What it was REALLY Like Flying a P-38 Lightning

over the South Pacific in 1943 a P38 Lightning Roars through the sky in a deadly duel against a Japanese zero here you will be at the controls faced with decisions that will either keep you alive or in your life let's follow the actual Mission from 1943 and dive into the combat reports with you in the cockpit as the actual pilot and most importantly see if you can survive it is the morning of October 29th 1943 you wake up from your Hut on the outskirts of North boreo Airfield a small runway in New Guinea just a few miles from the coast here you are second Lieutenant Christopher Bartlett a fighter pilot belonging to the 475th Fighter Group who has just arrived at the front a few months earlier here the United States along with the British and Australians are trying to push back the Japanese from the islands in the South Pacific but so far it has not been an easy task at this point in the war the Japanese still have a great deal of resources and are well armed with formidable aircraft and seasoned Pilots so the fighting is intense but nonetheless you are confident inside the cockpit of your P38 Lightning you feel like the master of the sky and that the inact Japanese Pilots can do little to stop you after all many American pilots in the Pacific are already racking up kill counts showing that the American might and Engineering will likely win out but today that false reality would be brought crashing down faster than you ever thought right after breakfast the mission assignment has officially been announced and briefings are made the 475th also known as Satan's angels will be escorted reporting a bombing raid to the Japanese stronghold of rabal here the bombers are crucial to weakening the Japanese supplies and stronghold in the area but we are not the only ones aware of that the Japanese are also all too aware that raal is a key Target for the bombers and have multiple fighter squadrons of their own stationed to defend it this will almost certainly not be a quiet mission in a few hours all is made ready and in a few moments it's your turn and your lightning is moving and in the air for this Mission you will be flying in the number two spot on the wing of your seasoned flight leader Arthur Parago a skilled pilot who is quickly rising to the top as one of the leaders in The 475th Fighter Group your job as his wingman is to follow his P38 named slightly dangerous and keep his tail clear of any threats over and over again you tell yourself stick to him like glue at approximately 1100 hours you link up with the friendly bombers your big friends today these are B24 liberators you give them a tip of the Wings and get into the escorting formation with another group of p38s that is already there to escort the bombers here escorting at 22,000 ft you fly above the bombers and scan the Horizon looking for anything that might threaten them but for now the sky is clear and the air is quiet but then the island of aall comes into view and right on Q the radio Breaks Loose Bandits 1:00 low you look down and there they are Japanese Fighters rising to intercept it is a poor strategy on their part climbing up like that but they must do so if they want any hope to intercept the American bomber before they strike their target this puts them into the perfect position to attack and Satan's Angels won't miss it Parago next to you radios all right boys let's get after them he immediately rolls over and Dives and you push the Yol and follow the zeros are currently at 18,000 ft and climbing so it is going to be a short dive but it will nonetheless be quick with guns blazing immediately over your shoulder you see another P38 from the unit that you joined up with roaring downwards faster than even you and Parago leading the attack before your flight can even get there he opens fire scoring one kill as the zero burst into flames that guy is good you mutter to yourself quietly as the dive continues Parago likewise blazes into the engagement opening fire on the zeros and here this brings us to our first decision flying your P38 Lightning you are on the wing of your flight lead who has just open fire on the Zero formation climbing up to attack as the tracers start to fly from his nose you must decide what your job is you are now well within range and have a shot at the zeros yourself so while your flight leader just ahead of you opens fire do you a ease off the throttle to give him more space during the attack B open fire yourself on the Japanese Fighters or C focus on Parago staying as close as possible you have moments to think so decide as the attack begins your job is very simple stick to your leader the closer you are to him the better you can protect him if you pull back and give him space you are exposing him to attack so a is incorrect and if you open fire yourself your focus will be taken off the leader and you can actually also hit him if he makes an unexpected move so B is also incorrect this leaves the right choice as C staying close to your leader so you do just that following him in the attack as he opens fire on the zeros he makes a good strike on the Japanese flight which begins to break up but then zooming by at 400 m mph you catch a glimpse of your adversary and something isn't right the planes that you were initially attacking were zeros or at least most of them but this one is different it's no zero and when you are fighting for your life it would certainly be advisable to know what you are up against and this brings us to our second choice as you fly by and catch a glimpse of the Japanese fighter peeling off what aircraft do you identify is it a a Ki 61 Tony B A Ki 43 osar or C A Ki 84 Frank the dog fight is underway so decide quickly as you scream past you realize exactly what the Japanese aircraft was not a Ki 61 and not a Ki 84 but the Nakajima Ki 43 also known to the Allies as the Oscar the Oscar at first glance looks very similar to the zero but is not quite the same the Ki 43 was used exclusively by the Japanese Army instead of the Navy and so it had a slightly different design overall however the performance was relatively similar to the zero it could turn it could move but it couldn't take damage well so fortunately for the purposes of this dog fight you won't need to adjust any strategy well done if you made those two decisions correctly you are still alive but the fight is far from over as soon as you successfully identify the Oscar and are finishing the dive through the formation you make it down to 10,000 ft above the Bay of verbal you've done a good job in sticking close to your leader and now level off to fly and will likely strafe targets of value Below in just a few minutes above you you look up to see a P38 opening fire on a Japanese aircraft a zero exploding into another ball of flames and then you realize based on the markings this is the same lightning that you saw initially tearing through the formation and leading the attack that guy is really really good you mutter little do you know that this P38 pilot is none other than Richard Dick bong who would go on to become the leading American ace of World War II currently flying with the 49th Fighter Group here we can see a report from The Fifth Air Force which lists this day of combat for Richard bong claiming the two kills scored against Japanese Zeke Fighters Richard bong Captain ninth Fighter Squadron 49th Fighter Group is credited with the destruction of two enemy fighter type aircraft in aerial combat over rabul New Britain on 29th October 1943 as 1230 hours during an escort Mission 13 p38s encountered approximately 50 enemy fighters in the ensuing engagement this pilot made a head-on attack against a zero causing it to roll out of control and crash he opened fire on a second Japanese aircraft and flames burst from its fuselage immediately afterwards this second would be the one that you just Witness with America's leading Ace screaming through the debris of another Japanese plane but then you snap back to your own cockpit and to your mission realizing that while you were in awe of this friendly P38 Victory you have lost situational awareness for just a moment and now appearing in your own mirror a single engine aircraft a hostile Japanese fighter you are in a bad spot and have to act now there is no time for communication this brings us to another decision with a Japanese fighter directly on your tail and your leader just ahead what do you do a dive downwards trying to lose him in a dive B punch the throttle forward trying to outrun him or C pull into a tight turn trying to shake him you have moments so decide I think that we all know that trying to turn with a zero is going to be a losing Endeavor so C is out similarly the zero is already well within range so punching the throttle and continuing straight is likely not advisable this leaves a diving downwards to try and lose the Bandit in a dive but unfortunately in this scenario even the right choice doesn't always work you've already given him a shot you start to break downwards but it's too late his guns fire to life and you feel a jolt in your aircraft you have been hit hard you lose control of the fighter for just a moment and the P38 hurdles downward for what seems like an eternity you fall in a spiral directly towards the water but eventually you are able to regain control as you level off thankfully it appears that you have fallen far beyond the range of the dog fight and there are no longer tracers going by your plane but now you are alone and dangerously close to the Japanese stronghold of RA ball and to make matters worse your radio has been shot out and is not working leaving no way to relay information to your flight here we can take a look at the post mission report for October 29th of 1943 from none other than first lieutenant Arthur L Parago on October 29th of 1943 we were escorting B24 to B I was leading a flight with Lieutenant Bartlett flying on my wing the last pass my flight made was at a group of zekes at 18,000 ft we Dove through them and turned out on course the zekes tried to come in on our tail but we held our dive at 450 m per hour to 10,000 ft and quickly outd distanced them Lieutenant Bartlett was directly in trail with me all the way down and I last saw him at 10,000 ft directly over the shore of wide Bay I crossed the bay but could not see Lieutenant Bartlett as I approached the Southshore I turned back and looked for him circling several times but he had completely disappeared first lieutenant Arthur L peroy in that moment that you were hit your leader Arthur Parago loses sight of you and you would not be seen again presumably pounced on and killed by Japanese Fighters before you could react but in reality you Christopher Bartlett are not dead you have taken serious damage falling f thousands of feet in just a few seconds and your P38 was crippled quickly losing power in one engine but you were indeed alive and in this moment at about 2,000 ft of altitude is when you will face your next decision debatably your most critical yet with a crippled P38 thousands of feet from your flight and no radio where do you go a play it safe and ditch here in the Bay of for ball B start heading south getting as far away from raal as possible but staying near the coast of New Britain not heading over the ocean or C immediately head back over the open ocean hoping to make it roughly 400 mil back to New Guinea time is running out so choose now if you listen to any of the briefings that you were given upon arrival to the Pacific you would know good and well that the Japanese do not treat PS too kindly so Landing here at rabal is absolutely The Last Resort making a incorrect but although we are still flying 400 m across the Pacific back to our home Airfield is certainly a stretch with the damage to your aircraft making it a very small probability that you would make it back the entire flight in addition you are well aware that multiple other Pilots have already gone missing during that long flight back to New Guinea and the thought of ending up in the middle of the Pacific on a raft 200 M from Land hardly seems more desirable than the port of foral this makes C Incorrect and brings us to our correct option Choice B flying along the coast and hoping to get as far south as possible before going down so that is exactly what you do turning South you start along the coast flying as fast as your limping lightning can go thankfully it appears that luck is on your side you see no fighters in the area and no Patrol boats or Japanese soldiers opening up on you from below which is all you could have hoped for as your Quiet Flight continues after about 15 minutes you notice that the lightning simply can't maintain altitude any longer this is likely the end of the line you have only put about 40 m between between you and raal but it is a lot better than none now though you must find a way down and this brings us to your final choice to get down safely do you a bail out near the coast B try to land wheels down along the beach or C ditch in the water with a belly landing along the shore you're losing altitude so decide this one should be fairly easy for starters you have been stationed here in the South Pacific for a while so you know that the shores of RA ball are Rocky and narrow far from ideal for a landing strip furthermore you also know that the P38 is a notoriously difficult plane to bail out from with that nasty horizontal stabilizer in the perfect spot to knock you out but furthermore due to your damage you really lack the altitude to comfortably have time to clear the plane and pull your ship shoot so the choice is clearly C to ditch in the water and hope for the best thus you turn along and start to bring her down hoping for a clean Landing fortunately the water here is calm and despite the damage you are able to bring her down the aircraft strikes the water and your head jerks from the impact but in a few seconds she comes to a stop and you are conscious you pulled it off well done pilot you've done it you survived but now what next well unfortunately the landing was the easy part for second Lieutenant Christopher Bartlett his story would be an interesting one and one that would not be known till much later in 1944 after Bartlett and his P38 vanished he was listed as missing in action his fate would not be realized until the Allies led by the US 40th infantry took the island of New Britain a few months later in 1944 and fascinatingly one of the suters in the 40th infantry fighting on New Britain would be Captain Floyd Bartlett the very brother of Christopher Bartlett after hearing that his brother went missing on a mission in the area he appropriately went looking for his aircraft trying to determine his fate and it would be here that the truth was uncovered after landing in the water off the coast of New Britain Christopher Bartlett had made it far enough away from rabal that he was safe from the Japanese in fact he was actually quickly taken in by a group of Native Islanders when Floyd Bartlett arrived with the 40th infantry and located this Village the chief took him to the wreckage of his brother's aircraft and told him that he was taken in and cared for by their tribe for 2 months here he was hopeful to be rescued by advancing American forces in the near future but then the story took a turn for the worst a German missionary who was on the island and staying in the village heard about the downed Aviator and with his country fighting against the Allied Forces and allied with the Japanese betrayed Christopher and reported his whereabouts to Japanese forces in rabal shortly thereafter Japanese officers arrived to the village and took Christopher Bartlett into custody and this is where the story tragically ends what happened next is unknown as the Japanese kept very few accurate records in regards to PS but after the war second Lieutenant Christopher Bartlett never showed up leading to the almost certain conclusion that he either died in captivity at raal or was illegally executed like so many other American aviators Christopher Bartlett would end up giving his life for his country a few months after being shot down on October 29th of 1943 hopefully videos like this help to make sure that he is never forgotten consider joining my patreon so I can make more videos like this thanks for watching and I'll see you next time

Channel: TJ3 History

Views: 393,270

Keywords: Richard Bong, P-38, P38, P38 vs Zero, 475th Fighter Group, Dick Bong, 49th Fighter Group, P-38 Dogfight, P-38 Lightning, Zero Dogfight, P-38 Documentary, Can You Survive, TJ3 Can You Survive, War Thunder P-38, IL-2 Sturmovik, IL2, Flight Sim, World War II Flight Sim, IL-2 Great Battles, IL-2 Highlights, IL-2 Flight Sim, Combat Flight Sim, War Thunder, Realistic, History Channel Dogfights, Historic, Documentary, Mark Felton, Yarnhub, TJ3 Gaming, Dark Skies, wW2 Air Combat

Id: SurrFUJVB10

Length: 20min 18sec (1218 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 08 2024