Original subtitles

Narrator: It strikes like a bolt from the blue...

Man: The p-38 lightning was

One of the most unique airplanes of world war ii.

Narrator: ...Blazing into battle...

Man: The lightning with two engines

Was able to climb very fast,

Faster than any other fighter of its day.

Narrator: ...And delivering a crushing blow.

Woman: When the pilot concentrated the p-38's guns

On an enemy,

Boom, that was the end.

[explosion]

Narrator: The p-38 shows no mercy.

Man: It seized control of the air from the germans.

It seized control of the air from the japanese.

It was the mount of choice for leading american fighter aces.

Narrator: Harnessing its power,

America rides the lightning to victory.

Man: This is the best.

This is the best.

♪

Narrator: April 18, 1943, guadalcanal, the south pacific.

America is out for revenge.

16 pilots scramble into their planes,

Then race away from the airfield.

Their mission-- operation vengeance.

Their target--japanese admiral isoroku yamamoto,

Mastermind of the pearl harbor attack.

Their weapon-- the p-38 lightning.

Rebecca grant: The only way to carry out the yamamoto raid

Was to use the p-38 lightning.

Narrator: Dr. Rebecca grant

Is one of the foremost civilian experts

On air force history and aircraft.

Grant: The p-38 had that important combination

Of range and firepower to carry out the attack.

No one had higher status than yamamoto

In the japanese military.

He was the head of the imperial navy.

He was their mastermind and their top strategist.

No one was more valuable to japan's war effort

Than yamamoto.

Narrator: If the p-38s can take out yamamoto,

They'll shift the balance of power and shorten the war.

To make this happen, they have a secret weapon.

[beeping]

Yamamoto's movements are being monitored

By american code breakers.

Grant: Intelligence officers reading the japanese code

Came across an astonishing fact.

Admiral yamamoto was scheduled to go on an inspection tour,

Leaving their island base of rabaul and flying down

To visit frontline units at bougainville.

Narrator: But bougainville is right at the edge

Of the p-38's range--

Over 1,000 miles round-trip.

Dick anderegg: The breaking of the code, the japanese code,

Was an incredible intelligence advantage for america.

We could tell what they were gonna do

Before they even executed it.

It then left to us to decide

Whether or not we wanted to take action on that.

Narrator: Dick anderegg flew over 4,000 hours

In american fighter jets

And was director

Of the air force history and museums program.

Anderegg: There was a risk that,

Uh, they would figure out that we knew what their code was,

But to get yamamoto, that risk was worth it.

Narrator: On the hunt for yamamoto,

The p-38 pilots fly deep into japanese-held territory.

Skimming just above the waves, they need to avoid detection

Because there's no mistaking which plane is on the prowl.

The p-38 lightning stands apart.

Jim tyler: Anybody knew that it was a p-38

When they looked at it.

Narrator: Jim tyler was a p-38 pilot in world war ii

And flew dozens of missions over Italy and southern germany.

Tyler: The twin booms, the gondola in the middle.

Anybody knew the minute they saw it, it was a p-38.

Anybody would know it.

♪

Narrator: The twin booms house

Two massive, turbosupercharged engines,

Cranking out 1,100 horsepower each.

The p-38 is built for speed...

♪

...The first fighter to break 400 miles per hour.

But over the open pacific,

Range and speed will mean nothing

If the p-38s miss their prey, admiral yamamoto.

Grant: Yamamoto had to be on time.

They'd only have a few minutes.

If yamamoto was late or early,

It was possible for the p-38s to miss him entirely.

Anderegg: I think the probability

Of this intercept being successful was very slim,

I mean, to almost nonexistent.

Narrator: Never bet against the p-38.

Despite long odds, the hunters' timing is perfect.

Near bougainville, they find a squad of japanese zeros

Escorting what's supposed to be a single bomber.

Grant: The surprise is there's not one bomber but two,

And no one knows which plane holds yamamoto.

Narrator: The p-38s split into two groups.

12 will take on the zeros to keep them busy,

While four aim for the bombers.

Grant: The four p-38s at lower level

Immediately roll in for attack through broken clouds.

Narrator: Now the japanese bombers

Are in a race for their lives.

[gunfire]

One speeds for the safety of base.

The other charges out over the ocean.

But they can't outrun the lightnings,

And there's nowhere to hide

Once they're in the p-38s' gun sights.

The lightnings' guns rip into both bombers,

Unloading hundreds of rounds in just a few seconds.

[gunfire]

Grant: One bomber crashes into the sea.

The other, on fire, crashes onto the island itself.

This is the bomber that holds yamamoto.

Narrator: Yamamoto plummets to his death.

[gunfire]

In the sky over his wreck,

The lightnings take out five more of his escort,

While losing just one of their own.

Grant: For japan, it's an incalculable loss.

Yamamoto was their number-one strategic thinker.

Without yamamoto, japan's war plans are very uncertain.

[gunshots]

[gunfire]

Narrator: The p-38 blasts its way into history

With the yamamoto shoot-down.

[gunfire]

What makes the p-38 so lethal?

Devastating firepower.

Each plane pours lead from four .50-caliber machine guns.

They surround a 20-millimeter cannon.

Firing 4,000 rounds per minute,

The p-38 chews up targets like a giant buzz saw.

[gunfire]

Tyler: A lot of firepower.

Anything in front of it, you made a mess of it.

When you pulled that trigger, it exploded literally.

Complete devastation, complete devastation.

[gunfire]

The firepower was all concentrated

Because it's right in the nose of the aircraft.

[gunfire]

Anderegg: It had excellent aiming

Because those guns were mounted on the center line,

As opposed to out on the wings,

Which meant everything shot straight ahead.

This made gunnery much easier for the p-38 pilot.

♪

Narrator: The p-38s' shoot-down of yamamoto

Signals a turning point for america's airpower.

But just six months earlier,

The p-38 got off to a rough start.

November 8, 1942.

Allied troops hit the beaches in casablanca, morocco.

It's the first step in taking occupied lands

Back from nazi control.

Richard hallion: Operation torch was the name

For the invasion of north africa.

Narrator: Dr. Richard hallion is an author

And aerospace historian.

Hallion: And it was designed to strike eastwards,

Uh, toward, uh, the remnants of the afrika korps and rommel.

And that gave the p-38

Really its first opportunity to show its stuff.

Narrator: The battle-hardened axis troops

Control most of north africa.

[artillery fire]

And their commander, erwin rommel,

Is one of germany's best.

Anderegg: As the americans, uh, and the british

Advanced across north africa, they learned as they went.

[artillery fire]

And eisenhower made a lot of mistakes,

And he was the first to admit that.

Narrator: February 19, 1943, kasserine, tunisia.

Rommel's armored units tear into american defenses.

If he breaks through,

The u.S. Could be driven from north africa.

Hallion: The army commander...

[explosion]

...Put american forces into a disadvantageous position,

Where his command was almost completely destroyed

And certainly rendered combat-ineffective by rommel

At the battle of kasserine.

Narrator: The p-38s are rushed into the breach,

But in early 1943, some american p-38 pilots

Have less than 40 hours' flight time

And almost no gunnery practice in the lightning.

Anderegg: Fighter pilots have a little saying

That if it hasn't been shot at, it's not worth anything,

Because that's how you learn, is in combat.

Hallion: The p-38 came to the north african campaign

As an unproven system.

[crash]

And so pilots had to learn on the job,

And it was a cruel business.

Uh, basically most of the losses occurred,

Occurred in the first ten missions.

If you got through ten missions,

You had a very good chance of surviving your tour.

Narrator: The lightning pilots literally learn under fire,

Often against the best elements of the luftwaffe.

Anderegg: The, the principal german fighters of that time,

The, uh, me 109 and the fw 190,

Were very, very advanced fighters for their day.

They were designed for maneuverability,

But they also had some pretty good firepower...

...So those airplanes were very, very difficult adversaries

For the new p-38 pilots.

Narrator: Facing enormous odds, the p-38 counterattacks.

But no one knows if this unproven plane,

With its green pilots, can rise to the challenge.

February 1943,

German troops blast into kasserine pass,

Sending the allies reeling.

P-38s, new to battle,

Are pushed to the front lines to counter the german attack.

Russell lee: Initially, pilots were a little bit ambivalent

About first taking the airplane into combat

Because it was so new--

Cutting edge and state of the art--

And they hadn't trained on them before.

Narrator: Russell lee is chair of the aeronautics department

At the national air and space museum.

Lee: But very quickly,

The airplane's strengths, uh, were apparent.

The p-38 was a very versatile airframe.

It could be equipped with bombs.

[explosion]

Of course it had its heavy nose-mounted armament

Of machine guns and cannon.

[explosion]

It was also equipped at one point with, uh, rockets...

[explosion]

Air-to-ground rockets that, uh,

Were almost like firing an artillery round

And had a devastating effect on, uh, ground units.

Narrator: The p-38 is designed to carry

2,000 pounds of extra fuel or weaponry.

Former p-38 pilot jim tyler used to fly a variety of payloads.

Tyler: Between the engine and the cockpit,

There was a pylon stuck down here, and you--

The pylon could support one of a number of things.

It would support either a 500-pound rdx bomb,

Or it would support a 165-gallon belly tank,

Or it would support a 310-gallon belly tank,

Depending on what the mission was.

But it'd carry a lot of weight, let's put it that way.

Narrator: In 1943, above kasserine pass,

The p-38s bring all their firepower to bear

And pour down fury from the sky.

Under heavy artillery and air attack,

The german advance stalls.

Anderegg: Rommel learned very quickly

That if he marshaled his forces

In large areas

And large concentrations,

That american air power could be very devastating

And deliver some really, really horrible results

On the ground.

[gunfire]

Hallion: The only bright spot in kasserine

Was that the air corps units performed well,

And ultimately the p-38 played in all of those.

Narrator: The germans retreat,

The first in a series of axis reversals.

North africa proves that the p-38

Is a deadly air-to-ground weapon...

[explosions]

...And has developed into a plane far more robust

Than its original design.

Hallion: The p-38 grew out of the need

That the army air corps perceived in the late 1930s

To develop an interceptor that could attack

The new generations of high-performance bombers

That were appearing in germany and japan.

Lee: In fact, in the early thirties,

There were some american bombers

That were faster than the american fighters.

Narrator: Earlier american fighters

Rarely break 250 miles per hour

And struggle at altitudes over 20,000 feet.

Lee: The army came up with a document

That laid out in very exacting terms

What the performance needed to be

For a cutting-edge fighter aircraft.

One of the criterion was a minimum speed

Of 360 miles per hour at about 20,000 feet.

Narrator: Many of the large aviation companies

Enter the competition, but one design stands out.

Lee: Lockheed came up with the xp-38,

A highly experimental airplane

Which, uh, was the only one of its kind.

Hallion: The p-38's designer was a unique american,

Uh, kelly johnson, uh, probably overall

The most gifted aircraft designer

In the united states in the 20th century.

Narrator: The p-38 is the first

Of johnson's many radical designs.

Lee: And his claim to fame is that he designed

Some of the most spectacular airplanes

In the history of aviation,

Including the p-38, the lockheed u-2,

The sr-71 blackbird.

Kelly johnson is a legend.

Narrator: Lockheed accommodates the p-38's huge inline engines

And the super turbocharger

By extending the booms all the way to the tail.

Lee: The first cross-country flight of the p-38

Was just a couple of months after its first flight,

And one of the reasons was

Because lockheed was very interested in demonstrating

What the p-38 could do

In order to win a massive production contract.

Narrator: The plane blazes cross-country,

Reaching speeds of 420 miles per hour

And breaking the transcontinental record

Set by howard hughes in 1935.

Lee: As it was coming in to land,

Uh, the airplane's engines faltered,

And it crash-landed in a golf course.

[crash]

Narrator: Ice in the carburetors brings down the p-38.

The plane is totaled,

But the pilot escapes with just minor scratches.

Hallion: This could have killed the program,

But the promise of the aircraft was such

That the army air corps stayed with it.

Narrator: To make the p-38 easier to handle,

The lockheed engineers come up with a clever innovation--

Counterrotating propellers.

This eliminates any torque, or pull, in one direction

When the plane accelerates,

Making the plane extraordinarily stable,

And with dual engines, the p-38 is also very rugged.

Evan fagen: P-38 was different than the other fighters

In a lot of ways.

Narrator: Evan fagen is the chief pilot

At fagen fighters world war ii museum.

Fagen: It had two engines, so you have two of everything,

So if one was shot out or had mechanical problems,

It could fly back on one engine.

Narrator: But the p-38 could still be

A challenging plane to fly, as jim tyler discovered.

Tyler: The first time I got in one of these,

It was an overwhelming, overwhelming experience

For a 20-year-old kid, I'll tell you that.

After you studied and studied

And studied where everything was,

Then they gave you what they called the blindfold test,

Where they put on a blindfold

And would say, "where's the prop controls?

Where's the throttles? Where's the fuses?

Where's the gas selector switches?

Which tank are you on, left, main?"

Got used to it, I--

It's just, it's just like driving your car.

It's, it's automatic.

Brings back a lot of memories, I'll tell you that.

♪

Narrator: April 1943, tunisia.

After four months of brutal fighting,

The p-38 has helped drive back the german ground troops.

Their next mission-- choke off enemy supply lines.

Anderegg: An army travels on its belly.

You had to feed the soldiers,

And then you have to feed the tanks,

And you have to feed everything with petrol

And soldiers with food and ammunition.

They were highly experienced. They were great combat warriors.

They had great equipment.

But if you can't supply it, you can't fight with it.

Narrator: Allied navies have cut off axis seaways

Across the mediterranean,

So to keep their north african army supplied,

Germany assembles a fleet of 500 transport planes.

Shuttling over 88 tons of material every day,

They dash from Italy to africa.

But they're flying right into the teeth of the p-38s.

April 11, 1943, eastern algeria,

19 p-38s form up at daybreak.

Their leader is first lieutenant alex hamric,

A 22-year-old from tennessee.

Their mission--intercept german transport planes

And bring them down.

Hallion: In April 1943,

We undertook a very significant action,

And what that was was operation flax.

This was to use air attacks

To destroy the german logistical supply line

Between Italy and north africa.

Anderegg: And because a p-38 had a lot of gas on it,

It could loiter, and it could look

And wait and be on station,

And they could either engage fighters,

Or they could zoom, fly very fast past the fighters

Out of a dive and hit the transports.

[explosion]

Narrator: Battle tested,

The p-38 pilots now take the fight to the germans.

Grant: The p-38 pilots used

That superior climb rate of their airplane

To get up to high altitude.

They'd spot the germans and dive down,

Slashing with guns blazing to make the attack...

[gunfire]

...Then break off.

Anderegg: The german fighters would like to fight

In a phone booth, very close-in,

Lots of turning, close-in turning.

The p-38 pilots wanted to fight in a big beach ball,

A geo-dome that was big

So that they could maneuver up and slash and go away,

Climb away up, and back and slash.

Grant: They called it dive and slash, boom and zoom.

[gunfire]

Narrator: April 11, 1943, heading south from sicily,

20 german ju 52 transport planes,

Escorted by a dozen fighters and bombers.

They're on a collision course with the p-38s.

Over open ocean, the lightnings spot the transports.

Lieutenant hamric slashes through the formation

And sends one transport flaming into the ocean.

The other p-38s pounce.

[gunfire]

Smelling blood, they chase down the transports

And pick off one after another.

At close range,

The p-38s pour lead and cannon shells into their prey.

Hamric scores a second victory,

Taking out another transport...

[gunfire]

...While above them, p-38s duel with the german fighters,

Keeping them at bay.

When the smoke clears, two p-38s are lost,

And their leader, alex hamric, is missing in action.

But, in return, the p-38s have downed 27 german planes,

Including 18 of the crucial ju 52 transports.

It's only the beginning of weeks of allied aerial assaults.

The german resupply efforts

Stagger under daily losses of this size.

In just one month,

The allies shoot down over 400 german planes,

While losing only 36.

Hallion: If you take a look at the impact

That the p-38 operation flax

And these counter air activities had

Against the german air force, it's absolutely devastating.

Bases are taken away.

The whole infrastructure of air operations

That the germans have in the mediterranean

Is completely undone,

And they're basically pushed back across the other side,

If you will, of the mediterranean.

Narrator: May 1943, the axis forces,

Running low on fuel and munitions, surrender.

[cheering]

The allies liberate grateful north african towns.

[cheering]

The p-38 helps win the north african campaign,

But it's in the pacific

Where the fighter really seizes control.

[gunfire]

March 2, 1943, the solomon islands.

More than a year after pearl harbor,

The japanese still dominate the pacific,

And now, they're on the move again.

A japanese convoy carrying 7,000 troops

Churns through the bismarck sea, heading to new guinea.

Hallion: To the japanese,

Control of new guinea was crucial.

If they controlled new guinea, possibly they could launch

A, uh, springboard invasion into australia.

Narrator: The allies and japan have been waging a brutal fight

Over new guinea for more than a year.

Grant: Now japan's plan is to reinforce new guinea

And push back on the u.S. And our allies

From that position.

To reinforce, they have to bring

A naval convoy of soldiers and supplies and land them ashore.

This sets up the battle of the bismarck sea.

Narrator: This fleet of destroyers

Escorting eight transports

Could be the reinforcements that turn the tide for japan.

The army air forces has a top-priority mission--

Stop this convoy.

But since the start of the new guinea campaign,

The japanese pilots rule the sky.

Lee: The japanese fighter force was highly experienced,

And so american pilots, they were quite surprised

At the level of cooperation

That the japanese pilots used with each other,

And most of all, the incredible maneuverability,

Uh, of these japanese airplanes.

Narrator: Now it's up to the p-38

To take down the japanese fighters.

American commanders throw everything they can

To stop this convoy.

Grant: General george kenney

Realized this is a huge opportunity.

He'll send three separate groups of aircraft

From three directions to attack the convoy.

Over top of it all is the p-38 lightning.

They'll defend all the bombers as they attack japan's ships.

Narrator: One p-38 pilot, already an ace,

Takes off from new guinea.

He's a 22-year-old from wisconsin named richard bong.

Grant: Richard bong stood about five feet five.

He was a natural pilot.

Anderegg: Dick bong was, uh, not a stereotypical fighter pilot,

In fact, he was a quiet man, um, stayed well within himself.

However, in an airplane,

He was very skilled and very aggressive.

[gunfire]

Grant: His style was to get as close as he could

To the japanese aircraft and unload with all his guns.

Bong always said he wasn't the best at gunnery,

But his willingness to be aggressive

And close tightly with the enemy was the secret to his success.

It was a punishing style.

Narrator: Bong's aggressive fighting style

Is perfectly suited to the p-38.

Hardened with armor, the lightning can take a hit,

Unlike japanese planes.

Lee: The japanese airplanes were highly maneuverable,

And they had great range,

But these attributes came

At the expense of armor plate to protect the pilots primarily

And to protect vital systems on the airplanes

Such as, uh, oil tanks and the engine.

And these japanese airplanes,

Uh, almost invariably lacked self-sealing fuel tanks.

Narrator: The p-38's self-sealing tanks

Are lined with rubber

That swells up and closes off bullet holes.

Lee: Very, very often, american pilots,

When they were shooting at the japanese airplanes,

They'd report that they just disintegrated.

They just turned into pieces and exploded,

Uh, immediately when they were attacked and shot at.

[gunfire]

Narrator: Over the bismarck sea,

Richard bong escorts allied bombers

As they close in on the japanese convoy.

Suddenly, japanese fighters attack.

Bong climbs as quickly as his p-38 can handle.

From above, he picks out one plane

And dives straight at it...

[gunfire]

...Sending it in flames to the sea.

Bong turns and hammers a second fighter,

Then helps chase off the rest.

[gunfire]

With the p-38s flying cover,

The bombers can focus on the convoy.

Hallion: In a series of attacks,

The combination of skip-bombing b-25 mitchells,

Australian bristol beaufighters, heavily armed with cannon,

And american p-38s and other aircraft

Absolutely savaged their convoy.

♪

Narrator: The allies sink all eight japanese transports

And four of the destroyers

And shoot down 30 planes.

The u.S. Loses just three bombers and three p-38s.

♪

Grant: The naval historian samuel eliot morison

Called it the single most devastating air attack

Against ships of the entire war, except for pearl harbor.

This was a devastating blow by land-based air power

Against japan's reinforcements.

Japan wasn't able to land the troops it needed,

And because of this,

It ended any threat of invasion to australia.

It also meant that japan could never again take the initiative

In new guinea.

♪

Narrator: With victory at the battle of bismarck sea,

Richard bong is just getting started in the pacific,

While p-38 pilots prepare

For one of the biggest days of the war in europe.

May 1944,

Wattisham air base, England,

Newly arrived p-38 pilot robin olds

Is itching for a fight.

Christina olds: My father's mindset

When he went into training for the p-38

Was, "I've got to get to war.

They're taking too long to train us.

We need to go fight."

Narrator: Christina olds is an author

And daughter of p-38 ace robin olds.

Olds: He was very impatient.

Narrator: Days after arriving, olds gets his wish.

May 30, 1944, in the skies above german-occupied France,

Olds and his fellow p-38 pilots

Are ordered to clear all german planes from western France

And to ignore everything else.

Olds: When my dad was first flying missions over France,

There were very strict orders

Not to engage in any ground targets.

He was very frustrated

That he wasn't allowed to shoot at anything.

He could see truck convoys and supplies

Being moved around on the ground,

And their orders were not to go down and engage on anything,

And the whole group was very frustrated by that.

Narrator: But then olds flies over a target

That's just too tempting.

♪

Olds: That day, he spotted a train,

And he said to the commander,

"I'm going down after that train.

Will you cover me?" and he heard back, "roger."

He flew down and strafed it from back to front

And unleashed on it.

[gunfire]

And then he found out

The whole squadron had come down behind him,

And they were shooting the train up, too.

[gunfire]

[explosion]

When they got back, the commander in the debriefing

Just lit into all the guys, said, "what were you thinking?

And, olds, you broke formation. Why did you do that?"

And my dad said, "well, sir, I heard you say okay.

I heard you say roger."

And the commander said, "that wasn't me."

Narrator: Olds talks his way out of trouble

And faces no disciplinary action.

Olds: Later on, my dad admitted

That he had worked it out with his roommate ahead of time

That if either one of them had spotted a target,

They would say roger to each other

After asking permission.

[gunfire]

[explosion]

Narrator: Olds' rogue attack is just a warm-up.

When they're finally given the green light,

The allied planes rain down so much destruction,

German trains only travel at night.

And olds has only begun to fight.

♪

August 25, 1944, olds and his group

Get the order to sweep all german planes from the sky

In front of a fleet of bombers.

Olds: He was tremendously excited about that because

That meant they were going to engage the enemy that day.

Narrator: Olds is about to face off

Against some of the luftwaffe's best.

August 1944, occupied France.

P-38 pilot robin olds is on a mission

To hunt and destroy german fighter planes.

Olds: As they were flying over in formation,

My dad worked his way over to the left,

A little bit more, a little bit more, and a little bit more

Because he thought that would be his piece of the sky.

As he drifted over to the left,

And he spotted 50 german aircraft,

So he just went full throttle.

As he closed in on those aircraft,

He dropped his external tanks.

He was so excited to get behind them.

But as he closed in faster and faster,

All of a sudden, his both engines quit.

Narrator: Now, completely without power,

Olds still manages to squeeze off a quick round

And takes out one german plane.

Olds: He said he was the first fighter pilot

To ever shoot down another in glide mode.

Narrator: Seconds before plunging out of control,

Olds makes a discovery.

Olds: And he realized with, with terror,

That he had forgotten to switch to his internal tanks

But decided to fire anyway.

Right after he got that first one,

He was able to get his engines restarted

And got in behind the second one,

And he was able to take out the second one.

[explosion]

Narrator: The other german planes scatter,

But far below, olds spots a p-51 mustang

Being chased by a german me 109.

Olds: So, my dad dove down

To get that 109 off the mustang's tail,

But as he dove, he was going too hard,

And his controls froze.

Narrator: The p-38 was so fast,

It could trigger a phenomenon called compressibility.

In a steep dive, air traveling over the p-38's wings

Approaches the speed of sound,

And shockwaves disrupt air flow over the tail.

The nose points down, and the controls freeze.

Lee: And it would literally

Put the airplane in a vise-grip,

And this will continue

With the airplane just frozen in a dive

Until it slows down,

And one thing to slow it down

Is to dive down lower to get into denser air,

But, of course, if you're going

At a tremendously high rate of speed,

Uh, you may not be able to recover the airplane,

Pull it out of the dive, before you reach the ground.

Narrator: In the lower, thicker air,

Olds muscles his p-38 out of the dive.

Olds: He was pulling so many gs

That his cockpit window actually blew out,

And he pulled out level just right above treetop.

He told me he was no more than 100 feet off the ground.

And when he finally leveled off,

He realized that he was being chased.

Narrator: The german me 109 is right on the p-38's tail.

One mistake, and olds is dead.

He stands his p-38 on one wing, slowing it dramatically,

And the german flies past him.

Olds: And my dad was able to shoot him down.

[explosion]

[gunfire]

On the day he ended up shooting down three enemy aircraft,

He became the first ace, total of five, for the whole group.

[explosion]

Narrator: After months of combat in his p-38,

Olds switches to a p-51 mustang.

The mustang handles high altitudes

And quick-turning dogfights better than the lightning,

But the p-38 is still a favorite among many pilots.

Olds: My dad was thrilled about the p-38.

It became his first love, his first combat aircraft.

He absolutely adored that machine.

He loved the smell of it and the sound of it,

The feel of it.

Narrator: Late in the war,

The p-51 becomes the top american fighter in europe,

But in the pacific, the p-38 still reigns supreme.

July 28, 1944, new guinea.

[gunfire]

The allies pound japanese bases across the pacific.

And p-38s from the 475th fighter group are on a mop-up mission.

Their goal--to clear the skies

Of any remaining japanese planes.

Flying one p-38 is america's most famous aviator,

Charles lindbergh.

Hallion: Charles lindbergh is an iconic figure

In american aviation.

We always think of lindbergh, of course,

In terms of the great flight to paris

In 33 and 1/3 hours.

But after that flight,

He was an adviser to a number of aircraft companies,

Airlines, and to the federal government.

Charles lindbergh: It is now obvious

That England is losing the war.

I believe...

Narrator: Lindbergh is controversial through the 1930s,

Insisting that america stay out of the war

Against nazi germany,

But after pearl harbor, he's eager to help in the war effort,

Even though he remains a civilian.

Grant: Lindbergh went out to the pacific

As a representative for united aircraft corporation,

Advising on fixes to the marines' f4u corsair.

Next, lindbergh comes to a base in new guinea,

Where the p-38 lightning is in operation.

So, when lindbergh walks into the squadron ready room,

These young pilots can't believe it.

This is their hero.

A lot of them became pilots because of charles lindbergh.

Lindbergh had never flown the p-38,

But it was a natural.

They gave him a few familiarization flights

In the local area,

And suddenly he's mission-qualified

And ready to fly combat missions.

Narrator: Even though he's a civilian,

Lindbergh joins the other p-38 pilots

In strafing japanese barges...

[gunfire]

...And going on bombing runs.

[explosions]

Grant: Although the flyers loved him,

Lindbergh was really skating close to the line

In terms of regulations.

Narrator: Even as lindbergh attacks ground targets,

He rarely sees a japanese plane.

Anderegg: By 1944,

The tide is shifting towards american air power,

And a big part of that is the fact

That the highly experienced japanese pilots

Are being attrited gradually by american air power.

American pilots are becoming more experienced.

They're coming in in greater numbers.

The experienced pilots are training the new ones,

And the japanese pilots who've been in combat since 1936,

Starting in china,

Are now up into seven or eight years of combat,

And they are falling one by one.

[gunfire]

Narrator: But many top japanese pilots remain in the fight,

As lindbergh is about to discover.

July 28, 1944, in the skies over new guinea,

A p-38 races toward a fleeing japanese plane

Known as a sonia.

Grant: So, this japanese aircraft code-named sonia

Is down at low level.

It's jinking and turning

And trying to run away from a group of p-38s.

Suddenly, one p-38 sees this sonia come almost right at it.

It's the perfect shot-- close range, full guns--

And down goes the airplane.

[gunfire]

The pilot at the controls, it's charles lindbergh.

Narrator: Lindbergh makes his first and last kill.

It's partial redemption for his prewar isolationism,

But since he's still a civilian, it officially never happened.

Next, lindbergh makes an even bigger contribution

To the war effort.

He realizes the lightning's range,

Already a strength, can be extended.

Grant: One problem by 1944 was that the p-38s were flying

Increasingly long missions as japan retreated up the pacific.

Even with modifications, this put the lightning

At the very edge of its fuel consumption.

And by teaching them to manage their rpms

And other technical factors,

Lindbergh could get a p-38 many, many minutes more combat time.

Anderegg: Lindbergh was successful

In increasing the ranges 10 to 15 percent

By these engine techniques.

This 10 to 15 percent increase

In range was really important

Because every drop of fuel

That you save getting to the fight

Is fuel that you can use in the fight.

Narrator: Lindbergh returns to the u.S.,

While america's top ace, richard bong,

Continues to fly and fight in his p-38.

Grant: Bong exemplified what a good pilot could do

With the p-38.

He had to know that airplane really well to be able

To tuck it up so close in a combat situation.

Bong could turn, he could dive,

And like the best fighter pilots,

His aggressive style produced results.

Narrator: December 17, 1944,

Over mindoro island, the philippines,

Richard bong and his wingman tangle with japanese planes.

One plane tries to run, and bong gives chase.

He fires a quick burst, then a second.

[gunfire]

The fighter catches fire and drops.

It's bong's 40th confirmed shoot-down,

A record that stands to this day.

P-38 pilot richard bong is america's ace of aces.

Awarded the medal of honor, he's called home.

There, he uses his flying skills

To test the next generation of planes.

Grant: Back in southern california,

Bong becomes a test pilot flying the lockheed p-80 jet.

Bong loves to fly. It's a dream job.

But on August 6, 1945,

The fuel pump in bong's p-80 goes bad.

Narrator: Too low to parachute, bong crashes in a field.

Grant: Richard bong is dead just days before his 25th birthday.

Narrator: His death announcement comes just below the headline

For the atomic bomb drop at hiroshima.

And with the end of the war,

The p-38 is quickly phased out and becomes a museum piece.

Hallion: The p-38 did not long survive the second world war

Because the technology of flight was changing.

We were going from the era

Of the piston-powered propeller-driven airplane

Toward the much sleeker,

Streamlined turbojet-powered airplane.

And so the p-38, uh, became an element of, uh, air racing.

You would see at air shows.

Uh, reconnaissance p-38s stayed in service a little bit later.

Uh, there were some flying in foreign air forces

Into the 1950s,

But basically by the very early 1950s, the p-38 was gone.

♪

Narrator: Today, fewer than ten are flight-ready.

And evan fagen is one of the few people

Who still flies a p-38.

Fagen: It's more like a monument than anything.

You know, you're flying something that's very important

To the history of our, our country,

So you feel very fortunate to fly it

Because it's such a historic airplane

That had so many iconic figures flying it--

Doolittle and lindbergh and bong,

And all the people who flew them and did so many,

Uh, wonderful things in every theater.

Narrator: From alaska to africa,

From berlin to tokyo,

The p-38 lightning earns its name.

It's fast, powerful, and deadly...

[gunfire]

...Blazing across the sky and into the record books.

Tyler: Oh, I've flown probably 18 different airplanes.

This one is by far, by far the gem, the best.

Even today, it's the best.

♪