bomber losses down enough for the campaign to continue until the P-51s took over the brunt of the fighting.Developing the P-51 for the long range escort was the absolute correct decision at the time it was made. The Mustang was much easier to build than the Lightning. Many planes were needed quickly. There was no way Lightning production could have come anywhere near P-51 production in the short time factories had for ramping up. But that truth in no way diminishes the efficacy of the P-38. If the same decision had been taken a year earlier, P-38s could have been escorting the B-17s all along and saving thousands of lives and airplanes.One more thing before I talk about what should have been. Training. The P-38 picked up a reputation for being a difficult plane to fly for poorly trained pilots. Well, two things: Any plane is difficult to fly for a poorly trained pilot. In the run up to WWII, the cream of the flying crop were taken for bombers. In many cases good pilots were pulled out of fighters over their vehement protests. After all bombers were multi-engine aircraft, and pursuit planes had only one engine. But the P-38 Lightning was also a multi-engine aircraft, and U.S. Army fighter pilots were second rate even when compared to U.S. Navy fighter pilots.Just as an example, let's take the Army's 27th Bombardment Group's experience with the A-24 Banshee, which was the Army version of the Navy SBD-6 Dauntless dive bomber.USAAF pilots, however, could not outmanoeuvre aggressive Japanese fighters. Where the rear-seat gunner had been highly effective in the US Navy machine--one US Navy crew shot down seven Mitsubishi Zeroes in two days--he was less potent aboard the A-24. Casualties were so high that the type was quickly withdrawn from front-line service. Since US Navy pilots at Coral Sea and Midway had demonstrated the ability to handle themselves against the Zero, the US Army's less satisfactory performance with the Dauntless is usually attributed to the inexperience and lower morale of its flight crews.The Encyclopedia of Aircraft of WWII [London, Amber Books Ltd., 153]And it wasn't just the 27th Bombardment Group. The 531st Fighter Bomber Squadron had the same dismal experience as the 27th. Are P-38 detractors going to claim that the SBD-6 was difficult to fly too! C'mon already.In the USAAF, the best pilots were funneled into the bombers even when EVERYBODY wanted to fly P-38s. It was a glamorous machine and there weren't that many of them. Good pilots should have been put into those planes, but even if they weren't, standards still could have been maintained. It is interesting to note that when George Kenney took over the 5th Air Force in New Guinea, the first thing he did was ground it. The pilots needed more training and the ground crews couldn't maintain the planes. Despite MacArthur’s constant prodding, the 5th didn't fly until it was ready. Then it just went up and produced ace after ace, not to mention winning campaign after campaign.Europe didn't have air commanders like George Kenney or Claire Chennault. That outspoken type of leader was exiled to the Pacific. All the Lockheed engineers and test pilots could do was shake their heads. They knew that many of the “problems” with their plane in Europe, whether with pilots or ground crews, were training issues. But what could they do? The Army Air Corps ran the way it ran.So what was possible? To start with, all the U.S. Army's victories of 1942-43 were made possible by the P-38. Operation Torch would not have even been attempted without the Lightning. The P-38 was the primary U.S. fighter in North Africa and the Mediterranean and played an important role in cutting the Axis supply routes to Rommel.It is also interesting to note that despite all that had been learned--or at least should have been learned--from the Spanish Civil War and the war in Europe, the American air commander in North Africa, General Carl Spaatz, seriously sucked at first. Instead of concentrating his forces, he broke them up into small groups derisively nicknamed “penny packets", which were easy pickings for Luftwaffe units attacking and defending in large concentrations. After seeing his P-38s, P-39s, and P-40s suffer heavy losses because they were always badly outnumbered, Spaatz wised up and concentrated his forces. Losses dropped, and those same P-38s, P-39s, and P-40s went on to pummel the Luftwaffe.It doesn't matter what types of planes are being flown, the side with an overwhelming numerical advantage, even if that advantage is just local, determines the conditions of combat and thus has the tactical advantage as well. Spaatz’ learning curve cost the lives dozens of airmen in North Africa, but at least he learned, which is more than can be said for some other USAAF generals.In the Pacific, General Kenney used P-38s as escort fighters for his B-25s and B-17s and won the Battle of the Bismarck Sea, which finally took the pressure off Australia. Exploiting the P-38′s fantastic range during one of the brilliant air campaigns of the war, Kenney then leapfrogged, against well-equipped and well-trained opposition, from airbase to airbase right on up the coast of New Guinea.Operation Torch and the New Guinea Campaign both depended on the range of the P38, but Kenney’s use of the P-38 in the thousand mile push up the North Coast of New Guinea suggests what could have happened in Europe if the P-38 had been wanted there from the very beginning.Long range is an important advantage which allows an aircraft to either project power far from its base or loiter over the battlefield for an extended period of time. Long range combined with superior speed and power is a killer advantage. The P-38 possessed all three of those attributes from day one of America's entry into WWII. Until 1943, altitude was optional.The following images show escort ranges for Allied fighters in Europe. Note that the earliest dates are from 1943. That is because the USAAF didn’t get around to bombing Germany until 1943. The earliest date for the P-51 is 1944. For the size of drop tanks shown, the range of the P-38 was about the same in 1942 as that shown for 1943. The only problem is that the P-38 was already using a bigger external tank by 1942. Early in 1942, before the Allies had won the Battle of the Atlantic, Hap Arnold reversed his no external tanks decision so the P-38 could be flown across the Atlantic. I'm not sure if the ferry tanks could be dropped, but in the Pacific, the 5th Air Force was independently designing and building its own drop tanks and flying much longer missions than were being flown in Europe.What if the range of the P-38 had been exploited in Europe in 1942? It's debatable whether the Luftwaffe ever had a chance of winning the Battle of Britain. But most people can agree that the battle was definitely lost when the Luftwaffe switched from bombing British airfields to bombing British urban areas. The U.S. strategic bombing campaign against Germany basically said let's skip all that stuff against airfields and get right to bombing German cities. Turns out that strategy didn't work any better against Germany than it had against England.If the same successful tactics used by the 5th AF in New Guinea and by the Luftwaffe in England were used against the Germans in Europe, then P-38s would have escorted fast light bombers and medium bombers against Luftwaffe airfields. The mission should not have been to shoot Bf 109s and FW 190s down. The goal should have been to shoot them up. While they were parked on the ground. By the time the heavy bombers began their assault, the opposition would have been neutralized or greatly reduced.Above is a map of Luftwaffe bases in Germany. Many of the cities were guarded by multiple bases. This is the defense that B-17s and B-24s had to fly over and into to reach their targets. Sometimes the bomber crews could see the airfields that launched fighters against them. But the bombing of Germany did not start until 1943. See that circle around Berlin? If P-38s, A-20s, B25s, and B-26s had attacked those bases and their transportation support network in starting in 1942, most, if not all, of the black dots in front of that circle are no longer there in 1943. The B-17s and B-24s could have flown safely to their targets.In addition to attacking airfields, P-38s should also have hit highways, railroads, bridges and canals because that's how the Luftwaffe was supplied. The factories that built the planes were powered by coal, and in Germany, coal was shipped through a canal system. Shutting down the canal and river transport system would interrupt not only aircraft production, but German war production in general. When the heavy bombers eventually got around to flying, they would have faced a much weakened Luftwaffe. If the heavies could destroy Germany's refineries and synthetic oil industry, the Luftwaffe would have been brought to its knees. Unfortunately the United States didn't get around to pressing the war against German airfields and German oil until 1944. By then it was too late to shorten the war.Increasing the quantity of P-38s would have inevitably pulled production resources away from heavy bombers, but it would also meant that fewer heavies would be needed because their loss rate would have plummeted. 1000 fewer 4-engine bombers frees up resources for 2000 2-engine planes.All those 2-engine P-38s and medium bombers would have been needed. Thousands of Allied airplanes would have gone down in the fight for air superiority in the skies over Germany, and most of those planes would have been P-38s. It's probable that more than 2000 P-38s would would have gone down. But the incremental loss rate for a P-38 is two engines and one person. For a heavy bomber it's four engines and 10 people. Lose fighters, not bombers.Let’s look at that range map again. Note that escort range for a P-38 extends as far as Denmark. That means the East Frisian Islands lie well the range of a P-38 equipped with external fuel tanks.The East Frisian Islands rise up (well, sort of) out of the North Sea just off the coast of northwest Germany. They are part of the German province of Lower Saxony. The Frisian Islands are low and flat and could have provided excellent emergency landing strips for damaged Allied bombers unable to make it back to England. The islands are tiny and the sandy soil wouldn't have supported the weight of heavy bombers, but a couple of them have strips of land firm enough for WWII fighter airfields.There are nine East Frisian Islands. Some of them are little more than giant sand dunes. They are situated almost against the coast of the mainland just west of a little peninsula, maybe 40 miles wide and 30 miles deep, that juts into the North Sea between the estuaries of the Ems and Weser Rivers. The entire East Frisian chain is less than 60 miles long.As early as possible in 1942, the United States should have taken the East Frisian Islands of Borkum, Norderney, and Wangerooge. The distance from Norderney to the mainland is only about nine miles, and the strait is so shallow that it’s mudflats at low tide. People walk across it.There is a West Frisian Island chain as well. The West Frisians belong to the Netherlands and were occupied by Germany in WWII. The United States should have at least tried to take the West Frisian Island of Texel. With its proximity to densely populated areas, Texel may have been a bridge too far, but it could have accommodated at least a couple of large fighter bases.The only force capable of successfully overrunning and holding four Frisian islands would have been a large joint Navy/Army operation involving capital ships supported by land-based air power. The islands were only lightly defended because the Germans thought they were beyond the range of Allied fighters. In 1942, the only fighter in England with the range and loiter time over the battlefield to cover such an operation was the P-38. Once the islands were captured, they could have been held until the cows come home because they are shielded by open mud flats or shallow seas on the landward side, and Germany did not have a strong enough navy for an attack from the sea.The East Frisian Islands are part of Germany proper. To have taken them in 1942 would have delivered a crushing blow to German morale, especially after their failure to take Moscow in 1941. The Third Reich would have been forced to commit an enormous amount of Heer and Luftwaffe resources needed in Russia to the defense of their own northwestern frontier. If they had refused to commit adequate forces, the Allies would have crossed the mud flats. WWII would have been over six months later.More to the point of the air war over Germany, a P-47 taking off from Texel could have escorted B-17s across the Ruhr. A P-47 taking off from Norderney could have escorted B-17s all the way to Berlin. The Germans also recognized the strategic importance of Norderney. When long-range fighters and transports for air assault became common in England, they sabotaged their own airfield so the Allies wouldn't bother with the island.The kind of cohesive strategy and inter-service cooperation needed to capture the Frisian Islands is exactly the kind of strategy used by MacArthur to fight the New Guinea Campaign. The reason it didn’t work in Europe, at least not early on, is that in Europe, within the U.S. Military, the different service branches couldn’t work together. (The reason the British nixed Operation Sledgehammer, the invasion of Europe in 1942, and insisted on Operation Torch, the invasion of North Africa in 1942, instead is because they thought American GIs needed combat experience. Events were to show that it was American generals who needed some combat experience, and some negotiating skills too. In North Africa, they went up against the crack Afrika Korps.) And this was especially true of the Air Force. Its generals only wanted to prove that they had outgrown the Army. And the Navy as well. Hap Arnold was very disappointed that the Navy was allowed to keep its aviation arm even after the modern USAF was formed. In the Southwest Pacific, MacArthur was able to mold the Army, the Navy, and the Air Force into a single fist. He also had the Australians rather than the British. The Australians were much more willing to defer to the Americans than the British, and there were times when they bore the brunt of fighting the Americans should have borne.My point is that it was always the generals that fell short rather than the P-38. In Europe, it took the generals almost two years to mature into the plane, and yes, by that time, there were cheaper, easier to build, alternatives, but nothing really better. In the Pacific, Kenney was a good commander from day one. He knew how to fight the P-38, and the rest is history.But let's forget about imaginary invasions and stick to basics. Basic Air Force doctrine is to first achieve air superiority. Total air supremacy is always the ultimate goal, but operations cannot be expanded until air superiority has been achieved. When the United States went to war in December of 1941, there was only one plane in the U.S. inventory that could go toe to toe with the Luftwaffe over Germany. By not building the P-38 Lightning in the quantities necessary for achieving and maintaining air superiority over the battlefield before sending the B-17s into battle, the commanders of the USAAF, for self-serving political purposes, violated basic Air Force doctrine. It was a doctrine some of them had a hand in writing.With all the disadvantages the P-38 was forced to fight under, its kill ratio in Europe was still 1.5:1. That kill ratio is favorable to the P-38 even though the lightning was always on offense and outnumbered by as much as five to one. There is no way that the Third Reich’s industrial complex could have kept pace with America's industrial complex in fighter production, especially with Germany being bombed day and night. If the P-38 Lightning had been built in greater numbers starting from the United States entry into the war, the Jadgwaffe in the west could have been destroyed as an effective fighting force as early as the Autumn of 1942, and certainly by 1943. With no fighter arm, the Luftwaffe is effectively destroyed except for it ground-based anti-aircraft.That would have shortened WWII in Europe. Without a Luftwaffe, the door to Festung Europa is wide open.In the Pacific the P-38 vied with the Navy's F4U for best fighter. The Allies named the F4U the Corsair. The Japanese just called it “the whistling death". Like the Merlin-engined P-51 Mustang and the P-47 Thunderbolt, the F4U Corsair combined the attributes of a P-38 Lightning with a single fuselage fighter, but none of those single-engine planes were available at the beginning of WWII. I believe the P-47 was the first to see combat, but it was still a short-range fighter for most of the war. If the question is put in a different way, “What is the best fighter of the second half of WWII?”, then the P-47, the P-51, and the F4U must be considered.If the question remains, “What is the best fighter of WWII?”, then the only serious contenders are the Supermarine Spitfire, the Hawker Hurricane, the Messerschmidt Bf-109, and the Focke Wolfe FW-190. Each of those planes was there from the beginning for their respective countries. The 190 wasn’t quite there at the very beginning for Germany, and the Hurricane didn’t quite last the entire war as a front-line fighter, but they were both close enough.The early versions of the Spitfire, Hurricane, 109, and 190 simply didn’t have the range to be truly considered the best fighter. In the Pacific, all of those planes would have lost to the Japanese Zero because the Zero would have used its long range to destroy them on the ground. When the Spitfire did operate in the Pacific, it had problems with the climate, just as the P-38 had problems with the climate in Europe.There are two other candidates that deserve a mention: the Zero and the De Haviland Mosquito. I think everyone realizes that the Zero was possibly the best fighter in the world when first entered service, and it was certainly very good, but I don’t think it was ever better than a P-38. To achieve its spectacular range, the Zero made too many compromises in the speed and power category. It also had a weak airframe relative to the P-38 and saved weight by not having self-sealing fuel tanks. The Zero soldiered on throughout the war because the Japanese just didn’t have anything better, but I don’t think anybody thinks that by the end of WWII, the Japanese Zero should still have been a front-line fighter.One cannot question the greatness of the De Haviland Mosquito. It could do everything a P-38 Lightning could do, except maintain air superiority during the daylight hours. The Mosquito may have been the best of the night fighters, but its inability to defeat the best modern day fighters disqualifies it from being the best fighter. Now as far as being the best all-around combat aircraft, that’s another story. I still give the nod to the Lightning, but a convincing argument can be made for the Mosquito as well even though it was a no-show in the Pacific.The first combat-ready version of the P-38, the P-38F—Actually, I think the P-38E was combat ready. The changes that resulted in the F just slowed the plane down and reduced its range—was the best warplane when the U.S. entered the war. The final combat version of the P-38, the P-38L, was still the best warplane of the war on VJ day.EDIT: I didn't realize this until I started reading up on the F-4 Phantom II, but look at any modern day strike fighter. They all have two engines, even the Russian ones. As far as I can tell, the P-38 Lightning pioneered most of today's strategic long-range fighters.The F-4 Phantom must be considered one of the two most dominant fighters in the world from around the mid-sixties to about the mid-seventies. (In my opinion, the other would be the MIG 21, but no matter which fighter-bomber from whichever country garners first place or second place, the Phantom is probably going to be in the top two). I'm obviously a dyed-in-the-wool P-38 fan, and I was astonished to learn how similar the histories of the P-38 and the F-4 are.Most interesting is that neither plane was designed as a fighter. Essentially each plane is its era's version of two engines stuck onto a brick, and they both started out as high-speed, long-range interceptors. Their multi-role potential was immediately recognized, and yet they were both thrown into the pursuit or fighter role without being configured for it.The P-38 wasn't tested in a wind tunnel until just after the war started--or maybe just before--and the army was still learning how to properly configure the turbo-supercharger/liquid-cooled engine combination while the plane was engaged in combat in Europe and in the Pacific. Still, as far as I know, no WWII era fighter can claim a positive kill ratio against the P-38. Since the P-38 was available from day one of America's entry into WWII, and since the United States could produce many times the number of fighter aircraft any other country could produce, the ability of the P-38 to maintain a positive kill ratio guaranteed a U.S. victory in WWII, even if the United States had produced no other model of pursuit plane. And that's not even considering the P-38's efficacy as a reconnaissance platform or a bomb truck.Since it was designed as an interceptor, which were armed with missiles only, the early Phantom, without a gun, went head to head against the MIG 21 at a time before air-to-air missile technology was mature. Dud and errant missiles, especially when released at close range cost the lives of Phantom pilots. Even so the early F-4s matched the MIGs in kill ratio. After the F-4 was developed as an air-superiority fighter, it left the MIG in the dust. I believe the F-4 Phantom is considered the most important plane of its era because of the adaptability of the airframe. It could perform all the roles necessary for winning a war. One design.The F-4 is a Navy design. While it was being developed by the Navy, the Air Force was developing its Century Series of fighters, reconnaissance aircraft, and fighter-bombers. If I remember correctly, the series ran from the F-100 through the F-106 or 107. The Vietnam War showed how off the rails the Air Force's philosophy was. (The Air Force still had a hangover from the Bomber Mafia days of WWII). The Air Force had to turn to the F-4 Phantom or be rendered irrelevant to the mission in Vietnam. ONE plane replaced the entire Century Series. I don't believe the F-4 was ever used as an air ambulance, but that may be the only mission the P-38 flew that the F-4 didnt. That is how adaptable the F-4 airframe was.The record of the F-4 Phantom and Phantom II is legitimately legendary. But the story of the F-4 is not the story of a fighter. It is the story of powerful engines mated with an incredible airframe. That happens to also be the story of the P-38. The difference between the two planes is simple. The U.S. Navy believed in developing multi-role utilitarian aircraft. The U.S. Air Force didn't. That's why the Century Series was a series. The F-4 Phantom is Navy. The P-38 was Air Force.The United States Army Air Force generals screwed up the development and the deployment of the P-38 so badly that they may have lengthened WWII. The Air Force would, of course, rather not pump the P-38. It's time for them to eat crow. Of course the Air Force will never eat crow (or even name a plane after one), but that doesn't change the fact that the P-38 was the best fighter of WWII, and until very late in WWII, probably the best design period.Sorry for the long edit. This seemed to be a good place to jot down some thoughts about the similarities between F-4 and the P-38.

Re: “Did the USA have any option other than dropping the atomic bomb on Hiroshima?”The US had two options besides using atomic weapons to compel Japan's surrender:Invade the Japanese mainland;Allow the highly effective naval and air blockade of Japan to compel the Japanese to surrender.So what does the historical record say?The Strategic Bombing Survey of Japan ordered by President Truman and completed in 1946 concluded the following:"Based on a detailed investigation of all the facts, and supported by the testimony of the surviving Japanese leaders involved, it is the Survey's opinion that certainly prior to 31 December 1945, and in all probability prior to 1 November 1945, Japan would have surrendered even if the atomic bombs had not been dropped, even if Russia had not entered the war, and even if no invasion had been planned or contemplated."(Emphasis added)UNITED STATES STRATEGIC BOMBING SURVEY SUMMARY REPORT (Pacific War) WASHINGTON, D.C. 1 JULY 1946 p. 26 para. 8Dwight D. Eisenhower when Secretary of War Stimson informed him the atomic bomb would be used: “… I voiced to him my grave misgivings, first on the basis of my belief that Japan was already defeated and that dropping the bomb was completely unnecessary, and secondly because I thought that our country should avoid shocking world opinion by the use of a weapon whose employment was, I thought, no longer mandatory as a measure to save American lives.”Brigadier Gen. Carter W. Clarke, commander of MAGIC intercepted cable summaries in 1945: “We brought them [the Japanese] down to an abject surrender through the accelerated sinking of their merchant marine and hunger alone, and when we didn't need to do it, and we knew we didn't need to do it, and they knew that we knew we didn't need to do it, we used them as an experiment for two atomic bombs.”Admiral Frank Wagner, in charge of air search-and-patrol of all the East Asian seas and coasts. "... that in all those millions of square miles there was literally not a single target worth the powder to blow it up ... ."Major General Curtis E. LeMay, commander of the Twenty-First Bomber Command: “the atomic bomb ‘had nothing to do with the end of the war.’ He said the war would have been over in two weeks without the use of the atomic bomb or the Russian entry into the war.”Henry H. "Hap" Arnold, commanding general of the U.S. Army Air Forces: “The Japanese position was hopeless even before the first atomic bomb fell.”Lieutenant General Ira C. Eaker, Arnold’s deputy: “Arnold's view was that it [the dropping of the atomic bomb] was unnecessary. He said that he knew the Japanese wanted peace.”Admiral William D. Leahy, the President's Chief of Staff: "[T]he use of this barbarous weapon at Hiroshima and Nagasaki was of no material assistance in our war against Japan."Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, Commander in Chief of the Pacific Fleet: "The atomic bomb played no decisive part ... in the defeat of Japan."Admiral William F. Halsey, Jr., Commander U.S. Third Fleet: "The first atomic bomb was an unnecessary experiment. . . . It was a mistake to ever drop it."The verdict of recorded history is clear and simple. From a special commission charged by President Truman to assess the effectiveness of strategic bombing in the Pacific Theater and every senior American commander responsible for conducting the War in the Pacific, neither the use of atomic weapons nor invasion of the Japanese mainland was militarily necessary to compel the Japanese to surrender. The naval and air blockade would have accomplished that goal without immense loss of life.