Luftwaffe Loss ...a P38 Lightning

[Maciej Góralczyk]

Originally Posted by edNorth

Look at cowling, NOT G-model (that was same as P-38F), but is JKL version.

Back to drawing board please.

What photo do you mean? The Italian P-38 whose several photos might be found in the two aforementioned sources is obviously not an J-L, please don't move the discussion into muddy waters.

EDIT: ah, ok, that photo has nothing to do with this thread, it shows F-5E s/n 44-23725 as T9+MK of 2./Versuchsverband Ob.d.L.

Getting back to the subject, I am quite sure that the first two digits as seen on the photo of the Italian machine are 71 (BTW, period colour photos of early Ligthnings show that c/n digits were painted in NG 43 rather than yellow mentioned in one of previous posts). I have just a few IARCs for P-38s that served in MTO and at least these ones do include info on their unit assignments, so perhaps the IARC for 42-12733 may bring us the necessary info.