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War Thunder: P-38G Lightning, Tier-2 / Rank-2 Review

1,587 views · Published 22 March 2014 · 26:33 · Indexed 10 November 2026

Channel: Angry Nerd Gaming · 2014 · Gaming

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/// NOTICE : This video is intended for a "Mature Audience" only. \\\
In this War Thunder video, I fly and review the Tier-2 / Rank-2  Lockheed P-38 Lightning.
The Lockheed P-38 Lightning was an American World War II fighter built by Lockheed.  
The P-38 had a distinctive twin boom and single central nacelle Design. Each Boom contained a Turbocharged  Allison  V-12 piston engine, generating 1,600 hp at 3,000rpm, The central nacelle contained  the cockpit and armament, (1)  20 mm cannon with 150 rounds, and  (4) 12.7 mm machine guns with 2,000 rounds.

 Named the "fork-tailed devil" by the Luftwaffe and "two planes, one pilot" by the Japanese, the P-38 was used in a number of roles, including dive bombing, level bombing, ground-attack, night fighting,  
photoreconnaissance missions, and extensively as a long-range escort fighter when equipped with drop tanks under its wings.
The P-38 did had some issues, during high-speed dives, the aircraft's tail would become unresponsive due to buffeting and compressibility issues.  The control surfaces would begin to shake violently and the fighter could enter a high-speed compressibility stall causing the nose would tuck under, steepening the dive. Once caught in this dive, the controls would lock up, leaving the pilot no option but to bail out          (if possible) or remain with the aircraft until it got down to denser air, where he might have a chance to pull out.  Dive flaps and Fillet kits were installed on some later models to rectify this issue.
In the European theater, P-38s were easily avoided by German fighters because of the lack of dive flaps to counter compressibility in dives. German fighter pilots not wishing to fight would perform the first half of a Split S and continue into steep dives because they knew the Lightnings would be reluctant to follow.
The P-38 was used most extensively and successfully in the Pacific theater, where it proved ideally suited, combining excellent performance with very long range, and had the added reliability of two engines for long missions over water. The P-38 was used in a variety of roles, especially escorting bombers at altitudes between 18--25,000 ft. The P-38 was credited with destroying more Japanese aircraft than any other USAAF fighter.  While the P-38 could not out-turn the A6M Zero or most other Japanese fighters when flying below 200 mph, its superior speed coupled with a good rate of climb meant that it could utilize energy tactics, making multiple high-speed passes at its target. Also, its focused firepower was even more deadly to lightly armored Japanese warplanes than to the Germans'. The concentrated, parallel stream of bullets allowed aerial victory at much longer distances than fighters carrying wing guns.

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