Italian P-38

[Kutscha]

http://www.1stfighter.org/photos/P38...0Italians.html

"The 12 of June, 1943 a lonely P-38 landed at Capoterra airfield on southern Sardinia. The Italians on the airfield cannot believe what was happening. A soldier, quickly, move a car just on the front of the aircraft to prevent a restart. The P-38's pilot was opening the canopy when he realize that he had landed on the wrong place. He tried to take off but it was too late to do it and he was captured. The pilot - his identity is unknown - was flyng from Malta to Gibraltar ( other sources says he was flyng from Tunis to Pantelleria ) to deliver a bag containing documents and mail. He landed at Capoterra almost out of fuel after a long trip above the Mediterranean Sea . Later was found a compass failure resulting in 30 degrees error on the route . The P-38 was probably an E model upgraded to G models. Voices says that last four digits of the serial number were 2278. The US insignia was covered with Italian Dark Green paint who was a bit darker respect the US Olive Drab. Then were applied white bands on the booms, Sabaudian crosses on the tails and spinners was painted in white. The Lightning was tested at Guidonia Experimental Center near Rome and later was used against US bombers. The Col. Angelo Tondi - a skilled Italian pilot - flyng with the P-38 shoot down a US B-24 Liberator off Anzio coast at 11am of August 11, 1943, six of B-24's crew bailed out from the aircraft . The Italian Lightning had a no long flyng career because the German synthetic fuel used by Italians corroded P-38's fuel tanks and the aircraft was forced to stay on the ground, but US reports says that B-17s bombers were attacked by two P-38s on early September 1943. During another mission a damaged US P-38 was flyng close to US bombers needing protection. The bomber's gunners, thinking he was the " enemy " P-38, shoot down the aircraft."


Is this fact or fiction that the P-38 attacked American a/c?

[Ludovico Slongo]

It is fact.
If I'm not wrong, Ferdinando D'Amico and/or Gianandrea Bussi, (both eminent members of this forum) studied in detail this topic and are the right persons to answer your question with plenty of details.

Ludovico.

[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.

[NUPPOL]

http://images.search.yahoo.com/image...e&fr=yfp-t-701

http://forum.12oclockhigh.net/showth...t=aNGELO+tONDI