Italian P-38

[veltro]

The piece about the P-38 captured by the Regia Aeronautica is extremely correct (at last, I was sick of reading accounts or questions mutuated from the complete fantasy of Martin Caidin...! ), except for one detail: the plane shot down on August 11, 1943 by Col. Angelo Tondi with the P-38 wasn't a B-24 but a B-17 instead...

For further details, see my contribution within the following thread: http://forum.12oclockhigh.net/showth...?t=3992&page=2

Hope this helps.

P.S. one interesting addenda, just found while searching on the net... on the site of 32nd BS (http://32ndbombsquadron.com/32ndacts.html).

This is extracted from the diary of 2nd Lt. James Franklin Boston:

"August 11, 1943-Mission to Terni, Italy 06:00. Carried 6000 lbs. demos. (demolition bombs). Flak moderate. Coming back 60 miles from Italy intercepted by ME-109 and captured P-38 with enemy flier flying it. Nobody fired at first, thinking it friendly. Saw it slip in a formation from behind and shoot down a B-17. Everybody fired at it then including myself but my gun jammed. 20mm shell came by my head while I was looking through astrodome and went into No. 2 engine. P-38 was not shot down."

I guess this can be called and indipendent confirmation!

[shooshoobaby]

Correction - The Engines in the Italian P - 38 were damaged because the
Octane in the Fuel was too Low.
Cheers

[Kutscha]

Originally Posted by shooshoobaby

Correction - The Engines in the Italian P - 38 were damaged because the Octane in the Fuel was too Low.
Cheers

Agh? German B4 (87 lean mixture) was equivelent to Allied 100 (rich mixture) grade fuel. More likely because the compostion of the fuels were different > German synthetic vs Allied natural. Btw, the captured Fw190 ran rough because of the Allied fuel.

Thanks guys.