Steve Blake (2)

This book is an operational history of Lockheed’s P-38 fighter, as opposed to a technical history, although technical issues appear from time to time in the text as they affect the operational history, such as Lockheed’s range extension program for the aircraft.

The book is arranged by numbered Air Force/operational theater, then chronologically. The author begins the story in the Zone of the Interior, followed by the Southwest Pacific Area, European Theater of Operations, , Mediterranean Theater of Operations/North Africa, then the China-Burma-India theater. There are few endnotes, so it is unclear what sources the author used for the bulk of his text. There is some evaluation of kill claims made by the various units, but these efforts are inconsistent. The author then provides details of the aircraft’s postwar use in foreign air forces as well as civilian use. He ends this section with a discussion and listing of the surviving P-38 airframes and their lineage.

The author thoughtfully supplied two appendices for the book. The first is a breakdown of the different P-38 variants by Lockheed model number, AAC/AAF serial number, and salient differences between variants. This section is helpful to modelers as the author also provides the various theaters to which the variants were assigned. The second appendix lists numerically the different units that flew the Lightning in its various forms.

This was a lengthy read, but most enjoyable.… (more)