The P51 is the most famous of the American "big three" from
WWII: those being the P47, P38, and P51. The continued domination of the
European skies by the Luftwaffe was caused by two factors, the first of which
was the difference in military theory between the Luftwaffe and the Royal Air
Force. The Allies knew that they had to drive German industry into the ground
in order to win the war. The way that the Allied air
forces gained air superiority was by destroying
their opposition.
With the advent of great
numbers of the highly superior P-51 Mustang, the
German fighters that came up to attack the
bombers quickly met their match and were easily
repelled by the Mustangs.
The design was in the low
drag airframe and laminar flow wings, which
allowed for some truly staggering at the time
top end speed, and the luck was a British
decision early on it's history to attempt to
mount a Rolls-Royce Merlin engine in place of
the original Allison supplied in Mustang Is.
The resultant Mustang
I/Merlin combination provided such astounding
performance it basically replaced any plans to
use Allison variants; instead the U.S. began
supplying Packard-built Merlins in P51 frames.
P51s had a staggering amount
of fuel capacity hidden in their sleek lines,
and with the addition of disposable external
fuel tanks could range upwards of 2,000 miles -
full operational distance for most bombers.
They weren't the best turning
planes in the air, but by the time they were
widely in use pilots understood that turning was
a very limited performance characteristic in
combat - what was required of newer fighters was
speed.
And the P51 had it in droves;
it was faster than almost everything in the air,
climbed reasonably well, and suffered much less
high speed maneuverability loss than most of its
opponents, due to the wing design.
A P51 in almost all
circumstances has one option his enemy does not
- he can leave, because the P51 is in Air
Warrior as it was in real life, the fastest
plane around.
The other thing that can be
aggravating about pursuing a Mustang is that
they hold that speed incredibly well.
P51s can do level extensions at well past 300kts
and maintain it.
The first effect that the
Mustangs had was in the running air battles over
Europe. Before the beginning of 1944, the
bombers had been alone as they approached their
faraway targets.
But the P-51 changed this,
and quickly made an impression on all concerned,
enemy and ally alike. For example, on January
11, 1944, the Eighth Air Force launched its
first deep penetration of Germany with P-51
coverage.
The bombers' targets
were the cities of Oschersleben and Halberstadt,
where many German planes were being constructed.
When they arrived, there were 49 Mustangs
covering a force of around 220 bombers.
Because of the sensitive
nature of the bombers' targets, the Luftwaffe
came out in force to defend their factories. During the ensuing melee, the
49 P-51's shot down 15 enemy planes without
suffering a single loss.
This increase in the number
of fighters plus the change in fighter
philosophy allowed the escorts to cover the
bombers while simultaneously ranging far from
the bomber stream and destroying all that they
could find. This caused the disruption of
several effective German fighter tactics.
the P-51, once it was
supplied to the Eighth Air Force in great
quantities, and unleashed by Doolittle and
Arnold's new fighter policies, soon took a heavy
toll on German air superiority.
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